The May 2026 DMW’s Monthly Website Update

The May 2026 Website Update will be based on the N. T. Wright book Simply Jesus. I just finished reading Wright’s book for the second time. I was particularly impressed with the last chapter of the book, Chapter 15, titled: Jesus: Ruler of the World. What follows are chronological excerpts from Chapter 15 with my comments at the end.

Pg 207, “What on Earth does it mean, today, to say that Jesus is king, that he is Lord of the world? How can we say such a thing in our confused world?”

Pg 207, “When I said “what on earth” at the start of this chapter, I meant, of course, what Jesus meant in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come on earth as in heaven.” How do we even get to first base in thinking about this today?”

Pg 212, “The crucial factor in Jesus’s kingdom project picks up the crucial factor in God’s creation project. God intended to rule the world through human beings. Jesus picks up this principle, rescues it, and transforms it.”

Pg 212, “Humans are the vital ingredient in God’s kingdom project. When we ask about the way in which God wants to run the world and then focus on the sharper question of how Jesus now runs the world, we should expect, from the whole of Scripture, that the answer will have something to do with the delegation of God’s authority, of Jesus’s authority, to human beings.”

Pg 212, “Jesus rescues human beings in order that through them he may rule his world in the new way he always intended.”

Pg 213, “Nor was this simply pragmatic, as though God (or Jesus) wanted a bit of help, needed someone to whom certain tasks could be delegated. It has to do with something deep within the very being of God, the same thing that led him to create a world that was other than himself. One name for this something is love. Another is Trinity. Either way, deeply mysterious though it remains, we should recognize that when Jesus announced his intention to launch God’s kingdom at last, he did it in a way that involved and included other human beings. God works through Jesus; Jesus works through his followers. This is not accidental.”

Pg 213, “In God’s kingdom, humans get to reflect God at last into the world, in the way they were meant to. They become more fully what humans were meant to be. That is how God becomes king. That is how Jesus goes to work in the present time. Exactly as he always did.”

Pg 214, “How did Jesus himself see his mission during his public career? Jesus would answer to say: yes, the kingdom is indeed now being launched. He is indeed Israel’s king; he is therefore, indeed, the Lord of the world. But the way his kingdom is being implemented is, once more, through human beings.”

Pg 215, “But the thing that really matters, is the fact that through Jesus’s followers God is establishing his kingdom and the rule of Jesus himself on earth as in heaven.”

Pg 215, “…with Jesus joining heaven and earth together in his own person, the Holy Spirit, which anointed and equipped Jesus himself for his kingdom work, comes pouring out onto his followers, so that they become as it were an extension of that new Temple. Where they are, heaven and earth are joined together. Jesus is with them, his life is at work in and through them, and, whether in Jerusalem or out in the wider world, they are the place where the living God, the God who is reclaiming the world for his own, is alive and active and establishing his sovereign rule.”

Pg 217, “…the church, the community that hails Jesus as Lord and king, and feasts at his table celebrating his victorious death and resurrection, is considered as the “body of the Messiah.” This famous Pauline image is not a random “illustration.” It expresses Paul’s conviction that this is the way in which Jesus now exercises his rule in the world – through the church, which is his Body.”

Pg 219, “Just as God’s whole style, his chosen way of operating, reflects his generous love, sharing his rule with his human creatures, so the way in which those humans then have to behave if they are to be agents of Jesus’s lordship reflects in its turn the same sense of vulnerable, gentle, but powerful self-giving love.”

Pg 220, “It is because of this that the world has been changed by people like William Wilberforce, campaigning tirelessly to abolish slavery; by Desmond Tutu, working and praying not just to end apartheid, but to end it in such a way as to produce a reconciled, forgiving South Africa; by Cicely Saunders, starting a hospice for terminally ill patients ignored by the medical profession and launching a movement that has, within a generation, spread right around the globe.”

Pg 221, “The church is not supposed to be a society of perfect people doing great work. It’s a society of forgiven sinners repaying their unpayable debt of love by working for Jesus’s kingdom in every way they can, knowing themselves to be unworthy of the task.”

Pg 222, “The way in which Jesus exercises his sovereign lordship in the present time includes his strange, often secret, sovereignty over the nations and their rulers.

Pg 223, “…we ought not to be complacent about how “wonderfully” God is at work in the world outside the church. But we must give full weight to the difficult but important biblical vision of God’s sovereignty over the nations and his determination to shape their fortunes to serve his larger purposes.”

Pg 223, “…God’s principle of operation (his intention to run his world through human beings) applies just as much here as elsewhere. God wants the world to be ordered not chaotic. He intends to bring that order to the world through the work, the thought, the planning, and the wisdom of human beings. The Bible insists that this was a good and wise plan. This is so whether or not the human beings in question have any thought of God or any desire to serve him. If they have, so much the better, though that will by no means guarantee that all their decisions are either wise, good, or correct.”

Pg 223, “Likewise, if the rulers are not God-fearing, that does not mean they are not performing a task God wants to have performed.”

Pg 224, “…even when the rulers are wild and wicked, God can bend their imaginings to serve his purpose. The Bible tells many stories in which God seems to take charge and overrule the intentions of pagan monarchs.”

