Feb. 11 Application | ‘Previews of Coming Attractions’

My friend Mark Scott, who writes the Bible study column for Christian Standard each week, introduced me to an intriguing thought. He views Jesus’ miracles as previews of coming attractions—signs of things to come. . . .

March 15, 2015

Christian Standard

Church Leadership

Balm in Gilead

By Jay Engelbrecht There is balm in Gilead, To make the wounded whole; There”s power enough in heaven, To cure a sin-sick soul. The opening line of an old African-American spiritual answers Jeremiah”s rhetorical question, “Is there no balm in Gilead[?]” (Jeremiah 8:22, King James Version*). In Marilynne Robinson”s novel Gilead, I discovered balm for my soul. The novel”s narrator, a fictional Iowa preacher named John Ames, is dying. He uses his remaining days to write an account of his life for his young son. Three sentences in Gilead changed the way I view 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, which reads: Listen,