Please pray and keep praying for Thom, Erica, & Gabriela (Ela) Stark.
God be present with them and give to each of them the strength and peace they need.
James 5:13-16 (ESV): 13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call […]

I found David Harrington Watt’s thoughts on “cultural captivity” to be surprisingly interesting. No, I’m not a fanboy of his book, or its $50.00 price tag, or his so-called Ethnography, but I do think he is saying something seriously important as regards this particular subject. Well, he might not actually be saying anything at all, […]

I imagine Christian formation was much, much simpler in ages gone by wherein one did not have unrestricted access to the world’s evolving cache of raw information … Bunyan’s Christian has got nothing on me, I’ll tell you that much (Christian is the main character and journeyer in John Bunyan’s spiritual classic The Pilgrim’s Progress). […]

Lo-Fi Tribe’s Fourteen Stations of the Cross Table of Hyper-link Contents: 1. Jesus Is Condemned to Death. 2. The Cross is Laid Upon Him. 3. Jesus’ First Fall. 4. Jesus Encounters His Mother. 5. Simon Carries Jesus’ Cross. 6. Veronica Wipes Jesus’ Face with a Cloth. 7. Jesus Falls a Second Time. 8. […]

ASV Mark 15:1-5 And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole Council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. 2 And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, […]

The abuse of Jesus began long before his actual crucifixion. The abuse, according to the Synoptic Gospels, actually begins with the Council (i.e., high priest, chief priests, elders, and scribes), and their mocking, spitting, blindfolding, taunting, and punching. Jesus was then delivered to Pilate for further mistreatment before he was carted off to Herod and […]

Jesus fell. This event is not recorded in the gospels, but in Christian legend and memory. Is it hard to imagine? No. Jesus of Nazareth, at this point, would have been seriously injured and extremely weak from the beatings, scourgings, and subsequent loss of blood. Jesus would have found it very, very difficult to just […]

Docitism minimizes the human drama between mother and son. Jesus of Nazareth was a son, in the fullest sense of the word. He most assuredly lived his life as a son. His mother lovingly cleansed him when he soiled himself miserably as an infant. She fed him when he stomped and screamed for nourishment with […]

Exhaustion is the human body’s way of telling us it needs a break. We all are incurably strapped to physical limitations. A serious lack of sleep magnifies these limitations. Jesus of Nazareth is no exception. He must have been incredibly exhausted. The weight of his cross must have been steadily multiplying as his flayed arms, […]

The Gospels say nothing about a woman named Veronica actually wiping Jesus’ face. The Gospel of Luke, however, does cite a small group of people following Jesus as he was marched toward his crucifixion. Women were a part of this group, if not the entire composition of it! These women were beating their breasts and […]