KMCD 26: The Kingsman and the Tale of Two Kingdoms – Part One

The city was called Meridian. It was not an ancient city of stone gates and camel roads. It was glass, steel, noise, traffic, digital billboards, coffee shops, podcasts in earbuds, calendars filled two months ahead, and souls too hurried to notice they were starving. In Meridian lived a young believer named Eli. He loved the […]

WIWO: Mark – Episode 22: Signs and Watchfulness

Reading: Mark 13:1-37 Context: What prompts Jesus’ teaching about future events and the destruction of the temple? A seemingly passing comment is the spur that gets Jesus talking about future events. The passing comment is a moment where someone admires the temple. It’s a fairly innocuous statement as they go. Yet within it, there is […]

WIWO: Mark – Episode 21: Love, Generosity, and Judgment

Reading: Mark 12:28-44 Context: How does Jesus’ response about the greatest commandments summarise all spiritual obligations? All we do must come from a heart of love for God. A love that has to be commanded because it’s not natural for us to give that love to God first and foremost, and we’re not that inclined […]

KMCD 24: The Hand of God and the Kingsman

This is being written during the football World Cup. The phrase “the hand of God” would remind some people of something that knocked them out of the 1986 World Cup. This is not about that incident, though it is handy to remember that the wins in life only come from God’s hand. Consider Nehemiah 2:1-8. […]

WIWO: Mark – Episode 18: The Way of the Cross

Reading: Mark 10:32-52 Context: How does Jesus’ detailed third passion prediction demonstrate His conscious choice to suffer? I imagine. He is with His disciples and He’s outlining what will happen to Him. He’s deliberate. He’s not in a rush. This is what will happen. It’s not a matter of identifying it in terms of what […]

KMCD 21: The Kingsman Works it Out

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or […]

WIWO: Mark – Episode 17: Marriage, Children, and Wealth

Reading: Mark 10:1-31 Context: How do Jesus’ teachings on divorce reflect God’s original design for marriage relationships? Divorce is alien to God. His original design was that those who married would be married for life. Divorce was a response to rebellious hearts that didn’t want to take on the original design. Going back to God’s […]

KMCD 20: Depth of Fellowship and The Kingsman

There’s a word that gets used so often in Christian circles that it has almost lost its edge. Fellowship. We say it after the service. We name rooms after it. We schedule it into the diary. But I’ve been in enough of those rooms and enough of those schedules to know that what we call […]

WIWO: Mark – Episode 16: Humility and Service

Reading: Mark 9:33-50 Context: What prompts Jesus’ teaching about greatness and service in God’s kingdom? The lads are quarrelling before they reach the crib. He asks them why they’re arguing. They keep shtum, as if you can do that with a man who knows. The nature of their quarrel is about who is the greatest. […]

WIWO: Mark – Episode 15: Glory and Discipleship

Reading: Mark 9:1-32 Context: How does the transfiguration confirm Jesus’ identity for the three disciples who witness it? Here’s the confirmation – it’s one thing to be told that He’s the son of God, it’s another thing to witness His transfigured form revealing the glory of the only begotten son of God. That kind of […]