I know that the reason people come to this site is to look for applicable Hebraic insights on Christian living. There are plenty of sites that talk about the Jewish roots of Christianity, and plenty more that have academic articles about the Bible in its context. What is rare are sites that preach sermons on Christian themes from a Hebraic perspective, and give devotional insights for today. Here, I just thought I’d mention a few sources of good audio talks from a Hebraic point of view. If you are a couch potato who is growing in girth by reading all the time (like me), buy yourself an iPod, download some, and go get some exercise.
One good source is the website of Narkis Church in Jerusalem, Israel. Every time I’m in Israel, I attend here on Shabbat morning. The church has a fascinating history, and one of its former pastors, Bob Lindsey, was a key scholar in studying Jesus’ Jewishness. A lot of American graduate students in biblical studies in Israel go there. If you’re in town, don’t miss the excellent 9:30 AM Shabbat Bible study where the students and scholars all meet before the service. They have plenty of visitors.
Their current pastor, Charles (Chuck) Kopp, shares the teaching with all of the talented scholars and grad students, and rarely preaches himself. Many of the sermons are really excellent examples of how to apply Hebraic studies to Christian life today. A lot of the speakers are academics who save their devotional thoughts to share here. Some who I really like are Randall Buth, David Pileggi, Gary Alley, Sharon Alley and Halvor Ronning. I haven’t heard all of them, and I know there is some variability, of course. They invite some speakers who are not at all in this field. An excellent guest talk was by John Townsend, co-author of the bestseller, Boundaries. The link for the Narkis audio page is here.
Another good audio source is the Jerusalem Perspective website, where there are more sermons from Hebraic scholars, mostly given at Narkis Church. Their audio page is here. For some you need a Premium Content subscription. If you hate spending money for online content, ignore your feelings and sign up anyway. JP has an enormous amount of good material and it’s a small, but very worthy organization to support.
One other good audio source is Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids – Rob Bell, of course. You likely might already know of him, because his talks are some of the most popular podcasts online. He loves Hebraic study and is a hilarious speaker. I don’t agree with him on everything, but often I just love his original insights. The link to the Mars Hill audio page is here.
Just to update you, I’m still in the thick of writing. I’m learning a lot and wish I could share it here, but I need to focus on that, so again I’m giving you some favorite resources. And with these, you can also get some exercise while you’re learning too.
Life at the Wellspring 