Blessed are those who…Happy are those who…The concept of blessedness and happiness is a consistent theme throughout scripture, from Deuteronomy to Job to Matthew to Revelation. A huge question for the ancient communities of the bible was, who is happy? That question is a central theme in Psalms. Through poetry, song and other kinds of expression, the psalmist develops […]

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus sends out a number of his followers to towns where he himself had intended to go. He instructs them to take basically nothing with them, to cure the sick and to tell people that the kingdom of God has come near. As we consider a life of following Jesus, […]

As the Jesus Movement continued to spread in the first century, there was one obstacle that the earliest followers had to face: Who can follow Jesus? For instance, Jesus was Jewish, so do all his followers need to be Jewish? In general, what kind of people can and should follow Jesus? In a story from the Acts of […]