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In a possible future, a few counties over... They said it was going to be a simple country wedding. What they meant was that it was going to be held in the bride’s cousin’s backyard, just past the trampoline graveyard and slightly to the left of a half-disassembled bass boat. The setting sun glinted off a concrete fire pit that still smelled faintly of singed marshmallows and melted Tupperware. A borrowed archway from Party Barn leaned slightly to one side, stabilized by duct

In an alternate universe in which That Church By The Vape Shop became a network of physical locations instead of a blog, we had a very...

Thank you for humoring me regarding the hypothetical VBS post. I felt like a palate cleanser was in order after a bit of dreariness that...

In an alternate universe in which the physical locations plan for That Church By The Vape Shop panned out, we had a very successful Vacation Bible School this past week! It was probably such a joy to introduce the children to Jesus and to share in their spiritual enrichment. I want to thank all of those who played a role in whatever capacity to make VBS 2025 a success. Let’s see what that might have looked like: VBS Day 1 Lesson Transcript: "Y’all Already Holy, So Act Like It

The following post came about in response to a reader’s question. As a reminder, my wife has a neuromuscular condition that keeps her...

After some introductory posts, I posted two of my older books in installments. As the posts are featured in reverse order on the main...

This seems like another good spot to discuss some “end times”-related material before we get to the meat of Revelation. There’s another infodump back in the 2 Thessalonians notes. I don’t set myself up as some notable scribe that has all the answers; I’m a student of the Bible just like you. At this point in history, we can agree that the Messiah will rule on Earth (Isaiah 35, Joel 3, Jeremiah 23, Micah 4) at some point and that He’s ready to return quickly as soon as the Fat

This is a letter to Jewish Christians to warn them about the false teachers that Peter predicted in 2 Peter 2. The flavor of their heresy...

1 Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6). 2 While health and wealth concerns seem to be excessively emphasized in certain flavors of...

1 The Elect Lady seems to be the Bride of Christ aka the Church. Or, it could be a wealthy believer that hosted church services in her...

I recommend reading 2 John and 3 John before reading 1 John; they’re brief and provide context. John had to deal with...

Again, Peter was predominantly an apostle to the Jews, but was also involved with some Gentile Christians (Galatians 2:8,9,12 plus the...

Pete the fisherman wrote this with the help of Paul’s frequent coworker Silas (1 Peter 5:12) in around 62 AD. This letter provides encouragement to the persecuted; Nero’s persecution of Christians was about to escalate and result in Peter’s death. Per Galatians 2:8-12, Peter’s primary ministry was to the Jews, but he worked among some Gentiles as well. Paul started out in the synagogues, inevitably got rejected, and offered salvation to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46). Peter and Pa

This letter is commonly attributed to James the Just, the son of Joseph and therefore the half-brother of Jesus Christ (Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3, Galatians 1:19). (He is frequently confused with James the Apostle, brother of John. However, the letter does not specify which James/Jacob speaks, and it was a common name.) James the Just didn’t believe in Jesus as Messiah until after the Resurrection (John 7:1-5, Acts 1:14, 1 Corinthians 15:7). He was apparently known as “Camel Kn

The next batch of letters were addressed to Jewish Christians. As you recall, they were still zealous for the Law of Moses (Acts 21:20) but even James himself said the standard for Gentile believers was different (Acts 21:25). The first of these letters we will cover is Hebrews, which agrees with Paul that no Christian is under the Law anymore (Hebrews 8:13). It was written relatively late, likely close to the destruction of the Temple (which made keeping much of the Old Cove

Paul wrote this letter earlier than the Pastoral Epistles to Timothy and Titus, perhaps during his first Roman imprisonment. It is placed...

This letter was from Paul to Titus, who had been sent to appoint and supervise elders, making him the Bishop of Crete. Titus is an...

This letter contains Paul’s farewell instructions to Timothy before being executed. 1:6 Laying on of hands is traditional for...

The letters we’ve studied so far have been to congregations. These next few “pastoral Epistles” are to fellow church leaders and provide...

1:2 Again, grace and shalom are ours up front. 1:3 Again, “Believe” and “Love”. 1:4 See 1 Thessalonians 2:14. 1:5 Again, He is the Vine ,...