January 2009 – 300 words a day

standing on the edge, nervously

Matthew is, according to some scholars, broken into five distinct sections, in addition to an introduction and a conclusion. Each of the five major sections has an historical narrative and a discourse by Jesus. The first narrative section ends at the end of chapter 4. The discourse starts with chapter 5 and runs through chapter […]

by Jon Swanson

word of mouth

[Matthew 4:23-25] I’ve started reading about word of mouth marketing. I think that it’s helpful to understand how to get people talking about what you are offering. If you put up a billboard or run an advertising campaign or mail something to a thousand houses, that is you talking about you. And while talking about […]

by Jon Swanson

bothandnoteitheror

Words or actions. Saying or doing. Black or white. Regular or decaf. Preach always. If necessary use words. Do what I say AND what I do. We are always, it seems, faced with choices, faced with dichotomies, given two choices. If you aren’t this, you must be that. And it is really hard to choose […]

by Jon Swanson

So much easier

It would be so much easier to follow Jesus if he called us. If I were at work one day and he walked by and said, “come on, follow me.” If I were doing what I’ve spent my life preparing to do and he said, “I’ll show you how to use those skills for something […]

by Jon Swanson

The main attraction

[Matthew 4:12-17] It is so easy to imagine how things might have looked around Jesus. We read that after John was arrested, Jesus goes back to Galilee. From this time on, Matthew says, Jesus will start preaching exactly the same message that John was preaching: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven in near. We see […]