Jesus has been brought before the High Priest and the Sanhedrin. These Jewish leaders have secured false witnesses and charged Jesus with blasphemy. They proceed to beat him and spit on His face. During this time, Jesus is fully aware that His beloved disciple Peter has “followed at a distance” (Luke 22:54). He knows that Peter is among a group of spectators sitting in the courtyard (Luke 22:55). And when Jesus hears the rooster crow, He knows exactly what Peter has just done (Luke 22:59). Jesus turns completely around and, the text tells us, “The Lord looked at Peter” (Luke 22:61). The verb translated “looked” does not refer to a scanning glance in which one tries to take in all the scenery.

Reposted with permission from It Is Written.

“’Raise your hand if you’re going into full-time ministry…. You all should be raising your hands.’ He was charging the business majors, biology majors, communications, and education majors, among others, to view their future work—whatever it was to be—as ministry” - IFWE

“At the heart of Harrington’s critique of feminist thinking is its denial of the fundamental asymmetry between the sexes. As she sees it, women’s capacity to bear children is not a simple addendum to some generic, genderless human; it is the essence of being a particular sort of human, a female human. Yet ‘progress’ has been taking us in a direction where individual self-fulfillment seems possible only through female dis-embodiment.” - IFS

“God has infused the world with His presence, with signs that point to Him and His love. He can be seen, for those with eyes to see, in everything from the beautiful to the tragic to the mundane.” - Breakpoint

We are fast approaching that time of year in which we remember the death of the Lord Jesus, and celebrate His victory over death through His resurrection.

Over these next three weeks, I would like to focus on Jesus’ ministry following the Passover meal He shared with His disciples, in the Upper Room.

There Jesus revealed many new truths for the forthcoming church age to these who would become its “foundation” (Eph. 2:20)—though they were certainly unworthy and lacking understanding at this time (see John 13:24 and 14:5 for examples). All of this commenced once Jesus had identified and dismissed Judas, the betrayer (John 13:21-30).

“Is it even possible to find Jesus where he is not? It seems to me that the answer must be yes, for otherwise there are no guardrails for interpretation. For example, is Jesus to be identified with the concubine who was cut into pieces and sent throughout Israel (Judg 20)?” - Word by Word

“Messengers at this year’s annual meeting… can rescind the action of the Executive Committee and reinstate Saddleback and the four other congregations, or they can continue down the road of ejecting the disorderly churches with their 170 women pastors.” - RNS

“Pursuing free and informed choices will benefit leaders, decisions, and the congregation. Let us consider each of these in turn.” - Dave Doran

“Applying a biblical lens to this issue provides an even deeper perspective that does not fit neatly in current political boxes. Consider the following.” - IFWE

“…if you’ve ever led as much as a single Bible study, then I expect you know the temptation. I expect you have longed to make much of Jesus, but have also felt the desire to have people make much of you.” - Challies

“as I will demonstrate, all young earth creationist scientists incorporate, and this is really important, modified evolutionary ideas, even if its ever so slight, into their creationist frameworks, and AiG is no exception.” - Ken Coulson

“Franklin Graham urges prayers ahead of possible Trump indictment: ‘Politically motivated’ ” - CPost

“We’re less familiar with Lewis the political thinker. But in the almost 60 years since he passed away… we’ve come to learn more and more about Lewis’ significant interests in, and concerns about, politics.” - Acton

A review of Brant Pitre, Michael P. Barber, and John A. Kincaid, Paul, A New Covenant Jew: Rethinking Pauline Theology, Grnd Rapids: Eerdmans, 2019, 310 pages, pbk.

Reposted from Dr. Reluctant.

“Those who don’t like the Ministry Check database, or don’t want it… may make a motion and undo the whole thing….Readers can avoid being confused or misled by reading the Sex Abuse Implementation Task Force update of February 27th” - SBC Voices

“You have 4.617 * 10^61 thoughts at least potentially in your head.” - Psychology Today

“What I want to do with this article is address the three passages Rick Warren uses to justify his position. I think you will see that Warren’s claims have no Biblical foundation.” - Don Johnson

“Compared to 2016, churches are more likely to have more than seven weeks of cash reserves. Additionally, few have had someone embezzle funds from the congregation.” - Lifeway

“I can’t speak for Steve Lawson, but it seems to me that he was speaking of Evangelical leaders who contrast John MacArthur’s courageous ministry with cowardly ministries.” - CPost

“[Bob] Vander Plaats, the president and chief executive of The Family Leader…told The Times that the state’s influential evangelical bloc had not forgotten about the former president’s comments.” - Business Insider

“Anger says, ‘That is wrong.’ It is a judgment, and judgment is intrinsic to our humanity. Human beings are incapable of not making judgments…. Anger says, ‘I will make that right.’ Anger is compelled to do something” - Ed Welch

“…Paul House’s little book, Bonhoeffer’s Seminary Vision: A Case for Costly Discipleship and Life Together. House’s burden is not hagiographic; rather his goal is to alert his readers to a hole growing in modern seminary studies.” - Mark Snoeberger

Also in the report: “Benevolence to others has risen roughly 25% since the pandemic began” - Axios

“A 37-year-old Christian theology lecturer at the Methodist-run Cliff College in England has been dismissed after he shared his views in a tweet saying, ‘homosexuality is invading the church.’” - CPost

“Popular meme accounts lose social media pages after being reported by Authentic Media, which says it coined the phrase.” - CToday

Read Part 1.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Reprinted with permission from As I See It, which is available free by writing to the editor at dkutilek@juno.com.