Rabbit Holes & Meditations - Christian Bible Study

If you have been traveling with us and followed the words of Jesus chronologically through the Gospels, then you have been the proverbial fly on the wall. Do not lose the immediate context when you read this - it is so easy to do because the theology is so rich. We are in the upper room for pages of scripture, and Judas has left the room. What Jesus has to say is not for Judas. But it is for you!...

I know some of these later podcasts are long. They are heavy. They are worth listening to multiple times. It's worth reading the notes, reading and rereading the scriptures they are bound to. Matthew 14 answers some profound questions.  The question I came with was: Why Why must Jesus leave in order to send "the helper". The Holy Spirit. Why can't we just do it? The answer goes all the way back to...

If you can read John 14:4-14 and are not waiting for the same answer to the question that Thomas asks, then I want to talk to you some more! I think we are all taught the theology, but do we grasp the how? Thomas is not weak in his faith. He has spent the last three and a half years and has witnessed the miracles that transform faith to proof bound experiential belief. Thomas is the kind of guy wh...

There is a scene where Indiana Jones walks out into the street. It's hot, the dust is kicking up. He's sweaty and he's had a tough day. At the other end of the street, he's confronted with a samurai type guy, swinging his sword, ready to get Indiana Jones' head off. Very casually, Indiana Jones reaches down, pulls up his gun and shoots the guy. Moral: you don't bring a knife to a gun fight! Now we...

Have you even sat in a business conference or meeting and totally missed the point? You look at the speaker and go "Wait........ What?" Like you thought you understood it until you just realized what he was saying is not what you were thinking.  We've walked through the red-letters all the way to this point and never have the disciples let go of the idea that Jesus is the conquering king. They hav...

I was reluctant to name this podcast the Denial of Peter because it is misleading. But that's how we have come to recognize that happened at this moment in scripture.  I think at some level, we all identify with Peter. We are still at the last supper in our red-letter journey and I think every Christian knows about Peter's denial. But what is not so obvious in the text is that Peter is speaking fo...

While the synoptic gospels picked up the core elements of the Last Supper, it seems that John captured more of the conversation. We want to spend some time here. We stop to ask questions. We are at John 13:31-35. Judas has left the room. The conversation gets deep. We are going to slow down and make sure we understand what this all means. Today we get practical with the very things Jesus is comman...

This is one short passage in each of the three synoptic Gospels; however, I would be remiss if I jumped over it. Let's remember that Jesus has made the disciples well aware of what was about to transpire this week. They can connect with his death, but I doubt they understand His resurrection. So, with such a shadow hanging over the forthcoming week, Jesus raises a cup and basically says: "Until we...

Did you ever sit with the Lord's Supper and just think, I really don't get it. I know something big is happening here, but did anybody ever walk you through what "This is the NEW COVENANT in my blood" means? When you read that, you should immediately think - OK, I need to go back and understand the OLD COVENANT. And more, I need to understand why we need a new covenant. Today, in our Red Letter Jo...

Jesus is eating the last supper with the 12 disciples. That means Judas is in the room and even after Jesus indicates that one of them would betray him, Judas manages to remain anonymous in a room of people wondering who the traitor among them is.  This scene had me bewildered and asking too: "is it me Lord?". I think a key take away for this podcast is that we should not read it righteously indig...

It takes some harmonization of the four gospels to see this picture just before the Last Supper; but when you see it playing out, you can't unsee it. The disciples have all filtered into the room for the last supper and the seating has been established by a subtle acknowledgement of who gets to sit closest to the host. They all settle in and then realize, there is no servant. That starts the bante...

If somebody tells you something that will happen 10 years from now, you're likely to forget it. If somebody tells you something that will happen 10 minutes from now AND it happens exactly the way they said it would, you're likely to never forget it. If that same person has told you stuff about the future, now you're actually looking for it.  Notes for Something Happened on the Way to Supper Episod...

We've read the Parable of the 10 virgins over and over. We cite it. We talk about readiness! We've just spent days in the valley between the destruction of the old temple and the final return. And what are we doing in the valley? I read the Parable of 10 virgins this morning, and, well it left me wondering. I know that when the Bridegroom arrives, 5 are ready and 5 are not. The five that are ready...