Pg 225, “So those who follow Jesus have, front and center within their vocation, the task of being the real “opposition.” This doesn’t mean, of course, that they must actually oppose everything that the official government tries to do. They must weigh it, sift it, hold it to account, affirm what can be affirmed, point out things that are lacking or not quite in focus, critique what needs critiquing, and denounce, on occasion, what needs denouncing.”

Pg 229, “We can sum it all up like this. We live in the period of Jesus’s sovereign rule over the world—a reign that has not yet been completed, since, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, he must reign until “he has put all his enemies under his feet,” including death itself. But Paul is clear that we do not have to wait until the second coming to say that Jesus is already reigning. In fact, Paul in that passage says something we may not otherwise have guessed: the reign of Jesus, in its present mode, is strictly temporary. God the father has installed Jesus in power, to act on his behalf; but when the task is complete, “the son himself will be placed in proper order” under God the father, “so that God may be all in all.” …the Nicene Creed says of Jesus, that his kingdom “will have no end.” …But I stress this point in 1 Corinthians because it makes it very clear that the present age is indeed the age of the reign of Jesus the Messiah.”

Pg 230, “Jesus was himself both upstaging the power structures of his day and also calling them to account, then and there. That’s what his actions in the Temple were all about…The calling to account has, in other words, already begun—and will be completed at the second coming.”

Pg 230, “What the church does, in the power of the Spirit, is rooted in the achievement of Jesus and looks ahead to the final completion of his work. This is how Jesus is running the world in the present.”

Pg 230, “There are millions of things the church should be getting into that the rulers of the world either don’t bother about or don’t have the resources to support. Jesus has all kinds of projects up his sleeve and is simply waiting for faithful people to say their prayers, to read the signs of the times, and to get busy.”

My Comments:

N. T. Wright has been my favorite New Testament scholar and theologian for some years. This book of his, Simply Jesus, has a message that we do not often hear in our churches today. His Chapter 15, Jesus: Ruler of the World, that I have quoted above makes that clear. In summary, this is what I take away from Chapter 15:

Jesus is the ruler of the world today and he utilizes human beings to promote his rule. Wright gives three great examples of humans promoting the kingdom of God when he mentions William Wilberforce, Desmond Tutu and Cicely Saunders and their amazing accomplishments that promoted the kingdom of God. Jesus not only uses his followers but also world leaders who may or may not be his followers. Jesus also uses the church and the Body of Christ.

I am probably as guilty as the twelve Apostles in failing to initially understand what Jesus was up to. I assumed that Jesus was going to primarily use the power of God to promote the kingdom of God and not human beings. But I still wonder how things like the prophecy of the Gog Magog war in Ezekiel 38 & 39 fits. And how do Holy Spirit Revivals such as the Azusa Street Revival of 1906-1915 fit. But Wright does make it clear that the Holy Spirit has a huge role in equipping Jesus’s followers to establish his sovereign rule. I certainly have been praying for more Holy Spirit Revivals like the Asbury Kentucky University Revival of 2023 and the ongoing Unite US Movement that started at Auburn University in September 2023 and continues to spread to other university campuses.

In Jude 1:3 Jude says that the reason he was writing was to “appeal to you to contend for the faith.” Jude was contending with false teachers and seemed to be calling Jesus’s followers to take action to remove the false teachers from the church. How does that apply to today’s church? Are we to actively be confronting our culture to remove evil from among us? Most churches I am familiar with seem to want nothing to do with actively and effectively confronting our culture. Yet, I would think this would be high on Jesus’s priority list.

I am reminded of a quote I used in my new book from my good friend Derek: “It is a real failing of the church that we gather, we preach, we teach, we pray but we don’t do. We are not out doing things in the community as a church…”[1]

I pray each of us will strive to be doers of the word as it says in James 1:22: “But be doers of the word, and not hearer’s only, deceiving yourselves,”

Also, I suspect we have recently been seeing examples of world leaders, who are probably not followers of Jesus, but who are, nevertheless, carrying out his wishes.

I urge us all to pray that Jesus and the Holy Spirit equip us, the followers of Jesus, to find ways to help promote the kingdom of God by removing evil from around us and in other ways that Jesus points us to.

Jesus is the Ruler of the Earth, Now!! We are living in the “age of the reign of Jesus the Messiah!”[i]

[1] Bringing Heaven to Earth & The Intermediate Heaven. Douglas M Webb, 2025, page 66

[i] Simply Jesus, N. T. Wright, 2006, pg 229

The April 2026 Website Update

April 2026 DMWs Monthly Website Update: Discussion of the Intermediate Heaven, that exists now vs A New Heaven and New Earth that comes about when Jesus returns for the second coming.

My new book: Bringing Heaven to Earth & The Intermediate Heaven fictionally describes the Heaven we go to when we die today if we are followers of Jesus. I actually believe, based on many near-death event reports of people visiting Heaven, primarily from Imagine Heaven by John Burke, and because their descriptions of Heaven are so similar, that the depiction of Heaven showing that the City of New Jerusalem is already there on a much larger planet than earth without sun or moon is accurate.

