This is the first in several episodes dealing with some of the hard sayings of Jesus. In John 6 Jesus makes several statements about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. What in the world is He talking about? Is this a reference to the Lord's Supper? Or is Jesus trying to convey something else?

These are stories you will never find in history books, but I thought it would be good to record them. I don't think it's right that they would be lost to the ages. Most of them are nothing spectacular, but these were my encounters with people who sacrificed in a titanic world battle of good versus evil.

Since we are now celebrating our nation's 250th birthday, I thought it appropriate to preserve my recollections of conversations with World War 2 vets over the past many decades. Some of these are stories I heard in my childhood, others from as a middle-aged adult talking to people I interviewed. I don't know if their stories were ever recorded. So, I thought I'd give you my rendering of what they went through. I know I have not captured even a fraction of what they experienced. Some of these stories are about people who never saw combat; others saw it up close and personal. I hope you enjoy this little window into the past.

The Bible tells us about a New Covenant that God will make (and has made) with His redeemed. What does that Covenant look like for the future of Israel, and how is the Church a part of it today?

If the Kingdom of God in the Old Testament and the Four Gospels was primarily about a physical, literal kingdom upon the earth with a restored Israel at its center, and the earth restored to its Eden-like beginnings, then how does the Apostle Paul tell us in his epistles that we the Church are a part of this Kingdom? Something doesn't "compute".... or does it?

John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Apostles all told people to get ready for something called "the Kingdom of God." But what was it? Some new thing starting with John the Baptist's preaching? No. It was predicted in the Old Testament for centuries. Come with me for a brief journey through the Old Testament to see what God predicted for Israel and the nations, and how this fits with what Jesus and the Apostles later preached.

As Christians we either go back to Peter and Pentecost and a program that is not for us today (and wind up in frustration and failure), or we go on to the later revelation from Paul for the Church today. Please listen to why we need to listen to what God revealed to the Apostle Paul to the other apostles in Ephesians 3. This revelation from Jesus Christ, contained in Paul's epistles, is our "blueprint" for the Church today.

Why Paul? God couldn't get it done with the 12 apostles? Why is he the author of half the New Testament? How is he the "missing piece of the puzzle" that explains what happened to Israel in the New Testament? Once we see that Paul is raised up as a new apostle with a new message for a new assembly with a new destiny, a lot of the confusion in the Bible will clear up. Listen in to this series on the unique calling and apostleship of Paul!