Posts by Don Johnson
What Will Sustain You in the Hour of Trial?
I’m doing some preaching/teaching in our church about “thinking about Scripture,” or Christian meditation. In our day and age, you might get a little nervous about the word “meditation.” In the non-Christian sense, meditation has the idea of “emptying the mind.” In the Christian sense, meditation has the idea of filling the mind with Bible…
Read MoreI Just Want to Feel Loved
“I just want to feel loved,” she said. She was the barber taking care of another customer in the next chair. Her remarkably open conversation was about her recent breakup with a man who she liked, but apparently didn’t meet her criteria for continuing the relationship. It sounded like another in something of a series…
Read MoreCalling Young Men to the Work
Our friend Kevin Schaal gave us a motivating piece on Monday, “We Need More Pastors, Where Are They?” As we age, those of us in the ministry become more and more concerned with succession. (Not that we usurp our congregations! But we are looking out over the horizon to see if there are any ships…
Read MoreBecoming All Things to GenZ
1 Co 9.22b “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” A recent lecture led to some reading on the sociological phenomenon called GenZ (Generation Z), that is, those born between 1997 and 2014. (The dates are somewhat arbitrary.) Several articles track characteristics of “GenZers,” with the…
Read MoreUnderstanding Narrative Passages
We are all probably very familiar with the narratives of Scripture. If you are a new Christian, the narratives might still be new to you. Over time, they will all become familiar. We love to tell and retell these stories. Familiarity breeds, not contempt in this case, but probably some loss of understanding. In addition,…
Read More2019 FBFI Annual Fellowship – Audio
Red Rocks Baptist Church in Denver hosted our 99th annual FBFI Annual Fellowship meeting. What a tremendous time! I seem to say this every year, “best ever!” — perhaps that is a sign of advancing age and short term memory issues! Nevertheless, our meeting this year was outstanding, from our gracious hosts and their good…
Read MorePreaching to Ourselves from 1 John
A recent look at 1 John started a new train of thought concerning this little book that seems to aid in understanding and applying its contents. Commentators well know that 1 John is hard to outline. One commentary I have lists no less than eight full outlines of the book (including the author’s own)1 as…
Read MorePraying for the Kingdom to Come
Whenever I announce the topic of prayer as the focus of a message or a series in our church, I find a response of keen interest from our people. We all have the sense of the disciples when they begged the Lord, “Teach us to pray.” Last summer, we published an edition of FrontLine devoted…
Read MorePerfect Illustrations that aren’t quite … True
Some years ago I was looking for an illustration to fill out a point in a sermon. I’ve collected various resources over the years. Most of them sit on my shelf gathering dust! With the advent of the internet, we now have illustrations at our fingertips, so it should be much easier now, right? On…
Read MoreMany Modern Jews Are Reading the Bible Today
Yesterday we published a piece by Dr. Layton Talbert about how Orthodox Judaism treats Isaiah 53. While corresponding with me about his article, Dr. Talbert mentioned an interesting project going on among Jews in Israel (and, indeed, all over the world). Despite the tradition of misinterpreting and ignoring Isaiah 53, many Jews are today busy…
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