Paul and Barnabas Barnabas and Paul walked together because Barnabas went and got Paul when no one else had a level of trust in Paul’s salvation experience. They walked together for years, it seems, and when they ministered together as representatives of the Jerusalem Ecclesia and council of apostolic leaders, they were on the same […]

Pioneering after Pentecost Many believers get a message of community from the conditions and behaviors they observe in the Early Church after Pentecost. That is not the message that dominates the landscape of the Ecclesia. The message that dominates the landscape screams pioneering. For example, the response of giving that is interpreted as communal is […]

Jesus is our Pioneer. The NIV uses this term to translate Hebrews 12:2 with reference to running the race set before us. That is, to finishing the course that He designed and defined by His own pursuit of purpose. “Looking to Jesus, the Pioneer.” Pioneering isn’t something that fades into the setting sun as bygone […]

Saul sits in his tent. The squeak of the polishing cloth, his armor bearer buffing his battlefield attire, irritates him because it reminds him that he is the one a head taller than anyone else in Israel, that he is the one the people chose to fight for them, that he is the only one […]

David finds smooth stones in the valley. He carries none with him in the shepherd’s bag. Perhaps he didn’t anticipate the valley – it appears that he didn’t even know whole giant-defies-Israel scenario was going on when his father sent him to feed his critical brothers. He carried what a shepherd would carry but didn’t […]