John Mark Hicks

Humanity, according to Psalm 12, is filled with people who live with a “double heart,” flatter others for power, and boast of their exploits while asking, “Who is Adonai to us?” They are predators who seek their own prestige and power. “Help” is the only imperative in the Psalm, and it is the first word. […]

Psalm 104 celebrates creation as God’s continuous work from laying the foundations of the earth to giving breath to every living thing. God lies at the center of the creation; it is not about life per se or human utility. Rather, the creation is God-centered. Out of God’s steadfast love, God gifts the creation with […]

Bobby Valentine and John Mark Hicks reflect on the majesty praise hymn of Psalm 8 in this video. The transcendent God has set a bulwark within the creation to silence his enemies, and humanity is a partner with God to subdue the chaos within the creation. Crowned with glory and honor, we are God’s representatives […]

The Ray Evans Seminar, an annual event at the Alameda Church of Christ in Norman, Oklahoma, was held March 31-April 2, 2017. The general topic was Embracing Creation, which is also the title of the book I co-authored with Bobby Valentine and Mark Wilson. The book is available here. I gave six presentations as well […]

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” Genesis 1:28 The Lord God took the adam and rested […]

This week I am participating in a wonderful conference on preaching the paradigmatic texts of Scripture. The focus of this particular conference is creation.  Walter Brueggemann is the featured speaker and his presentation last night on Psalm 104 was excellent. Other speakers include Ken Durham, John York, David Fleer and Rhonda Lowry. Everyone has done […]

It is not a complete cycle.  Eliphaz’s speech is shorter than his previous two (Job 22), Bildad’s speech is the shortest in the whole dialogue (Job 25), and Zophar does not even speak. The friends are clearly exasperated and Job, too, is done with them. One might say they are no longer “friends.” The Friends […]

What is salvation? In my first post in this series I proposed the below chart as a way of answering that important question. In this post I will comment on the third sector (3).    Past Justification Present Sanctification Future Glorification Personal Forgiveness of Sins and Relationship with God (1) Moral (Inner and Outer)  Transformation (2) […]

[Note: I am attempting to keep these SBD installments under 2000 words each, but that is–of course–quite inadequate for the topics covered. Consequently, these contributions are more programmatic than they are explanatory or defenses of the positions stated. You may access the whole series at my Serial page.] The Word, the Son, became flesh and lived […]

[Note: I am attempting to keep these SBD installments under 2000 words each, but that is–of course–quite inadequate for the topics covered. Consequently, these contributions are more programmatic than they are explanatory or defenses of the positions stated. You may access the whole series at my Serial page.] God partners with humanity as divine representatives […]