As we leave Matthew 24, we leave with a warning. I'm multitasking right now in front of a YouTube video by John Barnett. If you're not familiar, he spends every waking moment in his online ministry discussing End Times. And he is REALLY GOOD at it though admittedly; I waver on dispensational theology and pretribulation rapture stuff. That said, that is is an interpretation no false prophecy and we...

There are a LOT of books written about Matthew Chapter 24. This podcast is NOT the last word on the subject. It is a perspective, and we think one worth noting.  Look, the discussion of End Times sells books! It gets clicks. But the question to ask is how it will change your perspective today. I think the beauty of prophecy is in the not knowing. It draws you to the text. It is human nature to wan...

Today, we challenge traditional dispensational rapture theory. You've heard of or seen the rapture movies. There are five "Left Behind" movies. Here's a list: The Left Behind Franchise (All Versions): Both the original Kirk Cameron trilogy and the  Nicolas Cage reboot are the most famous examples. They show the world immediately plunging into chaos as the Antichrist rises following the mass disapp...

Ok, I couldn't let this go. The only thing that Valentine Day seems to have in common with anything biblical is the word "saint" in front of the name way back when. This is truly a hallmark holiday. Want to know how commercialized? I stopped at White Castle yesterday (February 14th), bought a sack of fries (the ONLY thing I eat at While Castle!) and sat down at a table to relax, eat the fries and...

Everyone is always looking for the major everts in prophetic literature. We've talked about prophetic compression before - the concept of two prophetic events that are spread out over time but stated very close together in biblical prophecy. When looking far into the future, you can see the peaks of the mountains, but you can't necessarily tell how far apart they are. [there are several examples w...

On our Red-Letter journey, we just stepped onto the ground of Matthew 24. This is where many modern wannabe prophets will hang their hat and create grandiose predictions about raptures and end times and date setting and all that. Spoiler alert, we are not trying to figure out when the end of the world will come. I think about this when people ask me why I don't want to go there. First, I can't den...

Today's podcast was supposed to be easy. Discuss what Jesus calls the Birth pangs. But then I got into with the Berean filter. I was going to scrap this whole session. Instead, I decided, you know what, this is instructive. For those that think we go on an AI Chatbot, ask a question and post the answer, this is for you. This is like what it must have been like in a room with the Bereans who were i...

After Jesus laments over Jerusalem, the disciples are marveling at the temple. We have two verses of scripture in Matthew 24 (verses 1-2) that somehow still find their way into prophecies yet to be fulfilled. The Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70AD is about as brutal as judgement gets and still this part of the Bible has been misinterpreted by many to be something yet to happen. We don't make that mi...

I have to admit; this study was a little convicting for me. When Jesus said to the Pharisees you tithe mint and dill and cumin, it blew right past me. I never gave it a second thought. I had this picture in my head of them counting out 10 percent of the leaves of their mint and dill and thought, that's almost comical... Then we notice the widow giving all she had, only 2 small copper coins into th...

I think sometimes we overcomplicate eschatology (the study of end times). I'm certainly guilty of falling into that trap. My guess is that comes from years, centuries even of trying to wedge interpretive ideas into scripture rather than simply let scripture speak. Before we move away from the woes to the Pharisees, the indictments really, I want to zoom in on one line, that if you miss it, you los...

I don't know how I would have felt as a Jew in the audience on the temple court when Jesus was giving those scathing indictments to the Pharisees that we've been covering. But it got me to thinking about our Christian - Jewish relationships today. Israel and the United States have been solid political allies for sure. But that's politics! Typically, even our own church leaders don't go much beyond...

As we are studying the final woes, what is becoming clear is how much modern eschatological teaching has steered our understanding and worse has influenced wrong thinking! We are almost at the cross and Jesus is issuing indictments and verdicts. He is dealing with Israel here! The temple system is about to be gone, done away with! For those of you who think it must be rebuilt, I think you should r...