When I first read John Burke’s Imagine Heaven, I thought a lot about the veracity of the near-death events (NDEs) he presented. But in his Introduction, he talked about veracity: “After reading hundreds of NDE accounts, I started to see the difference between what they reported experiencing and the interpretation they might give to that experience. While interpretations vary, I found the shared core experience points to what the Scriptures say. In fact, the more I studied, the more I realized that the picture Scripture paints of the exhilarating Life to come is the common experience that NDEs describe…Could people make up stories or fabricate detail to sell more books? Yes. For this reason, I’ve tried to choose stories from people with little or no profit motive: orthopedic surgeons, commercial airline pilots, professors, neurosurgeons—people who probably didn’t need the money but have credibility to lose by making up wild tales. I’ve also included children; people from predominately Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist countries; and people who did not write books. Amazingly, they all add color to a similar, grand picture of the afterlife.”

I was really impressed with the care John Burke used in selecting NDE stories for his book Imagine Heaven. I have given considerable thought and prayer to this subject of NDE veracity, and I have discerned for myself that the NDEs used in Imagine Heaven are true reports of people’s experiences of visiting heaven.

One final thought on NDE veracity: I have heard some suggest that Satan is who is really behind NDEs. But why would Satan go to such lengths to make heaven sound wonderful? Randy Alcorn said, in his book Heaven: “If Satan can convince us that Heaven is a place of boring, unearthly existence…we’ll set our minds on this life and not the next. Obviously, Satan would more likely try to convince us that NDEs have no veracity.

Revelation 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” This makes it clear that God’s dwelling place is with man on a new heaven and new earth at the second coming of Jesus.

There are two other Scriptures, besides Revelation 21 & 22, that mention a new heaven and new earth. Isaiah 65:17 For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered or come into mind. And 2 Peter 3:12 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Then the interesting question is when Jesus comes back the second time and there is a new heaven and new earth is that located on our current earth or on a different planet? Is it on the same planet where we now find the Intermediate Heaven? In Revelation 21:23 we perhaps get a clue: “And the city has no need for sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” My guess is that verse rules out our current earth because it has both a sun and moon.

But if that is true what becomes of our earth? None of us know for sure, but I do have an idea. Our earth was afflicted because of the fall of man (Genesis 3). Prior to the fall it was the home of the Garden of Eden. My thought is that God will completely restore the old earth to Garden of Eden days, possibly with no trace of human existence, but with a plethora of animal life. Then, we who are in a new heaven and new earth will be able and encouraged to visit the restored earth. That will be an amazing treat to be able to visit a totally restored earth and enjoy its splendor as it again reflects the glory of God as it did once before.

Some Christian scholars teach that the New Heaven and New Earth will be on the old earth. God, of course can do anything and if that’s what he wants, that will happen. None of us know for sure and it is really not that important. The key thing to know is that wherever the New Heaven and New Earth is located we who follow Jesus will be there with God and our families and friends and it will be a fantastic experience.  

The March 2026 Website Update

This March 2026 Website Update is about kindness. I believe that kindness is a trait that Jesus wants to see in all of his followers. This, of course, includes our family and friends and fellow followers of Jesus. But more importantly, I also believe Jesus wants us to show kindness to strangers as well as to people whom we don’t like or people we don’t agree with or people who we consider to be our enemies. It will not always be easy to show kindness to the latter groups, but I really believe that is what Jesus expects of us.

The Scriptures are full of calls for kindness. The following are Old Testament Scriptures that call for kindness.

• Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

• Proverbs 21:21 Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness and honor.

• Leviticus 19:34 You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

The following are New Testament Scriptures that call for kindness:

• Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

• Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.

• Colossians 3:12-13 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

• Galatians 6:10 So then, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. 

I did some research on what others have said about kindness that I would like to share with you. I offer excerpts from three articles about kindness:

5 Principles the Bible Teaches About Kindness – Lookout Magazine By Brian Jennings

• Kindness brings beauty and hope to our world. A simple act of kindness may sustain us for days, months, or years. When a flower blooms in the desert, it dominates the landscape.

• We are to wear kindness like a blanket on a cold day. It should wrap around everything we do and be noticeable to all. People should never have to search us to find a trace of kindness.

• The kindest people I know are both reactive and proactive. They respond to needs they find, but they don’t wait for needs to arise, they go looking for them.

• Showing kindness to the wicked seems unfair until we remember that God was kind to us. Never has the gap in kindness been greater that when God showed kindness to us. The distance between God’s perfection and our imperfection can only be measured by the cross.

• There was a reason Jesus’ followers were willing to die for him. In him they found truth and kindness. They saw someone treat them with dignity, respect and grace. They watched him heal the lame and feed the hungry. They heard how he spoke to children. He led with kindness. 

• Ephesians 2:4-7 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 

• God kindly gave us the perfect role model to follow. While we can never match the kindness of Jesus, we can strive to imitate him.

Why Christians Should Listen Carefully and Speak with Kindness

By Randy Alcorn

• We speak with kindness not because we’re afraid of our opponents, not because we’re afraid of our enemies, but because we are representing Christ.

• We need to be bold enough to speak up and tell the truth even when it’s unpopular. But that doesn’t mean we have to be mean-spirted when we do it! Jesus told the truth, but He wasn’t malicious or ill-tempered, the way many professing Christians are behaving online and sometimes in real life as well. We don’t need more self -appointed prophets whose idea of ministry is dropping in on social media and releasing their little character-assassination arsenals and self-righteous insults, supposedly in the name of Jesus.

