My wife, Jessica, and I welcomed our daughter, Rachel Lee Shafer, as she made her grand entrance into this world on Tuesday, July 21, coming in at a healthy 7 lbs, 15 oz. Mother and child are home and doing fine, although mother and father are navigating the new normal of parenting 13-month old Reade and newborn Rachel. So far … [Read more...]
A.D. The Bible Continues…A Bible Background Brush Up
If you haven’t checked in yet with A.D. The Bible Continues, you might want to. As a point of confession, I am not hugely enthusiastic over Bible story depiction. I’m not sure why, partly because the depictions over the past decades tend to run through the filter of western Christianity and come off, well, cheesy. … [Read more...]
In a Nod to Draft Day: A Bible Football Team
A few years ago, as a simple ice breaker, I asked a group of middle schoolers to draft a football team from people in the Bible. Being a creative group, they actually came up with an entire football operation: team members, team administration, and even people you don’t want on the team. This was not only a fun … [Read more...]
Tax Day: The New Reminder to Love. Really.
In Jesus’ day there wasn’t a much more reviled occupation than “tax collector.” It wasn’t so much out of a general distaste of all things IRS as you might see today, but more because the system was rigged for tax collectors to game the system, which they did. It was made worse when tax collectors gamed the system against their … [Read more...]
Famous Last Words
Last week it was famous first words. So, following the natural order, this week it’s famous last words. The phrase “famous last words” is usually uttered with tones of sarcasm, facetiousness, or of course, irony. But not at Easter. At Easter, certain “last words” from Scripture really are famous in that they carry hope and … [Read more...]
The Scoop on Believing
In English we have a lot of words for “believe” (“think,” “feel,” and “know” are just a few). But the Greek language (the language of the New Testament) has just one word for “believe” (“pisteuo,” pronounced peh-STEW-oh). This Greek word means believing with everything you’ve got—to the point where believing actually changes … [Read more...]