Dead Men Walking

Matthew 27:50-53

Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.



It's 'funny' how you can read the same passage of Scripture sixty times and get something different out of it every time.

I read this today and its imagery really struck me: you're standing in Jerusalem on the day of Jesus' death and not only does the temple curtain tear, the earth shake, and the sky go dark, but just to make sure you notice that something huge just happened, the bodies of Godly people who died years ago are wandering through the streets.

It's hard to halfheartedly believe something that crazy. The scripture isn't a metaphor; it's not a simile; it doesn't use 'like' or 'as'; it happened. Either you believe that real dead bodies hopped up out of their real graves and walked into real Jerusalem, or your Jesus is not the one described in the Bible. How's that for an acid test? Pretty crazy.

What are your thoughts? Leave them as comments.

Joy: An Introduction

Galation 5:22-23

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

This passage has been one of my favorites for a number of years. I'm not necessarily sure why I like this passage so much, but I think it probably has to do with:

A. My enjoyment of lists,
B. My love for Paul and his writings and
C. The fact that I used to lead a kids' worship service where we regularly sang a song based on this scripture

But, no matter why I enjoy this scripture, it is a list of traits and characteristics that we, as Christians, should exhibit if we have Christ's spirit in us. The part that I want to focus on for the next few posts is "Joy"; not so much joy as we know it in English, but the Greek word chara that is used for "joy" in this passage and many others. There are probably about six words used in the New Testament that are translated "joy", but I want to focus on chara because it is the type of joy that we are told should be evident in all believers.

So, over the next four posts, we will discuss specific instances of chara and what we can learn about joy from each instance.

Green Bible

Well, as you can probably tell by the date on my previous post, I've been really busy. As a student at UT, I can honestly say that I have never had a harder or more challenging semester than this one; but enough excuses, on with the post.

Although, I have done little to contribute lately, I have been cruising the blogosphere and I recently ran across this over at the New York Times.

I really enjoy seeing all the new types of presentations that people use to repackage the Scriptures. I like checking out the new translations, new study systems, new paraphrases; they all interest me. But this, The Green Bible, is something completely different.

The Green Bible is printed on recycled paper, has a cotton/linen cover, and is printed using soy-based inks. The feature that really sets The Green Bible apart, however, is the fact that all the verses that reference the Earth are printed in green (like the Bibles that have Jesus' words in red).

On first glance, I think this is very cool and would definitely pick it up if I saw it at McKay's (the only place I ever buy books). But this Green Bible made me think: Is it really a good idea to set certain verses apart? Our nature as humans seems to cause us to pick a short-list of our favorite Scriptures and then cling to those 10 verses; never venturing out of our little box. Would this Bible just be one more tool to help us segregate our Scriptures?

I know that I'm over-thinking this; and the Bible-hoarding side of me really wants a Green Bible. But what do you think? Is this a great new tool to dive even deeper into God's word, or is it one more Bible to make the publisher ten more dollars and leave us all clinging to ten green scriptures?