• Our need today is for Christ-followers who bear the fruit of the Spirit and love our neighbors in doing so: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, ad self-control.” Galatians 5:21-22 Those attributes should be a checklist we go over before we post something in anger 

or spite against those we disagree with.

• Our churches today desperately need the humility that rejects mean-spirited religion and exemplifies kindness while upholding biblical truth…What we all need to see is the type of Christian who, in a spirit of grace, loves them enough to humbly and kindly tell them the truth.

The Call To Kindness: A Christian Perspective

 By Major Sunkyung Simpson

• Kindness in the Bible is not just a feeling but an action and a way of living, it is closely related to the concepts of love, mercy and compassion…We can learn kindness from how Jesus treated people with a compassionate heart. He did this even when he was not necessarily pleased with how they lived…The Bible teaches us that kindness is something that we must strive for, not just something we must do. We are called to be kind, loving and merciful.

• Kindness is often overlooked in modern society because the world has become extremely self-centered and materialistic. Assumptions are made about individuals (because of their appearance, social standing, identity, and so forth) without any evidence to support them.

• Kindness can’t exist in this environment. In the world, as God designed it, people were to see themselves as part of a family. Others were to be seen as potential members and to be treated with kindness and respect. People were to assume the best of others. Kindness is a selfless and biblically valued virtue that could make our world a better place and has the power to transform other’s lives.

• Throughout the Bible, we see God being kind to humanity. He is long-suffering, slow to anger, full of mercy and grace. We see Jesus being kind to the outcasts and those in need. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and cared for the outcasts of society. He was more than happy to be measured with the outcasts and oppressed. 

• Kindness is not difficult. It’s something we can practice in our daily lives. We can be kind to friends and family, neighbors, co-workers, and even strangers. We can show kindness by being helpful when needed, being patient, being understanding and speaking words of encouragement and firmness. You can do small acts of kindness too, like by sending a card to someone going through a difficult time or paying for someone’s coffee.

• Kindness is a powerful force for good that can make a big difference in someone’s life, because even a small act of kindness can change a life. Kindness can bring joy, hope and peace to those that can receive it. It can help build relationships and promote understanding.

Several last comments about kindness. I have noticed that the more I practice kindness to others the more I want to do it and the more I am looking for ways to practice it. 

Finally, I will finish with a stanza from a song I heard today at church: This is from Holy Spirit, living breath of God by Stuart Townsend

Kindness to the greatest and the least

Gentleness that sows the path of peace

Turn my strivings into works of grace

Breath of God show Christ in all I do

The February 2026 Website Update

February 2026 Website Update:

This is a true story that occurred in Alaska between the Fall of 1993 and mid-1997. First some background. In the Fall of 1985, I was transferred from San Francisco to Anchorage Alaska as Sohio’s Vice President of Operations. In that capacity I was in charge of all of Sohio’s operations on the North Slope of Alaska including production, construction, production drilling, and exploration drilling in the winter. Also, in my capacity as VP Operations for Sohio I was the primary contact with Alyeska Pipeline, the Operators of the Trans Alaska Pipeline, for the Prudhoe Bay Unit, an organization of companies, that included major owners ARCO, EXXON, and SOHIO and several minor owners. The purpose of the Prudhoe Bay Unit was to operate the Prudhoe Bay oil field. Sohio operated the West side of the field and ARCO operated the East side of the field. During my time in Alaska the PB Unit reached its peak production rate of 2 million barrels of crude oil per day and production started to slowly decline.

In 1989, the President of BP Exploration and Production asked me to come to London to help him with a corporate change process and then in 1990 I became the Director of HR, for the BP Exploration and Production Company. 

Then in 1993, I was asked to return to Alaska to help solve a major public relations problem that Alyeska Pipeline had developed. Whistleblowers who worked on the Pipeline would contact staff on the House Energy & Commerce Sub Committee on Oversight as well as a Wall Street Journal reporter, every time Alyeska had a problem on the pipeline. I returned, as Alyeska’s Senior Vice President of Public and Government Affairs. I hired Jennifer Ruys from a local Anchorage Alaska TV station where she had been an onscreen reporter and sometime anchor as the Alyeska Director of Public Affairs.

She and I tackled the Alyeska Whistleblower problem. The solution we developed was based on our deciding to inform the public just as soon as something happened on the pipeline that might trigger the whistleblowers to also contact Congress and the press. We did that by putting a press release out every time Alyeska had any kind of problem that might be perceived as serious. That made the problem public quickly, and we also offered to take the local press to the site of the problem, so they could see it, and also so they could see what we were doing about it. This new policy, which was much different than prior policy of not notifying the public at all, was totally supported by Alyeska owners ARCO and Sohio, but bitterly opposed by Exxon. We went ahead with the policy, and we added a Washington DC visit to the staff of the Energy & Commerce Sub Committee on Oversight, where we thoroughly explained our new policy. Then Jennifer and I visited the WSJ reporter at his office in San Francisco, who was our nemesis, and explained our new policy. Within about one and a half years of the new policy being implemented Alyeska’s reputation was restored. At about this time I had a visit from one of Exxon’s key managers who admitted that while they didn’t like how we had done it they were very pleased with the result that Alyeska Pipeline’s reputation had been restored.

