John Mark Hicks

Tonight I was blessed to listen to Terry Smith teach a class at the Woodmont Hills Family of God.  He asked each of us to meditate on a story about Jesus from one of the Gospels, and then asked some of us to share that story.  While it was helpful to hear what stories impacted […]

Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors….For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:12, 14-15 Mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:13b [NOTE:  The Sunday before last, November 2, I returned to teaching […]

One of the most vivid scenes in Luke is Peter’s 3x denial, particularly “the look.”          “The Lord turned around and looked straight at Peter” (Luke 22:61, GNB). The verbs are intensive, descriptive, and full of significance.  “Turned around,” which is actually a participle in the Greek text, involves twisting or reversing; it is turning the back 180% […]

[My book on the Shack is now available on Kindle.] I now come to the third theme in The Shack that I find both emotionally and theologically compelling. The first theme is God’s total delight in and fondness for his children no matter what their shacks look like.  The second theme is that trusting in God’s goodness and loving purposes […]

[My book on the Shack is now available on Kindle.] “Triune Shine”….what is that?  Ok, I admit it is my own invention.  But hear me out, ok? Many who have attended a 12-Step group for any length of time have heard about the “shine.”  It might be an “AA shine,” or an SA, NA, OA, […]

“I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me” (Psalm 51:3) “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (James 5:16). Where in the Christian community do we feel safe confessing sin? In tragedy, people tend to surround the hurting even if after a period […]

When my wife and I exercise in our bonus room we watch some kind of DVD.  Today we watched the biography of St. Patrick.  Though I was familiar with much of his story, I was intrigued when the video narrated the following from his Confession. “I am, then, first of all, countryfied, an exile, evidently unlearned, one […]

“The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:7-8). “[Yahweh] brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Deuteronomy 26:9). When the […]

Fortunately for us, Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 do not stand alone. In another letter to the Corinthians, chapters 8 & 9 of what we call 2 Corinthians, Paul felt compelled to further encourage the Corinthians to follow through on their commitment to the poor saints in Jerusalem. This is fortunate because we have a wonderful opportunity […]

On February 2 of this year I conducted a one day seminar at the North Davis Church of Christ in Arlington, Texas. They had invited me to prepare some materials for a congregational-wide study of Baptism, the Lord’s Supper and Assembly based on my three books (Come to the Table, Down in the River to […]