Entries by Chris Colvin

Book Review: How Joyful People Think

I love expository preaching. The deeper you go into the text, the better it gets. To take one verse and expand it into eight to twelve chapters worth of content is great! Pastor Jamie Rasmussen has done just that with How Joyful People Think. Using Philippians 4:8 as his treasure chest, he pulls out so […]

“The Bible Says.”

The other day one of my friends posted a little rant on social media. Okay, “rant” may be overstating it. But it did spark a little bit of criticism. Here it is: I hate when people say, “The Bible says.” The Bible doesn’t say anything. It’s a book and it can’t talk. Okay, so he’s […]

Book Review: Jesus the Bridegoom, by Brant Pitre

In Jesus the Bridegroom, Brant Pitre takes a look at a metaphor we often overlook. At least until it comes to later Pauline passages that equate the church with the bride of Christ. But even then, there’s a tendency in modern Christianity to tone down the metaphor. Let’s not go too deep with the idea […]

Book Review: Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus, by Lois Tverberg

I’ve loved studying the Jewish background of the New Testament beginning with my undergrad days. At that time, my Hebrew professor shared details of life in Israel where he earned his Masters Degree in Jewish studies (before going on to Hebrew University in Cincinnati). He would often share a snippet of insight from the intertestamental […]

Book Review: The Prayer Wheel

The Prayer Wheel: A Daily Guide to Renewing Your Faith with a Rediscovered Spiritual Practice Patton Dodd, Jana Reiss, and David Van Biema Ever since I discovered the examen prayer a few years ago I’ve been fascinated with finding different ways to pray each day. I grew up in a church without a strong liturgical tradition, […]

Failing to Fail

I watched two performances at sporting events this last week that should tell us how much we as a culture hate failure. We have an irrational fear of failure. We are scared to death of messing up, especially in front of others. And when we see someone fail, we attack like sharks. So, we play […]