fisher of men

1.The Son of Man By far, the most frequent name Jesus called himself was “Son of Man,” recorded over 100 times in the gospels. As theologian George Knight says, “We know how Jesus used the title; but the why is not as easy to explain.” Sometimes Christ used Son of Man simply as a substitute for the pronoun, “I,” usually in the context of the humility of his humanity. For instance, in Matthew 8:19-20 (NIV) Jesus says, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” To his hearers, this usage would’ve brought to mind classic Old Testament Scriptures about the humble nature of being human, such as Psalm 8:4 (NASB): “What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?” Other times, Jesus used Son of Man as a title that em...

There was an important article for church leaders in the latest Harvard Business Review (HBR) on how tying metrics to strategy is not always the best practice. Here’s the big idea. Something like Apple’s “Think Different” strategy, or Samsung’s “Create the Future” endeavor, would naturally be judged by the amount of sales of new products. As the HBR article puts it, “If strategy is the blueprint for building an organization, metrics are the concrete, wood, drywall and bricks.” The problem? “A company can easily lose sight of its strategy and instead focus strictly on the metrics that are meant to represent it.” In other words, there really is no strategy in play, just a concentrated effort to take the metric supposedly linked to strategic success and do everything you can to raise that met...

Walking the Floodwall by Ryan Duncan “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” – Luke 2:52  I have a confession to make; last Sunday I skipped church. I actually had a very good excuse: I wanted to spend more time with God. I know that sounds pretty strange, and I’m certainly not saying Christians should start ditching on Sundays, but that morning as I was getting ready to leave I couldn’t help feeling (much to my surprise) that the Holy Spirit didn’t want me to go to Church that day. So instead, I stayed home and started reading the Bible. I’d only planned on reading two chapters that morning, but I ended up reading eight. Occasionally I’d re-read passages to let the words sink in or underline verses that stood out to me. After I’d finished, I went o...

What happens when a nation is conquered, burned to the ground, and left in rubble? When its wealthiest and most prominent citizens are carried off as slaves and dispersed into a powerful foreign country? Well, if the experience of the Jewish people is any indication, those left behind cobble together an impoverished existence, surviving despite the odds, rebuilding lives as best they can. This is what happened when mighty Babylon razed Jerusalem in 587 B.C., destroying its Temple, stealing its wealth, and leaving behind only ruins and “some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields” (2 Kings 25:12). For nearly 50 years, until 538 B.C., Jerusalem survived as a dung heap of the nations, peopled by poor settlers of mixed nationalities, yet finding some measure of norm...

Catch Those Little FoxesBy: Brent Rinehart “Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom” – Song of Solomon 2:15 My family recently moved out into the country, and it has been quite a change of scenery. We traded in our view of our neighbors’ houses for woods and pastures. One of our favorite activities these past few months has been catching a glimpse of our new neighbors: lizards, frogs, black snakes, deer and an owl that likes to hoot and swoop through the trees. We even have a little red fox who meanders through the back yard from time to time. He’s hard to spot, as he moves so quietly and stealthily. You have to be on the lookout and in the right place at the right time. When I think about our new fox friend, I can’t help bu...

Forgiveness Definition We are instructed a number of times in the Bible to forgive others. It was an explicit part of Jesus’ model prayer in Matthew 6:7-15. Forgive is the Greek word aphiēmi, meaning “to send away, dismiss, suffer to depart; to emit, send forth.” In relation to an offense against us, it means that we dismiss it, or send it away. We do not hold onto that offense, harboring it in our hearts. Instead, we treat it as if it had not occurred. Reconciliation Definition The word “reconciliation” is less commonly used. And generally, at least in the Scripture, it deals with the relationship between God and humanity. Reconciliation is the Greek word katallagē, meaning “an exchange; reconciliation, restoration to favor.” Reconciliation assumes a broken relationship. Something has hap...

So we know that God’s law contains instructions for the good life, the blessed life. Sadly, however, merely having the instructions doesn’t help us to keep the instructions. As a cautionary tale of sorts, look at what happened to the Israelites. While God was giving Moses the tablets of the law, they were busy making a golden calf to worship. With Moses gone and God apparently absent, they were quick to fill the leadership void with a false god of their own making. Despite all that had happened to them—the destruction of their enemies, the guidance through treacherous deserts, the daily provision of manna—they were quick to forget, ready to complain. They didn’t like the fact that following God meant embracing things they disliked, things like obedience and waiting. Instead, they defaulted...

Do It Again, LordA Prayer for Troubled Times by Max Lucado DEAR LORD, We’re still hoping we’ll wake up. We’re still hoping we’ll open a sleepy eye and think, What a horrible dream. But we won’t, will we, Father? What we saw was not a dream. Planes did gouge towers. Flames did consume our fortress. People did perish. It was no dream, and, dear Father, we are sad. There is a ballet dancer who will no longer dance and a doctor who will no longer heal. A church has lost her priest; a classroom is minus a teacher. Cora ran a food pantry. Paige was a counselor, and Dana, dearest Father, Dana was only three years old. (Who held her in those final moments?) We are sad, Father. For as the innocent are buried, our innocence is buried as well. We thought we were safe. Perhaps we should have known bet...

A “thorn in the flesh” is something given to us by God to keep us from becoming conceited. It can feel uncomfortable, like torment, or a form of torture, but God does not torture his children. He helps us! His help can come in the form of discipline and trials, but His purpose is always to strengthen us and conform us into the image of Christ. “We are given thorns that significantly weaken us in order to make us stronger,” as Jon Bloom said at DesiringGod.org. Paul’s “Thorn in the Flesh” Verses in Scripture “…in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I [Paul] was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is...

A recent article in the Atlantic cited 17 questions every college should be asking. The point was that “we need a serious conversation about the future of America’s universities.” They’re right. We do. And the questions they posed were good ones, including: What is quality, and how should it be measured?   If we were building from scratch, would we make almost every program the same four-year duration?   We are witnessing the emergence of high quality, low-cost ways of learning online. How should we think about hybrid curricular options—that is, the mixing of new forms of pedagogy with old—that might be available to us? How will this affect the residential model?   Will most extant institutions survive the coming ed-tech disruptions in roughly their current form? In the same...

September 10 Our Needs Philippians 4:19 Jim saved for a long time to take an Alaskan cruise. At last he was on board with two carefully packed suitcases. The first evening, when he heard “Dinner is served” announced over the loudspeaker, he took peanut butter crackers from his suitcase and sat at the table in his small cabin. Every day at mealtime, he repeated the ritual. It wasn’t that Jim didn’t like the ship’s tasty banquets. He simply didn’t know that his meals were included in the price of the ticket. For two weeks he enjoyed beautiful scenery off the decks but ate dry, stale food in his cabin. This sad story is a metaphor for how some believers live the Christian life. God has promised to meet every need of His children—His riches are included in t...

We wait all the time. We wait to fall asleep at night; we wait on responses to emails, for Amazon deliveries, for our paycheck to hit our bank account, for people with whom we are sharing Christ to respond to the Gospel, etc. What are some things you’re waiting for? We wait for all sorts of things, but what does it mean to wait on God? Wait on Him for what? Psalm 27:13-14 says, “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Isaiah 40:31 Context and Meaning We wait on the Lord to act – to deliver, to save, to avenge, to answer our prayers, to provide for our needs, to renew our strength, to reveal His glory, to do what only God can do....