My friend Cheryl shared this with me, and I wanted to share it with you today. Stand up comedian, Jeff Allen, shares his long and winding path from an alcoholic atheist to finding meaning and a transformed life through faith in Jesus Christ and the guidance of the Scriptures. … More A Comedian’s Testimony
Let’s dig into Genesis 3, a text ripe and juicy with deep insights. Humanity, estranged from God after disobeying, feels exposed and fearful, hiding from God. But God seeks them out, asking where they are not for location, but for the state of their souls. They are covered in grace, as God clothes them, revealing His relentless pursuit of His wayward children. … More Evening Breeze in the Garden
Ephesians 2:1-10 expands our understanding of salvation, highlighting the ongoing battle against the unholy trinity. Salvation is not just about forgiveness, but about being raised up with Christ and fulfilling our divine role as rulers over creation. This calls for a deeper engagement with the Church’s role in manifesting God’s kingdom on earth. … More Seated in Heavenly Places
This exposition of 1 Peter 3:18-22 emphasizes a spiritual battle between good and evil forces, urging Christians to be aware of this cosmic struggle. It highlights the role of Jesus in overcoming evil and calls for believers to resist being manipulated by worldly powers. The text also stresses the importance of having a clear conscience before God, rather than pursuing selfish desires or political victories. … More An Appeal for a Clear Conscience
The ‘gospel’ many have been taught has drifted from Jesus’ original message. Weighed down by a hyper-individualism, we’ve bought a neat little salvation package whereby sinners bow their heads, pray a prayer, pull the grace lever and a bookkeeping angel with big-rimmed glasses moves your name from the Damned column to the Saved column in Heaven’s database. … More The Time is Fulfilled! Change Your Thinkin’!
We live in a consultant and coach crazy world. There is an expert on every corner offering to help you for a small fee. Peter and Paul want to be your gospel coaches, free of charge, but sadly very few will take them up on their offer. … More Wise Gospeling
There are moments in our Christian walk when we hear the rooster crow, and realize we have blown it in our attempts to follow Jesus’ Way in our interactions with others. Let me share a story of a day when I heard the rooster crow. I looked in the mirror and didn’t like what I saw. … More Grace in a Hot Tub
We live in rigid and graceless times. “Cancel culture” is the new fundamentalism, and fire and brimstone is preached from many media outlets. … More New Fundamentalism and It’s Cure
Start talking about a pandemic and you’ll see the true color and substance of people’s faith. … More Jiffy Lube, Coronavirus & the Spread of Christianity
Someone has said that the door of the stable where Jesus was born was very low to the ground, so people had to bow down humbly on their hands and knees in order to approach the manger to worship the savior. And did you ever notice that we find the same kind of folks surrounding the manger as we find at the foot of the cross? … More Sermon: The Greatest Gift
We don’t know how Kanye’s story will end, but we do know that the call of every follower of Jesus is to let love flow out toward every soul-in-process. … More Thoughts on Kanye’s Christian Faith
A sermon I gave at a beachside service this summer as we prepared to receive holy communion. “Cast your bread upon the waters and you will get it back in a few days. Divide your means seven ways, or even eight, for you do not know what disaster may happen on earth.” (Ecclesiastes 11:1-2) The traditional … More Bread on the Waters
In this cultural moment when so many are seeking holistic healing, holistic medicine, Whole Foods, and whole-bodied spiritual practices (e.g., meditation, yoga, etc.), Christian teachers have such an opportunity to share the holistic message Jesus taught. Yet, I fear too many pastors and churches are still drunk on the leftover wine of ancient Gnostic and … More Mind, Body, Spirit & Doritos
Most are familiar with Jesus’ parable of the Hidden Treasure in Matthew 13:44: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” The primary truth here is that Jesus himself … More A Treasure Worth Finding
ASCENSION SUNDAY | Luke 24:44-53 One of the difficulties we have in reading and understanding the Bible is that we often unintentionally plug individual passages and key concepts into a controlling story that is foreign to the Bible. This results in making the Bible answer questions it was never interested in addressing. For example, many … More A Bigger Salvation Story
Many of you know Billy Graham was a personal hero of mine. Many of you may not know the story of his grandson, Tullian Tchividjian. He became a very gifted and high-profile pastor with a huge following. Bestselling books, leader of a large church, and a family legacy to bolster (and afflict?) him. He feel … More Stumbling in Grandpa Billy’s Footsteps
A Sermon preached February 17, 2019 Texts: Jeremiah 17:5-10; Psalm 1; 1 Cor. 15:12-20 One of the great privileges of parenting is introducing kids to things for the first time—classic movies, timeless stories, and, my favorite, music legends. Recently, seven year old Peter and I shared a holy moment on the drive home from IKEA … More The Third Tree
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not … More Sermon: Christmas Hide & Seek
The escape attempts from Alcatraz were thwarted every time as the fugitives were swallowed up in the frozen waters of the San Francisco Bay. The scandal of Christmas is that God does not leave sin-stained humanity stranded on an island or demand we swim through icy waters for our freedom. It celebrates God’s swim across the cold waters in order to secure our freedom. … More Christmas at Alcatraz
Perhaps we’ve let the graceless moralism of too many Santa songs taint our view of the One who truly comes to town on Christmas. For the miracle of the incarnation is for the naughty and nice. He’s already made His list and He’s checked it twice, and all are on it until we choose to reject His gift and thereby remove our own name from it. … More Scandalous Incarnation!
What if the fig tree Jesus cursed could tell his side of the story? This is an imaginative retelling of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem to shouts of “Hosanna!” during his last week, and how his fate was strangely intertwined with the fate of that old tree. … More Tale of the Cursed Fig Tree
I tend to be a bit forgetful at times. I’ll walk upstairs to get something but forget what it was when I arrive. I’m still in my 30s but I swear my short-term memory is fading! The obvious solution for this affliction is to write things down, make lists, or plug it into my iPhone calendar. … More The Palms of His Hands
In this series of posts we’re exploring the different ways the Bible confronts the reader and the appropriate response to each. #8 – READING THE BIBLE AS SIGNPOSTS TO CHRIST & THE GOSPEL I used to read the Bible as a long, strange book of OT stories (e.g., David & Goliath, Noah and the Flood, … More THE BIBLE: Signposts to Christ
From the DI archives. -JB In part 1 of my “Christmas Lights” series I explored the Ongoing Epic of God and His Flickering Lights. The Bible tells the story a humanity “unplugged” from the life of God by sin, and how Jesus came to earth to reconnect us to God by dying on the cross … More Christmas Lights 2: Flipping the Switch
From the DI archives. -JB There is a scene in the classic National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation where Clark Griswald (Chevy Chase) is ready to show off his creativity and hard put into decorating the house with thousands of lights. After the drum roll he plugs in his precious lights only to find….nothing. They refuse to shine. … More Christmas Lights 1: The Saga of God’s Flickering Lights
Jeremy L. Berg 