Tag Archives: Stephanos Ministries

Aug 28 2022

The Lord’s Prayer – #4 – The Life and Love of Father: 'Monday Morning Musing - August 29, 2022'

Familiarity dilutes meaning. When something is so familiar, so common, so presumed upon its significance and depth of meaning is often over-looked. Jesus’s instruction to directly address God as Father/Abba and to include/invite the disciples to also do so, would have been a cosmically altering, paradigm-shattering instruction for any first-century Jew.

 

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Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

 

Aug 22 2022

The Lord’s Prayer – Part 3 – Thankfulness: 'Monday Morning Musing - August 22, 22022'

In a Jewish worldview, thankfulness was considered an activity that would last for eternity. Sacrifices and offerings would cease, but thankfulness would be a perpetual kingdom phenomenon. When Jesus exhorts his followers to pray for the “kingdom to come” they would have associated thankfulness as an actualization of the future. The practice of thankfulness is a kingdom establishing phenomenon. “Thy kingdom come” is not a passive plea for God’s future activity. We have a part to play in the present in the realization of that prayer. 

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Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

 

 

Aug 15 2022

The Lord’s Prayer – Part 1 – Introduction: 'Monday Morning Musings - August 7, 2022'

 

The profound and provocative essence of this prayer is lost by the insipid familiarity in which it is so often encrusted. Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing some cultural background and translational nuggets regarding this familiar prayer. I hope to make it “pop” in ways that perhaps you may have never heard before. The essence of Jesus’s message and mission are contained in this brief but potent prayer.

 

Photo by Jamie Haughton on Unsplash

 

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Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

Aug 15 2022

The Lord’s Prayer – Part 2 – Jesus Our Rabbi: 'Monday Morning Musing - August 15, 2022'

 

The disciples asked Jesus: “Teach us to pray.” Every Rabbi had his own prayer convention. The point of the prayer was to differentiate that Rabbi’s “disciples” (followers) from other Rabbis and their followers. The prayer was a summation, in prayer form, of the essence of the Rabbi’s distinctive teaching. This is exactly what was occurring when Jesus gave the “Lord’s prayer” to his disciples. It was a summation of the essence of His message to differentiate His followers, from others. That is why the disciples asked Him for one. A rabbi’s prayer “labelled” the one praying it. In that sense, it is indeed the Lord’s (their Rabbi’s prayer). On the other hand, it was the disciple’s prayer as it was expected that they would pray it.

 

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Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

 

 

Jul 25 2022

I Am the Light of the World – Part 1: 'Monday Morning Musing July 25, 2022'

In this two-part episode I try to present the high tension and drama that would have been involved in Jesus’s “I Am the light of the world” statement. This statement along with his declaration about living water were made in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles and the Dedication. I briefly unpack some some of the significant ritual features which occurred during the feast, to which Jesus’s bold statements were directly and immediately referring. It was a scene of high drama and conflict.

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Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

Jul 18 2022

I am the Door: 'Monday Morning Musing July 18, 2022'

When Jesus likened himself to a door, he was taking unto himself a function that the Rabbis and religious leaders believed belonged to them, divinely assigned by God. A door functions as something that limits or grants access. The KJV language about “binding and loosing” was a well known Semitism for the ability of the religious professionals to either grant or deny access to eternal life and the things of God.

Photo by jon-tyson-7uPzmidQ4jI-unsplash.jpg

 

 

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Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

Jul 11 2022

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: 'Monday Morning Musings - June 27, 2022'

Jewish leaders at the time of Christ understood Torah and the practice of Torah to be the Way of Life. Torah study was called “instruction in the way of Life.” As teachers of Torah, the religious establishment viewed themselves as brokers of Torah to the people. Jesus’s claim would have been outrageous and offensive.

 

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

 

Jul 11 2022

Before Abraham Was, I Am: 'Monday Morning Musing - July 11, 2022'

Of all Jesus’s I Am statements, this is perhaps the most easy to understand, and it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. In this statement Jesus engages in something called “challenge and riposte” which in an honor-shamed based society was a formal and public dispute before a crowd, with winners and losers. Jesus and his opponents are locked in a fight about identity and lineage “from God.” After this episode in John 8, the skids toward Calvary were “greased’ so to speak. In the previous chapter, Jesus was a hero with crowds still following him. But after this statement, his death sentence was sealed. He went from hero to zero all over claim to spiritual originations: who had claim to Yahweh as Father?

 

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Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

Jul 4 2022

I Am the True Vine: 'Monday Morning Musings - July 4, 2022'

At the time of Christ there were two universally understood metaphors for the nation of Israel: the fig tree and the vine. When Jesus claimed he was the “true” vine, he was making a thinly-veiled, but very uncomplimentary comment about the leaders of the Jewish establishment as representing the people of God. This is one of the many reasons they wanted Him dead.

Photo by jose alfonso sierra on Unsplash

 

Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

Jun 13 2022

I Am the Good Shepherd: 'Monday Morning Musing - June 13, 2022'

 

Jesus’s claim to be the good shepherd was a direct challenge to how the Jewish religious authorities viewed themselves and their function as representatives of Yahweh to the people of God.

 

Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.