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Sunday School Moralism Part 2: Redeeming Cain & Jonah

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Has Sunday School moralism blinded us to the glory of God's amazing grace?... Have we missed something fundamental for example in the story of Cain & Abel ? Contrary to the typical moralistic reading that contrasts Abel's assumed godly example against Cain's example of aggression and murder, there's a bigger context we often neglect. This story is about Jesus - Yes! All of Scripture revolves around Jesus (Luke 24:25-27, Colossians 1:17).  More specifically though, w hat we actually see in this narrative is that God is the Shepherd of BOTH brothers... God of course hears Abel's blood cry out to him from the ground as the slain brother in a sense pleads for both vengeance against  (cf. Revelation 6:9-11) as well as mercy for his sibling ( see this insightful blog from Chad Bird   http://www.chadbird.com/blog/2015/03/03/what-bible-story-has-csis-fingerprints-all-over-it ).  Now, here's where this well known Bible story reflects the radical and insanely
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Am I My Brother's Keeper?

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When I was a kid attending Sunday School in a very traditional Baptist church in the Midwest, we learned Bible stories...I became familiar with the regular cast of characters like Adam and Eve, Noah, David, Moses, etc. I could tell you that Moses parted the Red Sea; Adam and Eve ate an apple; David slew a giant (thanks to a relative who gifted me one Christmas with 12-inch David & Goliath action figures!). As a teen, I would learn that the book of Leviticus was all about how family members in the same house should not undress in the same room...and that when I would eventually marry, I should not "approach" or engage my wife during certain times of the month...  In short, my Biblical education left me spiritually illiterate. I knew the Bible allegedly contained stories (plural), but it wasn't until I actually came to faith in my early 20's that I would learn the Bible only has One Story...rather, the Bible essentially is One Story. A single narrative consis
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Welcome to 'All Things Are Connected'

Welcome to the 'All Things Are Connected' blog. This blog exists to celebrate, talk about, ramble about, rant about the interconnected-ness of literally all things... It is my sincere conviction that literally atom, every millisecond, every moment, every trial, every triumph, every thought, every detail in the entire universe finds it convergence and ultimate meaning somehow in Jesus Christ, the God Man, the Son of the Living God. And  he is before all things, and in him all things  hold together. -Colossians 1:17  Here, I plan to post about the perpendicular intersection between everyday, mundane life and the gospel. What we know as 'the gospel' finds a convenient summary in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. For Christians, we believe this is the ground upon which we stand from a salvific perspective. Anyone who believes that God raised Christ from the dead is considered a Christian...and entrance into the family of God remains contingent on that fundamental truth. However, th
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