Blogging through Simply Jesus

N. T. (Tom) Wright has written a “provocative” book, does he write any other kind, that challenges his readers to ask – who is Jesus and how has the church gotten Him wrong?

I like reading Tom Wright because he is not afraid to ask deep challenging questions. The types of questions that ask us to revisit some of our ideas about God, Jesus, and theology that may otherwise go un-explored. Continue reading

Evangelistic Prayer

We all have people in out lives who are not followers of Jesus. They have neither called on nor accepted Jesus as Lord and they do not believe that He is raised him from the dead (Rom 10:9, 13). Paul shares the anguish and concern that he has for the lost in his letter to the Romans (Rom 9:1-3). He earnestly prayed for the salvation of others (Rom 10:1):

my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

As I lay convicted of my own prayer life in this area, I began to think through how I might specifically pray for the lost that Jesus came ‘to seek and to save’. Continue reading

Watson: On Responding to the Gospel (Part 2)

Richard Watson explores what makes the difference between those who accept the Gospel and those who reject it. See part 1 here.

By User:Mattes (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

By User:Mattes (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

In the last post we concluded with the question – what grace, if any, was given to an individual who rejected the Gospel? The following three options were given by Watson:

  1. no grace was given.
  2. grace sufficient to be saved was given.
  3. grace that was insufficient to be saved was given.

Watson continues by evaluating the impact of each answer. Continue reading