John Mark Hicks

“The Lord is near the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34 reminds us that when we cry out to God in the midst of our suffering, the Lord hears and acts because God is good and gives good things. The righteous sufferer is protected and endures by pursuing peace, doing good, and […]

May one lament and trust at the same time, even in the same moment? Psalm 31 does, and Jesus quotes this Psalm as his last words on the cross. What does trust look like when surrounded by mockers, predators, and living on the verge of death? How does one trust in such circumstances? This is […]

Psalm 22 is the lament and confession of a righteous sufferer in the expectation of God’s righteous deliverance. The Psalmist identifies with the story of Israel, and Jesus himself appropriates this Psalm for his own lament and confession in the hope of his own vindication. This is not a Psalm about divine wrath or punishment […]

I have now read the fifth of twelve books suggested by FB friends. This one was recommended by Michael Asbell. This is my summary. David Moffitt, Rethinking the Atonement: New Perspectives on Jesus’s Death, Resurrection, and Ascension (Grand Rapids: BakerAcademic, 2022). While the term “atonement” is most often used to describe the cross of Jesus […]

If you only listen to one in this series, listen to this one! Texts: Mark 15:33-37; Matthew 28:5-10 Days 50-51 in Around the Bible in Eighty Days. Death and Resurrection. This is the pinnacle of the gospel story. The Messiah is victorious in both death and resurrection. In death, the Messiah is obedient to death, […]

Texts: Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 22:52-53; Luke 23:32-47 Days 47-49 in Around the Bible in Eighty Days. Video available here If we had not been sufficiently convinced of the humanity of Jesus, perhaps because he also God in the flesh, the movement from the Garden to the Cross might just seal the deal. Jesus suffers. Jesus […]

Surrounded by people who falsely accused him, mocked him, beat him, divided his last possessions among themselves, and nailed him to a cross, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” When one of the criminals crucified with Jesus confessed his guilt, recognized the innocence of Jesus, and asked […]

Early Christians in the second century understood the cry dereliction as Jesus’s feelings of despair in the face of death in view of the fact that the Father had abandoned (forsaken) him to death. The Father did not rescue him from death, even though ultimately God rescues him through death when the Father raises Jesus […]

With Tennessee now a Confederate state and at war with the Union, Fanning published an article entitled “Taking up the Cross,” in the August issue of the Gospel Advocate 7.8 (1861), 244-245. What did it mean to “take up the cross” in August 1861 for Tennesseans, Confederates or Unionists? On the one hand, it meant abandoning […]

Though the overwhelming sentiment of western and middle Tennessee favored the decision of the state government to join the Confederacy and enter the war against the Union on July 2, 1861, Fanning pleads for Christians to stand apart in three lengthy and significant articles in the July issue of the Gospel Advocate. His theology for […]