"A hermetical Great Commandment: seek first God and his intent for the text, and secondly seek the intent of the human author, a person like yourself." - John Harrigan, The Gospel of Christ Crucified

"Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch."

"Master, we toiled...and caught nothing. BUT AT YOUR WORD, we will let down the nets." Here's to those in "the deep" who toil with seeming fruitlessness until one simple act of obedience "encircles a great number." -Gabe Cali

My teaching on Psalm 46. Notes Audio1 Audio2

Of all sights in the Church of Christ, I know none more painful to my own eyes than a Christian contented and satisfied with a little grace, a little repentance, a little faith, a little knowledge, a little charity, and a little holiness.

- Ryle, Holiness

Our desires tend to follow where we put in the most time.

I tell young people that I pastor that it's no wonder why their smartphone addicted, Netflix binge-watching generation has no appetite for the word of God or prayer. Shut some stuff off. Eternal life is in the balance. -Josh Hawkins

"Religion is what you do with your solitude." - William Temple. i.e. The things we daydream about most readily and instinctively when nothing else is occupying our thoughts reveal what we live for and serve.

-Timothy Keller

“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 14:11

“And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.” Isaiah 2:11 

Because the one who exalts the humble is exalted above the ones he exalts, and is the focus of their exaltation. - John Piper

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly...

Hebrews 12:22 1st century Jewish apocalypticism has opened my eyes to scripture and there is no turning back for me.

-TJ Sewob

 Those who:

- are insulted but do not insult - hear themselves reviled without answering - act through love and rejoice in suffering Of them Scripture says, "But they who love him are as the sun when he goes forth in his might." - (Babylonian Talmud), from Dale Allison's Sermon On The Mount

Jeremiah: "...this house shall become a desolation."

Jesus: "See, your house is left to you desolate." One spoke of the House of David, the other the House of God. But the One who comes to sit on the throne of the former will reestablish from the latter. -Gabe Cali

 My teaching on the Gospel from Isaiah 40. Audio. Audio 2. 

I love the parable of the wheat and the tares.

The bottom line is, Jesus is going to sort out everything and everyone in the end. Yes we have our work to do, our gifts to steward, our battles to fight etc. But we can relax on a lot of things and leave him to his task. -Travis Snow

“Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” 1 Timothy 4:16

A pastor’s vigilant self-watch is an act of compassionate shepherding. -John Piper

No form of ministry is more important than my marriage and family. -Timothy Keller

2021 Summer

REUNION ON PATMOS // 'Ballads of the Revelation'

There on the island, my Lord I did see I fell at His feet as though dead trembling in glory I’ve been yearning for years now yearning to be Near to my Friend again as in my memories Oh I’ve missed Him so; O, I’ve missed Him so More than words can say just how much I ache To see my friend again There on the island I beheld His face like sun His voice a torrent of waters His feet like burnished bronze In those hands once scarred, now holding seven stars And the keys to death and hell, our Conqueror’s reward In His eyes were flames, in His mouth a sword The One I knew as Savior, I beheld as Lord Oh I’ve missed Him so; O, I’ve missed Him so More than words can say just how much I ache To see my friend again I feel homesick, lovesick; this paradox in me It’s better when You’re here but You said it’s better if You leave Maybe this is what You meant back then Knowing what it would do in me My heart now haunted by memories of my Friend And those days in Galilee Oh I’ve missed Him so; O, I’ve missed Him so More than words can say just how much I ache To see my friend again

All genealogies end with Jesus; not a single genealogy appears after Matthew 1 or Luke 4. Why? The One Israel has been tracking since Genesis 3:15 has arrived. Implications for a generation obsessed with endlessly exploring who they are and where they come from? Forget it. Join yourself to the Promised One. 

COMPREHENDING THE STORY OF THE BIBLE - 46- FIRST CENTURY JEWISH FRAMEWORK

In this Bible Study, John Harrigan works through a theology of suffering before glory in the context of a Jewish framework. So good! 

If thanksgiving is a form of worship to God, then complaint is a form of worship to the enemy. - Richee Parks

God doesn't entrust his message to orators; he entrusts it to witnesses and stewards. - Bill Scofield

Paul had seen the risen Christ and much of his good news, his euangelion, concerned what to expect at Christ's glorious, imminent return.

- Paula Fredriksen

“The history of the Sermon on the Mount can largely be described in terms of an attempt to domesticate everything in it that is shocking, demanding, and uncompromising, and render it harmless.”

- Pinchas Lapide

These [general Jewish apocalyptic] hopes express the fundamental conviction that God is good, that he works in history, and that he is true to his promises.

- Paula Fredriksen

Jesus holds out the prospect of ultimate consolation. Now they mourn; but now is not always. God’s ultimate triumph, and with it the comforting of those who have grieved over evil, is sure.

- Leon Morris

Jesus promises the kingdom not to those who try to force God’s hand in their time, but to those who patiently and humbly wait for it, people of peace. - Craig Keener

It is a dangerous thing to emulate the polemical powers of the apostle Paul without imitating the prayer-life of the apostle Paul. - BA Purtle

Like drops of rain before the storm, so is the gift of the Spirit before the Day of the Lord. - John P Harrigan

Faith framed in “self-enhancement” terms has little pain tolerance…The minute costs are associated…the consumer Christian pivots to curate a bespoke spirituality that conveniently eliminates the “take up your cross” part of following Jesus. - Brett McCracken

“Someone said to Jesus, ‘Lord, will those who are saved be few?’ And he said to them, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.’” Luke 13:23–24

Jesus pushed relentlessly from the theoretical to the personal. -John Piper

For the sinner, repentance means this: ‘God is right and I’m wrong; and he’s right if he sends me to hell. I was walking this way in darkness, and I step out of darkness into light; out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of his dear Son.’ - Leonard Ravenhill