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Secret Menu
Meat Mountain is a super-sandwich layered with six kinds of meat. Stacked with chicken tenders, three strips of bacon, two cheeses, and much more, it looks like it should be a restaurant’s featured item.
But Meat Mountain isn’t on any restaurant’s published menu. The sandwich represents a trend in off-menu items known only by social media or word of mouth. It seems that competition is driving fast-food restaurants to offer a secret menu to in-the-know customers.
When Jesus told His disciples that He had “food” they knew nothing about, it must have seemed like a secret menu to them (John 4:32). He…
He Came for You
In his novels The Trial and The Castle, Franz Kafka (1883–1924) portrays life as a dehumanizing existence that turns people into a sea of empty faces without identity or worth. Kafka said, “The conveyer belt of life carries you on, no one knows where. One is more of an object, a thing, than a living creature.”
Early in His ministry, Jesus went to a synagogue in Nazareth, stood up in front of the crowd, and read from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to…
Good Samaritan gets killed while helping another
A man offers help to another, but in the process, gets shot by the latter and dies. Talk about injustice. But that’s exactly what happened last Friday (22 January) in Catawba County, North Carolina, U.S.
Gates of Paradise
Italian artist Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378–1455) spent years skillfully crafting images of Jesus’ life into the bronze doors of Italy’s Florence Baptistery. These bronze reliefs were so moving that Michelangelo called them the Gates of Paradise.
As an artistic treasure, the doors greet visitors with echoes of the gospel story. It was Jesus who said, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved” (John 10:9). On the night before His crucifixion, He told His disciples, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (14:6). Within a few hours…
The women in Christ’s family tree
Jesus often startled people with unexpected and controversial actions. So it’s no wonder that even His heritage, listed in the book of Matthew, holds some surprises as well. Today, former “Discover the Word” hosts Haddon Robinson and Alice Mathews conclude a week-long dialogue with Dr. Kenneth Bailey about the women in Christ’s family tree. It’s from a classic “Discover the Word” episode that you won’t want to miss.
What Does Jesus Mean to You?
One Tuesday night at Bible Study class, our teacher—after pacing back and forth in his usual manner, with one finger over his lips—looked at us and asked: “What is Jesus to you?”
His atoning work on the cross
In John chapter 3 we read that Jesus said He didn’t come into the world to condemn the world, but to save it. Today on “Discover the Word,” we talk about how Christians often condemn the very people that Jesus included through His atoning work on the cross. Continue to study the context of one of the Bible’s most familiar statements: “For God so loved the world.”
One Size Fits All
Like most children, I thoroughly enjoyed Christmas. With great anticipation, I would snoop under the tree to see what toys and games awaited my eager grasp. So I felt deflated when I started getting things like shirts and pants. Grownup gifts were no fun! Then last Christmas, my kids gave me some cool socks with bright colors and designs. I almost felt young again! Even grownups could wear these socks, as the label reassured me: “One size fits all.”
That welcome phrase “one size fits all” reminds me of the best gift of Christmas—the good news that Jesus is for everyone.…
Expectations for the coming Messiah
If Jesus had used the word rescue with Nicodemus as the reason for His coming, how would a first-century religious leader like him have interpreted that? Today on “Discover the Word,” we’ll discuss what the expectation of the Jewish people was for the coming Messiah. Was it the reason Jesus said He came?
For God So Loved
In ancient Jewish culture, the first-born son held a very special place in family dynamics. So it got Nicodemus’ attention when Jesus told him that God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son. Join the group today on “Discover the Word” as they begin Week 2 of their series on the chapter of the Bible that contains its most familiar verse, “For God So Loved.”
Pax Romana
No one can afford the price of war. One website reports 64 nations are currently involved in armed conflicts. When and how will they end? We want peace, but not at the expense of justice.
Jesus was born during a time of “peace,” but it came at the cost of heavy-handed oppression. The Pax Romana (“Roman Peace”) existed only because Rome squashed all dissent.
Seven centuries before that time of relative peace, hostile armies prepared to invade Jerusalem. From the shadow of war, God made a remarkable pronouncement. “On those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned,” the prophet…
The Seventh Stanza
In the summer of 1861, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s wife, Frances, died tragically in a fire. That first Christmas without her, he wrote in his diary, “How inexpressibly sad are the holidays.” The next year was no better, as he recorded, “ ‘A merry Christmas,’ say the children, but that is no more for me.”
In 1863, as the American Civil War was dragging on, Longfellow’s son joined the army against his father’s wishes and was critically injured. On Christmas Day that year, as church bells announced the arrival of another painful Christmas, Longfellow picked up his pen and began to write,…
Embracing the Messiah
Today on “Discover the Word,” we end the first week of the special series for Christmas titled, “For God So Loved,” by revealing how Jesus challenged a prominent leader of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus, to embrace the Messiah he wasn’t expecting. It poses a question for all of us. And the answer is wrapped up in a simple two-letter word that reveals the intensity of Jesus’ love for all humanity. Find out what that word is, on “Discover the Word”!