To me the moral of this story is being totally honest with the public in business is rewarded with a good reputation. And the opposite is also true, that hiding the truth and then being found out, can ruin a company’s reputation needlessly.

The January 2026 Website Update

January 2026 Website Update:

The subject for January is Communion and The Lord’s Prayer. And specifically, my question is, why don’t churches have Communion every Sunday, and also, why don’t churches have a Congregational recitation of The Lord’s Prayer every Sunday?

These questions arise for me because I see both Communion and The Lord’s Prayer as precious gifts that Jesus gave us in the New Testament. Of course, many Protestant churches do appropriately preach the Gospel of Jesus every Sunday, but why don’t they add these other two gifts that Jesus gave us? I am seeing a number of Protestant churches beginning to add Communion every Sunday but many others still limit Communion to once a month or less.

Communion according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26: For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Why wouldn’t we want to celebrate communion at least every Sunday?

The Lord’s Prayer: When Jesus was preaching the Sermon on the Mount he taught his disciples the Lord’s Prayer. A very key part of The Lord’s Prayer is Matthew 6:10: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” This verse, in my opinion, has not been given appropriate attention in our churches today. In Bruner’s commentary on Matthew on page 300 of the first volume, he says: “Only two modern scientific interpreters of Matthew, to my knowledge, understand the coming of the kingdom in a less than end-time way…for either the gradual penetration on earth of that kingdom (Trilling, 134), or Gundry, 106…sees “a prayer that at the present time more people become children of God through taking on themselves the yoke of discipleship and so do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven.” Bruner’s commentary was published in 2004 and in 2008 N. T. Wright published Surprised By Hope. And I include how Wright addressed this topic on pages 43 & 44 of my new book Bringing Heaven to Earth & The Intermediate Heaven: “When describing his book Wright says, “The book Surprised By Hope attempts to reflect the Lord’s Prayer itself when it says, “Thy kingdom come on earth as in heaven.” That remains one of the most powerful and revolutionary sentences we can ever say. As I see it, the prayer was powerfully answered at the first Easter and will finally be answered fully when heaven and earth are joined in the City of New Jerusalem.” He goes on to say, “Our task in the present…is to live as resurrection people in between the first Easter and the final day, with our Christian life, corporate and individual, in both worship and mission, as a sign of the first and a foretaste of the second.” My final comment on Matthew 6:10 is by Dr. Chauncey Crandall the author of Touching Heaven where Dr. Crandall gives many examples of how he has been helping bring heaven to earth. Here is his comment about Matthew 6:10: When Jesus prayed, “Father in heaven…Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” He wasn’t giving us a sweet sentiment with which to soothe ourselves; I believe it was a battle cry to all who would call him Lord and Savior. We are to go to war on this earth with this truth on our lips: we can have hope because heaven is.”

I pray that more churches decide to make Communion a key part of every Sunday service. And further I pray that more Protestant churches start including a Congregational recitation of The Lord’s Prayer in their Sunday services.

The December 2025 Website Update

The December 2025 Website Update will be based on Charlie Kirk’s conversation with a college student where he: Unpacked Jesus’ Message of Love and Truth.

Charlie said: “John 8 best embodies both Christ’s mercy and love but also his commitment to truth and sometimes in the modern gospel we overemphasize the grace, and we underemphasize the truth and so we are far to willing to say hey Jesus loved everybody, but we don’t get to the second part of the conversation that says Jesus doesn’t want you to live in sin. What Jesus said to the prostitute after those there to stone her for adultery had dropped their rocks and left was, go and sin no more. This was a great example of Jesus showing both love and truth to a condemned woman.”

John 8:7, 10, 11 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.’

In this update we will discuss in what ways we tend to underemphasize the truth as found in the New Testament.

I can remember a time in my early years as a Christian reading the Sermon on the Mount where I kept wanting those hard commandments to not be relevant today. But, of course, they are totally relevant today.

I certainly agree with Charlie that many churches that call themselves Christian do not talk about sin and Satan being real. They don’t teach that we are in the midst of spiritual warfare where Satan and his demons are trying to groom people for hell, while God’s Holy Spirit is working to counteract Satan’s efforts. And, of course our worldly culture seems to be helping Satan.

In my new book: Bringing Heaven to Earth & The Intermediate Heaven, on page 22 I quote my good friend Pastor Taylor who writes about “…a shift in the content of the Sunday morning message.” She says, “The gospel offered today is centered on the individual. A few months ago, I visited a church. Not once was the name of God or Jesus mentioned…The Gospel of Jesus was substituted with live streaming life coaching. The Gospel has been replaced with cosmetic self-improvement talks. The contemporary mental health crisis has also contributed to a gospel that focusses on the individual.” One has to ask: How can a church like this even call itself Christian? I feel sorry for the people going to a church like Pastor Taylor described and thinking they were going to a Christian church. But I think that more and more churches are compromising with our worldly culture, and they are ignoring the truth of the Bible.

Brant Hansen in his wonderful book, Unoffendable, on page 149 says, “By the way, I’ve learned it’s worth remembering that extending grace does not mean, and has never meant, that there is “no such thing as sin,” or that there’s no such thing as right or wrong, or that God smiles on all of our actions. There is sin, there is right and wrong, and God, like any loving father, of course cares about what we do and who we are.” I love this quote by Brant Hansen. And it is a shame that many so-called Christian churches do not teach these simple truths.

