Suzi puts her latest seminary experience to work by talking over the topic of her exegetical paper. (Doesn't that sound super fancy?!) It's basically what you call a deep dive into the background, history, language, and context of a certain passage ... and this one from Philippians is filled with good content and application.

the restoration project. Suzi Peterson. 24 March 2019

Ok. We know. Three weeks on a handful of verses is too much. But this is the last one, so stop yelling. And besides, it's an important link to the background of the story. Here'e the gist: chaos...does not reign here. It never has.

the restoration project. Joshua James. 17 March 2019

In this talk, we explore the exodus symbology in John's version of Jesus walking on water. It's a bit of a stretch for us, but in the ancient context of the passage it's clear. Jesus is leading a new exodus!

the restoration project. Joshua James. 10 March 2019

Over the next few weeks, we will be spending some time with a familiar story: when Jesus walks on water. Somewhat expectedly, we will be putting a bit of a spin on it. Namely, we will be looking at the literary and historical contexts that inform a reading of this story...which means, we will be spending some time in the Old Testament.

In this week's teaching, Josh makes a connection between Moses and the divine revelation at the Burning Bush and Jesus' appearance to the disciples on the sea.

the restoration project. Joshua James. 3 March 2019

Ok, ok. This one's a bit nerdy. Commentators note that John 6 is a "carefully crafted" teaching, with many allusions and echoes to the Old Testament. In our teaching on Jesus' feeding of the 5000, we follow one of these echoes back to 2 Kings, which helps us to see...it's a story of abundance.

the restoration project. Joshua James. 24 February 2019

One more week hanging out in Jesus' 30 verse diatribe against the religious leaders. This week, we are focused on the bit about resurrection, and what that would have meant to Jesus' first-century Jewish interlocutors. The thing is...Jesus sets the typical expectation on its head, maybe not so much in this passage, but in his own death and resurrection. It was unexpected, and it changed everything.

the restoration project. Joshua James. 17 February 2019

This teaching builds on last week's miracle story. (Don't worry, there's enough recap that you don't *need to go back, even though...you should!) Jesus rattles off a long monologue to the religious leaders in support of why he is doing the things he is doing. Josh focuses on one of the "witnesses" that testify on behalf of Jesus — the Scriptures.

the restoration project. Joshua James. 10 February 2019

In this week's teaching, Josh challenges a *typical reading of Jesus' healing of the disabled man at the Pool of Bethesda. Here's the gist...the story is about more than a miracle. Jesus is undoing some long held traditions surrounding the Pool ... and even more controversially, the Sabbath.

the restoration project. Joshua James. 3 February 2018

In this story, Jesus starts healing some folks. But before we can get into that, Josh takes us on a little "gospel criticism" detour.

the restoration project. Joshua James. 27 January 2019

the restoration project. Joshua James. 6 January 2019