Our Rabbi Jesus

A Modern Day Passover Sacrifice

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We talk about Jesus as the true lamb of Passover, but moderners have a hard time imagining what that means. We have no mental imagery of what a Temple sacrifice ceremony was like. We know that the disciples joined crowds of other worshipers in the Temple to sacrifice a lamb, which they roasted and ate […]

Teaching about Blessing the Lord

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Just an update — I’ll be speaking about the rich Jewish prayer traditions that Jesus observed at Grace Church in Granger, Indiana this Saturday (March 16). For more info about the event, see this page. I’m speaking about the chapter in Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus called “For Everything a Blessing.” If you […]

Learning to Think in Hebrew

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I recently told you about some of the interesting Norwegian words I grew up saying, like “uff-da” and “vasakope.” As my immigrant ancestors were learning English, they hung on to words in their mother tongue that did a better job of expressing what they meant to say. My relatives weren’t the only ones doing this. […]

Uff-da, Sputten & Vasakope: Words without Equal

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I’ve been thinking about Hebrew words and language lately, and analyzing the words that I use. I’ve noticed that my vocabulary is peppered with words from other languages. Many of my unusual words come from my Norwegian ancestors. For instance, I grew up saying uff-da. Many have seen “uff-da” on bumper-stickers and refrigerator magnets, but I […]

List of all OurRabbiJesus articles, 2009-2012

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Whenever I visit a website with years of writing on a topic that I’m interested in, I wish I had a simple list of links to all of the article titles. So below you’ll find a downloadable document with links to all my articles from 2009-2012. It is a MS Word (.doc) file. I also […]

Learn About the Life of a Shepherd

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It’s hard to read very far in your Bible before bumping into shepherds. We find them in parables, psalms and Christmas stories. Many of our biblical heroes (both men and women) herded sheep, like Jacob, Rebecca, Moses and David. And Jesus even pictured the final judgment in shepherding terms — as separating the sheep from […]

Top Ten Favorite Articles of 2012

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Here are readers’ favorite articles from Our Rabbi Jesus: His Jewish Life and Teaching over this past year. Below that I’ve shared a few that were highlights for me personally. I’m glad if my writing has blessed you, and hope to continue as the Lord gives me ability.   …Drumroll…   1. What Does the […]

The Dust Bowl and the Plagues

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Have you ever wondered what it was like during the plagues? It seems beyond imagining to endure multiple waves of destruction, as the Egyptians did. Hail wipes out your crops. Disease destroys all your cattle. And on and on, ten times. This came to mind several times as I watched a new PBS documentary by […]

Stop Book Evaporation Syndrome!

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If you’re reading this blog, chances are that you’re a little bookish, like me, and that you appreciate a good church library. So you’ll resonate with my feelings about the conversation I had this past weekend. A few years ago my church had a budget to buy a bookcase full of resources for an in-depth […]

Great Books for Learning to Walk Like Rabbi Jesus

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A few weeks ago I wrote a blog called “Good First Reads About Jesus’ Jewish Context” which shared what I’d give to people who are just beginning to learn about Hebraic studies. Many of you wonder what else I recommend. You’d think that the next books I’d suggest would be more history. But discipleship is […]