In my September Website Update I discussed what the Gospel of Christ Jesus is. I repeat it here to demonstrate what our churches need to be preaching and teaching about that Gospel:

We hear pastors often refer to the importance of the Gospel, but they don’t often then go on to explain what exactly the Gospel is. Several months ago, I sought to briefly define the Gospel. I am not at all sure I got close to a really accurate statement of the Gospel, but I am happy with the result and more than willing to have others correct me. The first paragraph of what follows is my attempt to define the Gospel and the next two paragraphs seemed to be important enhancements.

This is the Gospel of Christ Jesus!!

Father God sent his only Son to earth to be fully God and fully man. Then, that Son, a totally innocent and perfect Jesus, was convicted, mistreated, crucified and died for our sins. He died in our place and made us righteous in God’s eyes. When God now sees us, he sees Jesus. To be saved we must choose to believe in Jesus and in choosing to believe, we must repent of our sins. None of this is our doing, it is all a gift to us from God. After his crucified death on the cross Jesus rose from the dead on the 3rd day. After forty days with his disciples, he then ascended into heaven, and he now sits on God’s right hand on his throne in heaven.

If we believe in Jesus, we will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. According to Colossians 3:12-14: there are seven virtues that Christians are to follow: compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and most important of all is love, which binds things together in perfect harmony. I firmly believe that those virtues are what the Holy Spirit is focusing on in his lifelong effort to sanctify us.

Once saved we need to focus on developing a relationship between ourselves and Jesus. Then, while on this earth our role is to help bring heaven to earth as taught in the Lord’s prayer. That is often done by sharing a kindness with a neighbor.

When we lived in Texas, we went to church at the Restoration Church of Southlake TX and we were blessed to have a Senior Pastor and primary preacher Ryan Welsh, who  preached directly from Scripture. I can remember when he preached the entire gospel of Luke, and that took him a year and a half. He preached every verse including all the verses  in Luke 6 that included the ‘truth’ verses 27 to 36 that teach us to love our enemies. We must all admit that it is very difficult today to love our enemies, but nonetheless Jesus requires that of his followers.

I think one way to recognize the truth in the Bible and to quit ignoring it or bypassing it as unimportant, is to pray to God for insight and help in following his commandments where we exercise his truth.

Our churches need to acknowledge the sin nature that we all have and the need for all of us to fight temptation. Our churches also need to acknowledge the spiritual battles between Satan and his demons and God and his angels that are constantly taking place all around us where Satan is trying to undermine our faith and God is fighting to help us maintain and grow our faith.

The November 2025 Website Update

The November 2025 Website Update will expand on a quote from my friend Derek from Chapter 4 of my new book: Bringing Heaven to Earth & The Intermediate Heaven on page 66.

Derek is answering a question that I had asked in my interview of him when he answered seven questions about Heaven. This question was from N. T. Wright from his book Surprised by Hope: “How will we humans contribute to that renewal of creation and to the fresh projects that the creator God will launch in his new world?”

At the end of Derek’s response to that question he says this: “It is a real failing of the church that we gather, we preach, we teach, we pray, but we don’t do. We are not out doing things in the community as a church, and if some of that is done, we usually don’t explain our intentions.” This website update will expand on Derek’s answer.

To be fair there are churches that do a lot during the Christmas season, which is commendable. But that lasts for about one month. What about doing something commendable for the other eleven months?

Our more recent church we attended in Texas, Restoration Church in Southlake TX, took on a ministry of helping Foster families and families that Adopted children. They had training and other activities in support of fostering and adoption throughout the year.

Another opportunity for actively doing good works is available in Bible Study groups, or Community groups or Life groups. For example, in Texas for several years we led a Bible Study group under Gateway Church Southlake. As a Bible Study group, we decided we wanted to periodically do service projects. We found two service projects to do with our group. We found a ministry that gathered clothes that could be given to Foster-families that often needed the clothes at odd times of the day or night. Our group would all gather on a Saturday morning at the ministry location and unpack donated clothes and sort the clothes and put them on hangers in the proper place for Foster-families to be able to find what they needed. We usually did that for 4 hours + on a Saturday morning. Second, we discovered a Gateway group that every Saturday took food to distribute to Homeless people near the Ft Worth Mission. Our Bible Study group joined them with food to distribute, on several Saturdays.

This type of group ‘doing’ is such a blessing both to those in need and to the group itself. Our Bible Study group became closer to each other doing service projects together.

What are some ways that church groups can help out in the community outside of the Christmas season?

·      Organize food-coops including having food drives to collect food for poor families.

·      Partner with shelters to provide hot meals.

·      Provide resources like job training or healthcare access.

·      Host clothing drives.

·      Organize family-friendly fairs of various kinds.

·      Organize programs or volunteer opportunities for seniors.

These are just a few ways that a church can be a ‘doing’ church during the eleven months outside the Christmas season.

I do want to commend a local church in Portland OR called Crossroads church for having a year-round ministry called Crossroads Food Bank which started in 1989 and is open on Thursdays and Saturdays to provide food to serve about 400 families per week. When open they have banners up to remind the community of what they are doing. This is, in my opinion, an excellent ministry that gives year-round help to those in need in the surrounding community. I think my friend Derek would approve.

