Category Archives: Theology

Video: He Is Risen from the Dead and Is Going Ahead of You (Matthew 28:1-10)

Posted on April 22, 2026 by salooper57

Nothing is secure that is kept from God, including the dreams we cherish, the children we love, and the sins we hide. And nothing is insecure that is placed in his hands. Continue reading →

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He Is Risen from the Dead and Is Going Ahead of You: A Sermon on the Resurrection (Matthew 28:1-8)

Posted on April 22, 2026 by salooper57

Nothing is secure that is kept from God, including the dreams we cherish, the children we love, and the sins we hide. And nothing is insecure that is placed in his hands. Continue reading →

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You Need a Theology of Suffering

Posted on April 18, 2026 by salooper57

The American church, which lacks adequate theologies of both suffering and prospering, does not know how to instruct, comfort, or admonish those who are experiencing one or the other. Continue reading →

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The Cross – Luke 23

Posted on April 15, 2026 by salooper57

God has plunged [the cross] into the earth, like Excalibur into the stone, and no power can remove it. From the moment it was driven into the ground, it began splitting the earth, dividing people. Continue reading →

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Resurrection: Waking Up Into the Real World

Posted on April 11, 2026 by salooper57

An evolutionary biologist might think that Paul is talking about a type of theological saltation – a sudden, large mutational change occurring in a single generation. Continue reading →

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Resurrection: More Than Heaven When You Die

Posted on April 8, 2026 by salooper57

(…the phrase, “think outside the box” originated with the nine-dot puzzle.) Once you go outside the box, there is more than one way to solve the problem. That is what Jesus does with Martha. He takes her outside the box, beyond the confines of the tomb. Continue reading →

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Shutting Jesus In: An Easter Skit and Sermon (Matthew 27:65-28:15)

Posted on April 7, 2026 by salooper57

Resurrection is Jesus getting out—out of death itself, out into the world, into our lives; into everything. He’s worse than any kid: he is always getting into everything. Continue reading →

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If Only (John 11)

Posted on April 1, 2026 by salooper57

His mom said, “I’ll have to vacuum it up.” Phin asked, “How does it get up there?” His mom, thinking he was talking about the bug, said, “They fly.” Phin looked at her in amazement and said, “Vacuums fly?” Continue reading →

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Seven-Storied World: The Stories that Compose Literature

Posted on March 28, 2026 by salooper57

The English journalist Christopher Booker published “The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories” in 2004. He argues – some would say unsuccessfully – that all the stories we know belong to one of seven plot types. Continue reading →

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Kingdom Come (Mark 1:14-15)

Posted on March 27, 2026 by salooper57

Into this turbulent setting stepped a man who was larger than life. He seemed to be eight hundred years out of his time. He wore strange clothes, ate a weird diet, lived an ascetic lifestyle, and thundered like one of the prophets of old. Continue reading →

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