Thoughts on Romans 12:10; Philippians 2:3-4; 1 Peter 5:5Decades ago, scientist Richard Dawkins wrote the book, The Selfish Gene. His point was that genetic material is wired to act in its own interest.Whether or not you buy Dawkin’s science, the title is memorable—and in a way, true. Human beings are bent toward self-interest.Call it the selfish gene, the flesh, or the old self. Whatever name you ...  Read More

Thoughts on Colossians 3:16; Romans 15:14, Hebrews 10:24-25Several years ago, a young counselor named Isaac tried to reach a seventeen-year-old drowning in addiction. Every conversation bounced off the boy’s defenses. Isaac felt the ache many of us know—I can see where this is going, I want to help, but I can’t get through. Out of that heartache he wrote the song “How to Save a Life.” The song res...  Read More

Thoughts on Reformation MonthA causal visit to The Well website provides a brief description of Our Church. The first sentence of that description reads: THE WELL International Church is an unaffiliated English-speaking Protestant church serving Ho Chi Minh City’s expatriate community.The Well is a Protestant Church. That word Protestant sets the church apart in some ways, as it implies what we ar...  Read More

Thoughts on the One Another Passages in the New TestamentOne of Paul’s most frequent themes is the need for the people of God to live together in unity. He emphasizes that in a number of ways, but one of his most frequent is by the repeated use of the term ‘one another.’ One word in the language Paul, it shows up a lot. But he is not the only one who seasoned his letters with that bit of vocabular...  Read More

Thoughts on Romans 14:13; Ephesians 4:2; Ephesians 4:32Twenty years ago, someone gave me a book by John Ortberg titled: “Everybody’s Normal Until You Get to Know Them.” My favorite chapter was one in which John coined a phrase, The Porcupine Dilemma.We know that wolves run in packs, sheep huddle in flocks, elephants gather in herds—but there is no official word in the English language for a group ...  Read More

Thoughts on James 1:19We all know what it feels like to be “heard” but not really listened to. Maybe you were talking to a friend, and you could tell they were only half there, waiting for their turn to talk. Or maybe you’ve caught your mind wandering and you were already three steps ahead, planning your response.The truth is this: listening is not as easy as it sounds.Listening is a discipline. I...  Read More

Thoughts on 1 Peter 3:8; Romans 12:15; James 5:16It’s a curious thing. We live in an age where you can have more “friends” than a medieval king had subjects. You can carry them all around in your pocket, sorted into neat digital rows, each with a photo where they look slightly better than they really do.And yet… one out of four people say they have no one to talk to about the things that really ma...  Read More

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