Another way that a church can help the community using the church is through organized prayer. Prayer is a powerful tool that Christians have been using for 2000 years, and it works. I suggest that organizing a church group to pray for a community and specific needs in that community will get results. Then once a church has an organized prayer group operating it can invite other churches to also develop their own organized community support prayer group. What could be more powerful than multiple churches taking part each with organized prayer group all praying for their mutual community.

Please respond to this update with other ways your church has found to be a ‘doing’ church year-round. I will include your examples of a ‘doing’ church in December’s Website update.

The October 2025 Website Update

This October 2025 Website Update will be a recent Bible Study that I have developed for 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. Of course, you will recognize these verses because of Paul’s discussion of his ‘thorn’ that Jesus gave him to prevent him from becoming proud (or conceited, or exalting himself, or becoming too elated.) because of his trip to the 3rd Heaven. This Bible Study also includes narrative comments from N. T. Wright from his book: Paul A Biography.

Bible Study 2 Corinthians 12:1-10:

Chronology[i] leading to Paul’s writing of 2 Corinthians:

Birth of Jesus of Nazareth                                             ?4BC

This date of the birth of Jesus is based on when Herod the

Great died which is believed to be 1 BC. See Matthew 2:13 & 19-23. Scholars disagree on Herod’s death being in 4BC or 1BC. It seems to turn on the historian Josephus saying that Herod died shortly after a lunar eclipse. Astronomer John A. Cramer argues that the lunar eclipse of 4BC was too minor to be the one Josephus described. Instead, he proposes that a more significant eclipse on December 29, 1BC, is more likely the one Josephus was referring to.

Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus                          30AD

Revelation of Jesus to Saul on the road to Damascus ?33AD

Paul’s time in Arabia.                                                 33–36AD

Paul in Tarsus; brought to Antioch by Barnabas     36-46AD

Paul & Barnabas 1st Missionary Journey            47 & 48AD

Paul’s 3rd Missionary Journey                                  52/53AD

Paul’s Letter 1 Corinthians                                           ?53AD

Imprisonment in Ephesus                                          ?55-56AD

Paul’s Letter 2 Corinthians                                          56-57AD

While in Corinth Paul writes his letter to the Romans    57AD

Travel from Corinth to Jerusalem                                    57AD

N. T. Wright’s Paul A Biography:[ii]

Pages 238-240;

At the beginning of 2 Corinthians Paul was “dictating from a heart that…has been heavier than it knew possible. He sounds exhausted.”

There are signs that the letter [2 Corinthians] is actually being written while Paul was on the road around Northern Greece, on his way from Ephesus to Corinth by the land route. He went from Ephesus to Colossae to Troas across the Aegean to Macedonia to Philippi and to Thessalonica and then by land through Macedonia and Greece to Corinth.

The best guess…is that Paul was imprisoned in Ephesus and put on trial for his life. And that made a “perfect storm,” because it followed hard on the heels of a nasty shock from Corinth. The church there had turned against him.

In the letter to Philemon [from prison], Paul asks Philemon to “get a guest room ready” for him. Philemon lived in Colossae, about 125 miles inland from Ephesus. Paul also wrote Philippians, Colossians and Ephesians from prison.

Pages 303-307;

Paul was released from prison (in middle or late 56AD). Imprisonment leaves a lasting scar…in Ephesus he had experienced torture at a deeper level. His emotions, his imagination, his innermost heart had been unbearably crushed. On being released from prison he took his prison scars, and we can be sure, he went to Colossae. Philemon’s guest room was ready for him. Perhaps he spent some weeks there, slowly allowing the nightmares to subside.

Paul wanted to know, well in advance, what sort of reception he might get in Corinth. Would they, after all, be loyal to him? This involved meeting up with Titus. After the debacle of the “sorrowful visit,” Paul had written the “painful letter,” no doubt rebuking the church members for the way had treated him and urging them toward reconciliation.

…the letter we call 2 Corinthians seems itself to be dragged out of Paul in bits and pieces…It isn’t just that Paul is writing it in bits, on the move around northern Greece in late 56 or early 57…It is also that he is genuinely anxious; he still doesn’t know if the “painful letter” has simply caused more trouble, or if the Corinthians have abandoned their hostility toward him and now want to be reconciled. Titus had taken the letter, but where was he?

So once more…he moves on from Troas to Macedonia…he still cannot relax or rest. And always the nagging question: Has it, after all, been all in vain? Then, suddenly, the clouds roll away and the sun comes out, and Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7:6 & 7:

“The God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the arrival of Titus, and not only by his arrival but in the comfort he had received from you, as he told us about your longing for us, your lamenting, and your enthusiasm for me personally.”

Pages 315-316.

