Last week the Western world of Christianity celebrated Easter. Today is the day that Orthodox Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. Therefore it is worthwhile to celebrate the Resurrection again! (Of course we ought to celebrate Easter every day!). In light of the holiday I’d like to invite you to read some of the previous Easter-oriented blog posts here at The Two Cities from the past few weeks. You can check out Brad Blakeley’s apologetic […]
One of the clients that I work with on a regular basis is autistic. This is a curse and a blessing. The curse is that for him, life is difficult. He can’t relate to other people in a typical fashion and this fact makes it hard to develop a relationship with him. The blessing is that he will always, without flinching, tell me his opinion. I know that I always get the truth when he […]
לכן אמר לבני־ישׂראל אני יהוה והוצאתי אתכם מתחת סבלת מצרים והצלתי אתכם מעבדתם וגאלתי אתכם בזרוע נטויה ובשׁפטים ג (Exodus 6:6) On the night on which He was betrayed, while their bold and often mystifying rabbi lead them in a tradition that they have practiced all their lives… a tradition which probably invoked the same sort of nostalgia, the same sort of deeply rooted emotional and spiritual emotions which we might associate with Christmas […]
I recently went to an Intervarsity meeting where we read the first half of Luke 18—the parable of the widow, and the prayers of the Pharisee and the tax collector. While everyone else read Luke, I was searching for the Old Testament parallel: what is Luke intending to echo in this story? The use of the “Son of Man” imagery at the end of Luke 17 and even Luke 18:8 naturally took me back to […]
Near the top of my New Earth wish list is that God will set up a 3D IMAX theater where we can watch the real-life Bible movie. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see Moses part the actual Red Sea instead of Charlton Heston part a tray of jello? I want to see Adam formed from the dust, the fall of Jericho, Elijah’s whirlwind, the hand writing on the wall—everything! But while in the shadowlands, we […]
Following a day of worship, Easter egg hunts and family dinners (the odd combination of which deserves a blog post all its own), you might be ready to dive back into your weekly routine. But don’t miss what happened after Easter. In the rush to return to normalcy, take time to reflect on the rest of the tale. After all, a story that stars a risen Savior is far from finished. Here’s a rundown of […]
It’s 62 A.D. and James “the Just” (the brother of Jesus), stands atop the parapet[1] of the Temple. Festus, the Roman provincial governor, has just died and his replacement, Albinus, has yet to arrive in Jerusalem to restore order. The Jewish Sanhedrin seize this opportune time to strike against its enemies. As James is forced to stand on this dangerous ledge overlooking the crowded courtyard below, the Jewish leaders say: “We call on you to […]
I awoke this morning with this thought rolling around in my mind: “What would I do with all that money.” In case you have been under a rock for the last three days, this morning’s thought dawned courtesy of the Mega Millions lottery drawing on Friday March 30th. The story of the biggest lotto ever led the headlines for at least two days. So, the question on my mind had already been the topic of […]
In the past three years, I have moved three times. Each time I call upon the great physical strength of my friends – an area I am decidedly lacking in – and then offer them pizza. They don’t care about the pizza; it’s just a gesture. As we lug all of mine and my wife’s stuff down stairs, into a moving truck, and then back up stairs again, two thoughts occur to me. The first […]
What is the Biblical concept of remembrance? Well, let’s warm up: Growing up, what do you remember doing with your family for Easter traditions? For some, Easter Egg hunts are almost certainly a part of the picture. Perhaps you remember the annual gifting of some pastel-ey Easter basket filled with chocolates and bright colors. A morning brunch? A spiral ham dinner? But, how different was the Holy Week, or Resurrection Sunday for you, from the […]
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