I’ve blogged a lot over the past 10 years—over 200 posts, apparently. Here I’ve highlighted a top 50-ish: the most-read posts, along with a few that are just favourites of mine.

What is the Bible and how should we read it?

• What is the Bible, and How Should We Read It? A (lengthy) intro to the Bible, needs some updating but still good overall.
• Who’s the “You” in the Ten Commandments? An exercise in careful reading of the Bible.
• What Did Og Ever Do to You? An exercise in reading the Bible’s violent texts.
• “The Bible is Clear”: No, It’s Not—But That’s Okay: Debunking a common misconception about the Bible.
• The Bible is clear: God endorses slavery. Same theme, different angle. The Bible really does seem “clear” in endorsing slavery, but most Christians don’t read it that way. What’s up?
• Why (and How) Do I Trust the Gospels? The Gospels as ancient biographies, and what that means for their reliability (and how we should read them).
• The Bible, the Gospel, Jesus, and “The Word of God”: Spoiler: the Bible is not “the word of God” (according to the Bible).
• “All Scripture is inspired by God” doesn’t mean “All Scripture is equally important”: A “canon within a canon” is not a bad thing.
• Five Simple Hacks to Revolutionize Your Bible Reading: Try ’em out, and get radicalized by Jesus into love.

Who is God?

• The God Who Is: The God I believe in.
• I’m an Atheist: The gods I don’t believe in.
• What does it mean to say that “God is love”? A lot, actually.

Who is Jesus and what is the gospel?

• My Confession of Faith: “On Christ the solid rock I stand…”
• God’s Good News: My attempt at a good old fashioned gospel tract (don’t worry, it’s not like those other ones).
• “All you ever do is talk about Jesus and love. Why don’t you preach the gospel?” Um, “Jesus and love” is the gospel.
• “Confess and believe, and you will be saved!”: May not mean what you grew up thinking this means.
• Why I Do Not Cease Teaching and Writing: There’s too much at stake for me to stop. We need Jesus. We need the gospel.

How did Jesus live, and what did he teach?

• God’s Dream for the World: On Jesus’ teaching about “the kingdom of God.”
• The Sermon on the Mount, Twitter Edition: Yes, I know it’s X now.
• Blessed Are the Outliers: Jesus saw those who don’t fit the “norm.”
• Jesus Fulfills the Law—in Love: Exploring what Jesus meant when he said he came to “fulfill the Law.”
• “Turn the Other Cheek” ≠ “Be a Doormat”: Jesus’ radical nonviolence.
• Jesus Was a Peacenik After All: More on Jesus’ radical nonviolence.
• The Lord’s Prayer: “Lord, teach us to pray,” Jesus’ disciples asked. So he did.
• The Lord’s Prayer for All People: An expanded paraphrase of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples.
• What is the “Narrow Way” of Jesus? No, it’s not about “‘believe x’ or ‘don’t do y’ or you’re going to hell.”
• Jesus and Hell: So then, what did Jesus mean when he talked about “hell”? Maybe this.
• Jesus Wasn’t “Family Values”: The Bible and Jesus on marriage and family.
• Does Jesus’ “Temple Tantrum” Negate Pacifism and Nonviolence? That’s a nope.
• Mary on the Margins: On Jesus and women in the Gospels.
• The Great Commission: Make Decisions? Make Converts? Or Make Disciples? The answer is c), and here’s what that means (and doesn’t mean).

What’s the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection?

• The Foolishness of the Cross: From a sermon based on 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.
• “Jesus Died for Our Sins”: Sketching Out Atonement: Fleshing out some further thoughts on the saving significance of Jesus’ death.
• Fifteen Lessons I Learned (or Learned Again) in Teaching on the Cross this Lent: Short reflections on what the cross means—and doesn’t mean.
• Do Christians Really Need to Believe in Jesus’ Resurrection? Yes. And no. But when we do claim belief in Jesus’ resurrection, here’s what that means.

How should we live as followers of Jesus?

• Trust in God, Love One Another: Pretty much every sermon I’ve ever preached boils down to these two.
• “What Would Jesus Do?” is the right question to ask, but…: Reviving WWJD for a new generation.
• “Remember the Poor”: It’s not an optional add-on to the gospel. And it’s as much about power as wealth.
• You Know, “Love One Another” Really Is Enough: It really is.

Other Bible/theology/Christian life stuff:

• Am I “Satanic” or Just “Unbiblical”? A Guide for My Christian Critics: Tongue-in-cheek (yet serious) look at the labels thrown my way.
• Michael Pahl’s Handy-Dandy Handbook of Christian Words and Phrases: What do I mean when I talk about “salvation”? or “faith”? or…?
• What is “Sin”? It’s not a list of “don’ts.” It’s much bigger than that.
• Passive Pacifists? Exploring what it means—and doesn’t mean—to be a “pacifist.”
• Christians, Freedom, and Human Rights: What are our “rights and freedoms” as Christians?
• Christians Need to Be More Conservative, Not Less: Shocking, I know.
• Bishop Curry, Luke and Acts, and “Christianity Lite”: Really a mini-theology of Luke-Acts, pushing a re-think on what “faithful Christianity” really is.
• Exclusively Jesus, Inclusively All: Some musings on the ways Christianity’s claims are exclusive and the ways they are inclusive.
• Entering the Apocalypse: A four-part series on the book of Revelation.

Other stuff:

• “How do we know?” and “Whom do we trust?” Some Thoughts on Experts and Expertise: Digging into the reality of misinformation, disinformation, and more.
• Christians and Israel (1) – Describing the Crisis: The first in a three-part series on the topic.
• What is Christian nationalism? And why is it a problem? What it is, and why it’s a problem.
• My Journey Toward Being Affirming: A link to a video in which I share my story.
• Bad Bible Takes Cause Harm: Focusing in on the “clobber” passages, which don’t actually talk about “homosexuality” as we know it.
• Love will win. Love must win, or we all lose.: A response to the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando in 2016. Evergreen.
• God Regards the Lowly: From a sermon after the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at a residential school in Kamloops. Also evergreen.