Paul then continues in chapter 12 with his spiritual experiences, but he seems strangely reticent: “Someone…fourteen years ago…was snatched up to the third heaven…and heard words…humans are not allowed to repeat.” It’s the same point. Yes, obviously Paul has had extraordinary experiences, but that isn’t the basis on which he stands before them as an apostle of the crucified Messiah. The main thing is that Paul, at the end of it all, received “a thorn in the flesh,” but Paul doesn’t say what “the thorn” is. What he does say, and it’s worth more than all the actual information we could have, is what he had learned through that experience and particularly, we may suppose, through the entire horrible process of the confrontation in Corinth and the breakdown in Ephesus. “My grace is enough for you,” said the Lord. “My power comes to perfection in weakness.” Exactly what Paul needed to hear; exactly what the Corinthians did not want to hear. But hear it they must, because at the end of the most powerful and personal letter Paul has written to date, 2 Corinthians 9b & 10:

“So I will be all the more pleased to boast of my weaknesses, so that the Messiah’s power may rest upon me. So I’m delighted when I’m weak, insulted, in difficulties, persecuted, and facing disasters, for the Messiah’s sake. When I’m weak, you see, then I am strong.”

2 Corinthians 12:1-10 ESV

“I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows – and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses – though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from being conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

The Greek word that was translated to English as ‘conceited’ in the ESV is: hyperairomai and is translated differently in other translations:

NRSV ‘too elated’

ASV    ‘exalted too much’

NLT    ‘proud’

NASB 1995 ‘exalting’

Why the third heaven? What are the 1st and 2nd Heavens?

Our ancient Christian brothers seemed to talk about the three heavens where the 1st heaven was the earth’s atmosphere and the 2nd heaven was the stellar heaven – the sun, moon and stars. God was present in the 3rd heaven.

Questions to ponder:

How many years back from the writing of 2 Corinthians has Paul had the “thorn’?

What was Paul doing at the time he was taken to the third heaven?

Why do you think Jesus took Paul to the third heaven when he wasn’t going to allow him to talk about it?

Might it have been seen by Jesus as part of Paul’s education as the Apostle to the Gentiles, before Paul started writing such a large and significant part of the New Testament?

Wright mentions Paul’s apparent reticence when he starts writing about his journey to the 3rdheaven. Could that reticence stem from Paul being told he couldn’t talk about some of what he learned during that trip to God’s home in heaven?

What year will be the 2000th anniversary of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus based on N. T. Wright’s Chronology?

Do you think that possibly Paul’s two negative experiences with his church in Corinth and his time in the Ephesus Prison further made his “thorn” weakness experience more real to him?

What other two prisons did Paul spend time in besides Ephesus?

Like almost any attempt to dig into Scripture there will be underlying controversies. In this presentation I see at least two such controversies. The first was the year that Herod died, either 1BC or 4BC. And the second is did Paul spend time in prison in Ephesus or not. This comes up because Luke did not mention Paul being in prison in Ephesus in Acts. Also, Philippians was thought to be written in prison in Rome because of two Roman references in the epistle. But Philemon does not fit Rome but does fit Ephesus. One way to look at it is to assume Philemon was written in prison in Ephesus and Philippians was written during Paul’s house arrest in Rome. As to the other two prison letters: Colossians and Ephesians, Ephesus sure makes sense, but it may have been Rome. This is another mystery we will find out the answer to someday.

[i] N. T. Wright, Paul A Biography, 2018, Page 433 & 434

[ii] N.  T. Wright, Paul A Biography, 2018, Pages 238-240; 303-307; 315-316

The September 2025 Website Update

The September 2025 Website Update dealt with the question of what is the Gospel of Christ Jesus? We hear pastors often refer to the importance of the Gospel, but they usually don’t then go on to explain what exactly the Gospel is. Several months ago, I sought to try to briefly define the Gospel. I am not at all sure I got close to a really accurate statement of the Gospel, but I am happy with the result and more than willing to have others correct me. The first paragraph of what follows is my attempt to define the Gospel and the next two paragraphs seemed to be important enhancements:

This is the Gospel of Christ Jesus!!

Father God sent his only Son to earth to be fully God and fully man. Then, that Son, a totally innocent and perfect Jesus, was convicted, mistreated, crucified and died for our sins. He died in our place and made us righteous in God’s eyes. When God now sees us, he sees Jesus. To be saved we must choose to believe in Jesus and in choosing to believe, we must repent of our sins. None of this is our doing, it is all a gift to us from God. After his crucified death on the cross Jesus rose from the dead on the 3rd day. After forty days with his disciples, he then ascended into heaven, and he now sits on God’s right hand on his throne in heaven.

If we believe in Jesus, we will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. According to Colossians 3:12-14: there are seven virtues that Christians are to follow: compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and most important of all is love, which binds things together in perfect harmony. I firmly believe that those virtues are what the Holy Spirit is focusing on in his lifelong effort to sanctify us.

Once saved we need to focus on developing a relationship between ourselves and Jesus. Then, while on this earth our role is to help bring heaven to earth as taught in the Lord’s prayer. That is often done by sharing a kindness with a neighbor.

If this prompts questions, please ask and we can discuss the questions. To do so just respond at:

 dmwebb13@yahoo.com

One question I anticipate some might have, is when I say, “None of this is our doing, it is all a gift to us from God.” You might think, wait a minute, if I have to choose to believe in Jesus, isn’t that my doing? Well, that choosing we do is influenced greatly by the Holy Spirit which is part of God’s gift to us. How much of our choosing is the Holy Spirit and how much is us, is a mystery, but I think it is predominately the Holy Spirit.