Land! After two long weeks trapped in a storm aboard a rocking ship, it must have felt great to finally be back on the ground. The Apostle Paul and the others traveling with him had endured a very rough voyage. In the end, their ship ran aground and was torn apart but everyone made it ashore. But where were they? They had made it to the island of Malta. This is where my latest journey began. Flying in to Malta’s airport, we felt some sympathy for Paul and his companions as we endured some rough turbulence on our way in. […]
Author Archive: Brian Johnson
A Three Hour Tour
Waves. Wind. The churning sea. Imagine waking up for the fourteenth day in a row in the midst of a storm that has been battering a ship. Not a modern cruise liner but a Roman grain vessel. The crew has worked tirelessly this whole time, simply trying to keep it all together (physically and mentally). Any hope of controlling the vessel has long past. They just have to wait and see where the winds take them. Sailors have always had this aura of being tough. You have to be in order to battle such elements. Ancient ships stayed close to […]
The Journey to Rome
After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit Rome also.” Acts 19:21 Rome. What does that name conjure up in your mind? To those living around the Mediterranean in the first century AD, it represented the power ruling their world. Caesar ruled from Rome. It was a system that either served you, making you rich and enabling a good life. Or you were an oppressed people that had been conquered and heavily taxed, simply trying to eek out an existence. Or you […]
The Day the Sun Went Dark
On Monday I was one of millions to journey into the path of the total eclipse that passed over the width of the United States. I was in absolute awe watching the total eclipse. The corona glistened in splendor, a few planets winked into the sky, the entire horizon looked like a sunset in every direction. If you’ve never experienced a total eclipse, I highly recommend experiencing one. How does the eclipse relate to the world of the Bible? I could easily refer to several passages of gloom and doom about the sun going dark, but there’s a more definitive […]
Crumbs
The Lord’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord’s Festival of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. Leviticus 23:5-6 Passover is upon us. It’s an annual reminder of God’s salvation. God saved the people of Israel from bondage in Egypt. When Jesus came, he used that as an image of what he was doing spiritually, saving people from their sins. The most prominent command surrounding the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread is the removal of yeast/leavening from one’s […]
A Great Miracle Happened There
Today was Christmas and the first day of Hanukkah (how often does they coincide like this?). What is this day about? Christians around the world commemorate the arrival of Jesus born in lowly conditions in Bethlehem. God come to earth. God had not abandoned the earth to its sins but was personally intervening to deal to it. Jesus’ Hebrew name, Yeshua, means ‘salvation’. Going back to about 165 BC, we find the origins of Hanukkah. The land of Israel was under the rule of the Greeks. Under the rule of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Torah was outlawed. The Temple was […]
Sermon – Grumbling and Gratitude
Sermon from November 27, 2016
Vote for Saul!
So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” 1 Samuel 8:4-5 After the Israelites came out of Egypt, they conquered the land of Canaan and settled it. Then the era of the judges began. The people would be prosperous and turn from God, which would lead to ruin (invading armies). As a result, they turned back to God. God sent a judge to rescue them. […]
Tent Specifications
Celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters. Leviticus 23:41-42 The festival of Sukkot (tablernacles/booths) is upon us again! It began Monday. I’m typing this from within my sukkah (singular of sukkot). When I was in Israel this summer at a place called Neot Kedumim, I wandered around an area they have of various sukkot. The sages decided what made for […]
Overturned
Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Jonah 3:4 Today was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It is the holiest day of the Biblical calendar where atonement was made for the nation of Israel (see Leviticus 16). One of the traditional readings on this day is the book of Jonah because of its connection to repentance and mercy. God threatened to destroy the city of Nineveh and sent the prophet Jonah to announce its demise. After a detour at sea involving a storm and a great fish, […]