Exploring My Strange Bible

New Testament Themes E1 — When we open the New Testament and start reading about Jesus, his message, and his mission, it’s not what most people imagine when they think of Christianity. Early on, we find the phrase “Kingdom of God” or “Kingdom of Heaven.” But what does this phrase mean? Why is it important to Jesus? And what bigger storyline is it a part of? This first message in a six-part series gives an introduction to Jesus and ...

During his earthly ministry, Jesus interacts with multitudes of hurting people. So how does he process, understand, and respond to all the suffering and evil he encounters? Tim explores the book of Job as the biblical framework for understanding pain, evil, and suffering in a world created by a God of love. Tim gave this message at Bridgetown Church in Portland, Ore., on April 6, 2022.

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Theology of Work E2 — Many Christians believe the world will ultimately be destroyed when Jesus returns, and so our day-to-day lives don't really matter. But the Apostle Paul teaches the opposite in 1 Corinthians 15 and Colossians 3. The eternal, redeemed nature of the new creation makes our work more meaningful than we can imagine. In the second half of a two-part teaching, Tim explores how our hope about the ultimate outcome of h...

Theology of Work E1 — Whether we’re young and still discovering our career, or perhaps more seasoned in work but new to following Jesus, integrating our vocation with our discipleship to Jesus is challenging. Why? Because the modern American story about work is very different from the Bible’s. In this message, Tim explores Genesis 1-3 to show how work is not a curse, but actually one of the greatest gifts God has given to humans. T...

Prayer and encountering God’s presence are biblical topics we can study, but they’re also very personal experiences for each of us, and so this message combines both. First, Tim shares his personal history with prayer, and then dives into a biblical study of God’s Eden paradise appearing where we least expect it. Tying these two parts together is a personal parable involving a wild huckleberry field on a remote mountainside. Tim ga...

Ecclesiastes E2 — In the first teaching of this series, we explored the teacher’s core metaphor for life, which is the Hebrew word hevel, meaning “smoke” or “vapor.” The teacher takes a pretty dim view of things, saying that everything in life is unpredictable, enigmatic, absurd, and ungraspable. So what do we do with such a sobering truth? In this message, Tim explores how embracing life as hevel can actually be a gift to enrich o...

Ecclesiastes E1 — In the book of Ecclesiastes, the teacher shows how most of our daily time and energy is spent on meaningless things. The core metaphor he uses to make this point is smoke or vapor, which in Hebrew is the word hevel. So why is such a bleak book in the Bible?  Tim unpacks Ecclesiastes’ introduction, its authorship, and how the book as a whole seeks to motivate humility, integrity, and enjoyment of the simple things ...

Making of the Bible E3 — The manuscript history of the New Testament is very different from that of the Old Testament. The number of manuscripts, the amount of time they cover, the history of manuscript discoveries—it’s all very complex and fascinating! Then there is the separate history of how the New Testament has been translated and regarded by the Church over the centuries. In this third and final lecture of the series, Tim exp...

Making of the Bible E2 — In this series of lectures, we’re building the foundation for understanding where the Bible came from. When looking at Scripture through this lens, we discover that the texts themselves offer clues about how they came into existence and why they were written. Rather than casting doubt on the Bible, this work actually helps us gain a deeper sense of what the Bible is and what we’re supposed to do with it. In...

Making of the Bible E1 — Many people who view the Bible as God’s word believe it must have come into existence with little or no human agency. But this idea is foreign to the biblical authors and to Scripture’s very traceable history. It was not written in secret! The authors of these texts were, of course, human. However, they also claimed God was speaking to his people through these human words. In this first lecture of a three-p...

Torah Crash Course E3 — The books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy tell the story about God’s covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai—and make up two-thirds of the entire Torah! God gives Israel 613 laws, interspersed with stories that offer commentary on them. Tragically, the Israelites demonstrate their inability to truly love and obey God and follow the laws. This unresolved tension creates a future hope announced by Moses him...

Torah Crash Course E2 — Israel’s liberation from Egypt and the night of Passover were the foundational stories for ancient Israelites, and they’re also crucial for understanding Jesus and his mission. For example, Jesus timed his arrival into Jerusalem with the Passover feast, and at the Last Supper, he used the symbols of Passover to explain the meaning of his coming death. Exodus also contains the covenant agreement between God a...

Torah Crash Course E1 — For many modern readers, the first five books of the Bible—known as the Torah—can feel strange, overwhelming, or confusing. But when we look at these five books as a single narrative, we can begin to see how it sets up a larger story of God’s rescue plan for humanity that is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. In this episode, we’ll start with Genesis. From creation and humanity’s calling as God’s image-bearers t...

In modern Western culture, we have two very different narratives swirling around the first two pages of the Bible. In the first narrative, the creation story in Genesis 1-2 represents a literal seven days, and this all happened only a few thousand years ago. In the second narrative, earth and its inhabitants took billions of years to evolve into their present form—and therefore, Bible-believing Christians are fools. What if both th...

Many people view science and religious faith as bitter enemies with conflicting views of the universe, especially when you consider the scientific explanation for the universe’s origin versus the biblical account. But is this tension real, or is it based on a deep misunderstanding of what the Bible is and how it communicates? Genesis 1-2—written thousands of years ago—says many surprising things about the origins of the universe. B...

The Amazing Jonah E5 – We’ve come to the final episode of a five-part series on the book of Jonah. And this last part of the book is one of the most puzzling. After Jonah preaches his strange, five-word sermon, the people of Nineveh surprisingly repent. And when God forgives them, Jonah fumes with anger and berates God for being too gracious. In this episode, Tim closes out the story of Jonah, connecting it to Jesus’ challenging wo...

The Amazing Jonah E4 — After the great fish vomits Jonah onto the shores of Nineveh, the prophet finally—and begrudgingly—obeys God. Even though Jonah only utters a strange five-word sermon to the Ninevites, they still repent and turn to God. In this episode, Tim teaches on Jonah 3, while also discussing what the biblical word “repentance” means—and doesn’t mean. This message was given on August 25, 2013, at Door of Hope Church in ...

The Amazing Jonah E3 — After he is thrown into the sea and swallowed by a fish, Jonah utters a strange and beautifully intricate poem from inside the fish’s belly. He is in a moment of crisis that is actually God’s way of bringing him to the end of himself. How can Jonah’s experience invite us to think about the moments of crisis in our own lives? In this message, Tim teaches from chapter 2 on this heavily ironic yet powerful momen...

The Amazing Jonah E2 — Jonah is portrayed as God’s prophet, but ironically, he is the only person in the book who refuses to listen to God. How can this story invite us to consider our own lack of perception and awareness of God’s voice in our lives? In this message, Tim explores Jonah chapter 1, looking at the many ways that the prophet seems unable to hear God directly or through anything else that God sends his way. This message...