Grace Communion Carina

09/10/2026

The water and blood that flowed from the spear-pierced side of Jesus are part of a river story that spans Genesis to Revelation.

In the beginning, from Eden, God’s first sanctuary on earth where he dwelt with his people, flowed a river. That river divided into four rivers, carrying the blessing of God in liquid form out into creation (Gen. 2:10–14).

Then, in Ezekiel’s temple vision, the prophet sees water issuing from the sanctuary. As it flows, the water grows broader and deeper, eventually reaching the Salt Sea and desalinating it, enlivening the Dead Sea.

“Everything will live where the river goes” (Ezek. 47:9). Why? Because the water flows from the sanctuary of God, carrying the life of God into his creation.

Then, in the closing chapter of the Bible, we see “the river of the water of life” flowing not from a sacred edifice, but “from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev. 22:1), who are its temple (21:22). Along its banks grows the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.

The Genesis river, the Ezekiel river, and the Revelation river all tell the same story. And that story flows straight through John 19.

When a soldier pierced the side of Jesus with a spear, “at once there came out blood and water” (John 19:34).

From the incarnate sanctuary of God, flows not merely water, but blood and water. The blood of Christ takes away the sin of the world, and the water of Christ carries the blessing of that blood, the blessing of life and peace and forgiveness, to the four corners of the world.

Every time someone is dipped into the baptismal river, the life of Jesus flows over them and into them. They are enlivened, healed, and made living stones in the temple of Christ’s body. And at every Lord’s Supper, the life of God in Jesus Christ flows into us as he gives us his body to eat and his blood to drink.

From Genesis to Revelation, this is the Bible’s river story: water flowing from the sanctuary, carrying wave after wave of God’s own life to us. Apart from him, we are dried out and dead, but in Jesus Christ we are vivified, healed, and made whole.

30/09/2026

This Sunday!! ALL Welcome!

26/09/2026

27/07/2026

Sometimes the importance of a single Bible verse is easy to miss. Acts 18:12 looks almost like a passing historical detail: "But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul..." We read this chapter today in Bible in One Year.

Tucked away in that single verse is a fact that allows historians to anchor much of Paul's missionary work in time.

Who was this Gallio? His full name was Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, the older brother of the Stoic philosopher Seneca, who later became an adviser to Nero. An inscription discovered at Delphi records that Gallio served as proconsul of Achaia during the reign of Emperor Claudius, placing his term in approximately AD 51-52.

Since Acts tells us Paul was brought before Gallio while ministering in Corinth (Acts 18:12-17), we can confidently date Paul's eighteen-month stay there to about AD 50-52.

That one fixed date becomes the peg on which much of Paul's ministry hangs.

Working backward and forward from this fixed point helps Bible students reconstruct the chronology of Paul's missionary journeys, the founding of churches throughout Asia Minor and Greece, and the approximate dates of letters such as 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and Romans.

Without Gallio's proconsulship, the timeline of Paul's ministry would be far less certain.

Acts 18:12 also illustrates something else. Luke was not writing timeless religious fiction detached from history. He grounds his narrative in real places, real officials, and real events that can be verified against archaeological and ancient inscriptions.

Time and again, discoveries have confirmed the historical framework of Acts, and Gallio is one of the clearest examples. A Roman inscription, unearthed nearly two thousand years later, quietly corroborates Luke's account.

All of that from one verse.

It is a reminder that the Bible is not a collection of pious legends floating free from history. The gospel unfolded in the real world, under real governors, in real cities, among real people.

Sometimes a single passing detail opens a window into the remarkable historical reliability of Scripture.
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17/07/2026

"God's omnipotence is revealed and active entirely in the grace of the reconciliation of Jesus Christ. The grace of God and the omnipotence of God are identical. We must never understand the one without the other."

~Karl Barth

23/06/2026

"Kissing the bride through the veil." That's how one of my professors at Hebrew Union College vividly described reading the Bible in translation. A kiss is a kiss, to be sure, but skin on skin is always preferable.

That's why anytime we can "kiss" the Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek of the original text, well, pucker up. Often, the original has connotations that are difficult, if not impossible, to get across fully in translation.

One of the verses we read today in Bible in One Year is like that: “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ…” (Philippians 1:27).

That translation is accurate, but it can come across in English as if Paul were merely saying, “Behave yourselves,” or “Try to live a decent life.”

But the Greek word Paul uses carries far more cultural and political weight than “conduct yourselves” or “let your manner of life.”

The verb is πολιτεύομαι (politeuomai). If you have a hunch, based on the "polit-" beginning, that it has something to do with politics or political life, you're not wrong.

πολιτεύομαι is the language of citizenship, public identity, civic loyalty, and belonging to a kingdom. A more literal rendering would sound something like this: “Live as citizens worthy of the gospel of Christ.”

That matters enormously because Paul is writing to the church in Philippi, a city nicknamed “little Rome.” Roman citizenship was treasured. It was a badge of pride and allegiance. Your citizenship shaped how you understood your place in the world.

The townspeople would πολιτεύομαι in this way: “living as citizens worthy of Rome.”

Paul takes that familiar civic language and turns it upside down.

In essence, he says, “Yes, you live in a Roman colony. But Rome is not your true homeland.” As he says later in the letter, “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20).

That does not mean Christians abandon earthly responsibilities. It means that beneath every earthly identity is a more fundamental one. We belong first to the kingdom of God, to Christ our King.

Paul’s point in Philippians 1:27 is not simply behavioral: “Be good people.”

It is: “Live like the citizens of heaven that you already are by virtue of Christ your King.”

23/05/2026

All Welcome Tomorrow!

16/05/2026

Via Brian Zahnd:

“For Christians, a Christological interpretation of the Old Testament is far more important than the original authorial intent. The Apostles were so committed to making scripture about Christ and thus Christlike, that, if necessary, they would change words in the original text to make the meaning Christlike. They understood that the supreme revelation of God is the Word made flesh and that scripture must be Christlike or it will be the letter that kills.”