Thoughts on Ephesians 4:7-10This past Lord’s Day at The Well, we looked at Ephesians chapter 4. There is a tricky section in verses 7-10 that serious Christians have wrestled with for centuries. The text is intentionally borrowing language from Psalm 68:18, but in a not-so-straightforward way. But the point Paul is making is clear. Christ is the Conquering Lord who defeated His enemies by descendi...  Read More

Thoughts on Ephesians 4:1-16How do you feel about people?Some of us thrive on company, conversations, and new connections. Others prefer quiet interaction in small doses and space to be left alone. But whether you’re an extrovert, an introvert, or somewhere in between, we all need one another. Paul pens Ephesians chapter 4 to make that point.The section starts with the word “therefore” (v.1), whic...  Read More

Irony in John’s Gospel“So, from that day on they plotted to take his life.”Thoughts on John 11:53Irony, according to Daniel Webster is:the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaningincongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected resultI do understand that we are reading a book with “dual authorship.”When ...  Read More

Thoughts on John 11:45–57There’s a scene near the end of John 11 that reads like the moment in a novel. The tension has risen. The plot has thickened. A miracle has occurred. Lazarus has just shuffled out of his tomb (which, you’d think, would settle the matter: Messiah found, everybody rejoices). We expect that this is where it all gets resolved. Instead? Division, plotting, and the ancient equiv...  Read More

Thoughts on John 11:28–46Few stories in the Gospels are as raw and as astonishing as the raising of Lazarus. It is here we see Jesus in tears, Jesus in anger, Jesus in prayer, and Jesus in command. The narrative moves from mourning to miracle, from confusion to faith, from the stench of death to the glory of life.The Humanity of Christ: Tears at a Tomb“Jesus wept” (John 11:35) is famously the shor...  Read More

If you’ve ever walked into a place and thought, “This is how it’s supposed to be”, you know something of Paul’s joy when he remembered the church in Thessalonica. He’d only been with them a few weeks (Acts 17:1-11), but in that short time, something remarkable had taken root. When Paul later wrote back—1 Thessalonians, one of his earliest letters—he could hardly stop thanking God for what he saw.A...  Read More

Thoughts on John 11:17–27Grief has a way of stealing words. If you’ve ever stood at a graveside, youknow the hush. Flowers don’t mask the silence. Death feels final.That’s where Martha found herself in John 11. Her brother Lazarus hadbeen dead four days, and when Jesus finally arrived, she said what somany of us would have said: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldnot have died.”Honest. R...  Read More