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Coffee With Jesus: Luke 24

Brief thoughts from daily devotions The road to Emmaus. A familiar story from the Gospel to many, though today as I read it, I noticed some things which I probably glossed over in previous times. At the start of this chapter we see that some of the women who followed Jesus had gone to the tomb with spices to prepare the body of Jesus, and yet were met with a few surprises: an open, empty tomb and some angels! They ran back to the group of apostles and other disciples to tell the exciting news, and what was their response? “[T]hese words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” (v.11). They thought it was nonsense! Probably not the react...

Debunking the Crusades: 5 Myths You Probably Believe

The Crusades have long been a topic distorted by myth, legend, and misconception, especially in modern pop culture and film. Movies and television often portray the Crusaders as either valiant knights on holy missions or brutal barbarians bent on conquest, feeding into a skewed image of the events. These simplistic portrayals fail to capture the complex motivations and historical realities of the Crusades. The Guardian article about the Reconciliation Walk One striking example of how these misunderstandings have influenced modern perceptions was the so-called Reconciliation Walk in 1999, marking the 900th anniversary of the First Crusade. Hundreds of Chris...

Ancient Amulet Rewrites History Of Christianity In Europe

New discovery proclaims Jesus as “Son of God” a century earlier than previously thought. An exciting archaeological discovery has recently come to light: researchers have unearthed an 1800-year-old silver amulet in Frankfurt, Germany. This amulet provides the earliest known evidence of Christianity north of the Alps and disrupts previously held ideas about the spread of the faith, namely that Christianity didn’t get to the German region around the fourth century. The amulet, dating from approximately 230 to 270 AD, was found in 2018 beneath the chin of a man’s skeleton during excavations at a Roman burial site near the former town of Nida, now part o...

Biblical Inspiration and the Canon: How We Got the Bible

The Bible is often described as “God-breathed,” a phrase taken from 2 Timothy 3:16: “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” But what does it mean for Scripture to be “inspired,” and how did the books of the Bible come to be recognised as part of the canon — the authoritative collection of writings that make up the Bible? Were they really “decided” at the Council of Nicaea, as some popular myths claim? Table of Contents Understanding Biblical Inspiration What is the Canon? The Septuagint and the Deuterocanonical Books How Were the Books of the Bi...

Armageddon Is Not A Battle Plan: What Revelation Actually Says — And Why It Matters Right Now

Something bizarre happened in the White House Oval Office this week. Photographs circulated on social media showing President Donald Trump seated at his desk, surrounded by approximately twenty Christian pastors from across the country, their hands extended towards him in prayer. The image provoked sharply divided reactions: some saw it as a moving expression of faith; others found it deeply unsettling. Whatever one makes of the optics, it arrived at a charged moment. Trump held a prayer meeting in the Oval Office after his administration admitted the war with Iran will likely last weeks longer than promised | Credit: Dan Scavino's X account Days earlier,...

Coffee with Jesus: John 1

Brief Thoughts From Daily Devotions I’m sure we’re all familiar with John 1, especially the first few verses: John 1:1–2In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. Sometimes I think we can become so familiar with a Biblical text that we can forget or gloss over the rest of it, or what comes after and around it. Similar to the other famous John verse, John 3:16. After reading all of John 1 today, I was struck again with just how much theology John packs into such a short space in the opening paragraphs (...