Letters From Home | Podcast on RSS.com

Letters From Home

Letters From Home

by Hank Garner

Season 1

Letter 049 — The Address: The Goal Is Not Escape (Revelation 21)

Most of us have been taught that heaven is where we go. The Bible says heaven is what comes here. The destination is not escape. The destination is renewal. In this letter - The inherited picture of heaven as escape - What the Bible actually teaches — bodily resurrection, renewed earth, descended city - 1 Corinthians 15:58 — your labor is not in vain - Living like resurrection people - The continuity between this life and the next - The honest question — what are you walking toward? - The wiping of tears as God's intimate, hands-on response to grief Scripture - Revelation 21:1-5 - Revelation 21:24 (the nations bringing their glory into the city) - 1 Corinthians 15:58 The question to sit with How would your life change if you really believed that what you do here is being taken up into what comes? Where have you been living like this world does not matter, because heaven is somewhere else? Coming tomorrow | The Whole Letter. The closing of Season One. > There'll be more mail tomorrow. Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.

Letter 048 — The Story: The Tabernacle of God With Men (Revelation 21)

A new heaven. A new earth. A city coming down. A voice from the throne. A hand wiping tears. We walk the vision. In this letter - Verses 1-8 walked slow - The sea as the image of chaos in the ancient Near East - The bride and the wedding imagery - Skēnē (G4633) — the tabernacle word - The thread from Exodus 25 through John 1:14 to Revelation 21:3 - The wiping of every tear — what the image implies - Kainos (G2537) — new in kind, not just in time - It is done — the Greek perfect tense - The Alpha and the Omega - The water of life freely given Scripture - Revelation 21:1-8 - Exodus 25:8-9 (the tabernacle, referenced) - John 1:14 (referenced) - 1 Corinthians 6:19 (we are the temple, referenced) Greek word studies - skēnē (σκηνή, Strong's G4633) — tabernacle, tent, dwelling. The noun form of skēnoō (carried from Week 7). - kainos (καινός, G2537) — new in kind, new in quality Coming tomorrow | The Address. The destination is not escape. > There'll be more mail tomorrow.

Letter 047 — The Sender: An Old Apostle on Patmos (Revelation 21)

An old man on a prison island. Exiled by Rome for refusing to stop talking about Jesus. Given the longest, strangest, most beautiful vision in the New Testament. In this letter - John in his old age — the last apostle alive - The persecution under Domitian - The exile to Patmos - The genre of apocalyptic literature - The structure of Revelation — seven churches, throne vision, judgments, resolution - The seven churches of Asia Minor - Why the destination matters to a persecuted church Scripture - Revelation 1:9 - Revelation 2-3 (the seven churches, referenced) - Revelation 21:1-8 Coming tomorrow | The Story. Walking the vision slow. > There'll be more mail tomorrow. Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.

Letter 046 — The Envelope: Home (Revelation 21)

The destination. The vision John saw on Patmos when he was an old man. After ten weeks of letters from home, this week we sit with where the road ends. In this letter - Where Revelation 21 sits in the Bible — the second-to-last chapter, the destination of the whole story - The Bible as a journey home, from garden to garden-city - A slow read of Revelation 21:1-8 (NKJV) - The direction of the vision — the city coming down, not us going up - Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men (v.3) - Behold, I make all things new (v.5) - The continuity of the new creation — not all new things, but all things new Scripture - Revelation 21:1-8 - Genesis 3 (the lost dwelling, referenced) Coming tomorrow | The Sender. An old apostle on a prison island. > There'll be more mail tomorrow. Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.

Letter 045 — The Whole Letter: Hupernikao (Romans 8)

The phrase more than conquerors translates one Greek word Paul may have invented. Hupernikao. Over-conquerors. Today we sit with the word, and the thunder at the end of the chapter. In this letter - The closing thunder of Romans 8:31-39 - Hupernikao (G5245) — the compound that gives us more than conquerors - Huper + nikao — over + to conquer - The seven-item list (tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword) as Paul's autobiography - Psalm 44 quoted in v. 36 - The longer list at the close — death, life, angels, principalities, powers, time, space, anything - A direct pastoral landing for the suffering, the accused, and the doubting Scripture - Romans 8:31-39 (full) - Psalm 44:22 (referenced, quoted by Paul) - 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 (referenced) Greek word studies - hupernikao (ὑπερνικάω, Strong's G5245) — to more than conquer, over-conquer. The compound of huper (over, beyond) and nikao (to conquer). A word so strong Paul may have coined it. - katakrima (G2631) — condemnation (carried from Wednesday) - huiothesia (G5206) — adoption (carried from Wednesday) - stenazo (G4727) — to groan (carried from Wednesday) Next week's letter | Revelation 21 — Home. The closing of Season One. > That's this week's letter. We'll see you Monday with another. Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.

Letter 044 — The Address: Do You Believe Verse One? (Romans 8)

Paul says there is no condemnation. Most of us live as if there is. Today we ask what voice we are still listening to, and whether it is the Spirit of adoption. In this letter - The difference between conviction and condemnation - The accuser in Revelation 12:10 - Paul's courtroom in verses 31-34 - The cost in verse 17 — if indeed we suffer with Him - Suffering as included in the adoption, not excluded - The Spirit's intercession for those who cannot find words Scripture - Romans 8:1, 17, 33-34 - Revelation 12:10 (referenced) The question to sit with Where is the accuser still speaking in your life? And where are you suffering, and have not yet heard that the Spirit is groaning with you? Coming tomorrow | The Whole Letter. > There'll be more mail tomorrow. Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.

Letter 043 — The Story: The Spirit Who Groans (Romans 8)

Romans 8 has no characters and no narrative. The story is the structure. From no condemnation to no separation, with the Spirit of adoption crying Abba in us. In this letter - Katakrima (G2631) — the legal verdict of condemnation - The flesh and the Spirit (vv. 5-13) - Huiothesia (G5206) — adoption as a son, the Roman legal concept - Abba — the Aramaic word Jesus prayed in Gethsemane - The three groanings — creation, us, the Spirit - Stenazo (G4727) — to groan deeply - All things work together in context — not a bumper sticker - The chain of vv. 29-30 — foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified Scripture - Romans 8:1-30 - Mark 14:36 (*Abba* in Gethsemane) Greek word studies - katakrima (κατάκριμα, Strong's G2631) — condemnation, judicial sentence - huiothesia (υἱοθεσία, G5206) — adoption, the placing as a son - Abba (ἀββᾶ, G5) — Aramaic for father, the child's word - stenazo (στενάζω, G4727) — to groan Coming tomorrow | The Address. Do you believe verse one? > There'll be more mail tomorrow. Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.

Letter 042 — The Sender: Paul at the Apex (Romans 8)

Paul wrote thirteen letters. Romans is the longest and most carefully built. Romans 8 is the apex. And he wrote it from the other side of twenty-five years of beatings, shipwrecks, and prisons. In this letter - Paul's background — Saul the Pharisee, the Damascus road - Paul's missionary career - Romans written from Corinth, late 50s AD - The Roman audience and why Paul was writing to them - The structure of Romans — problem, justification, sin and law, resolution - Why chapter 8 is the apex of Paul's argument - 2 Corinthians 11 — Paul's list of sufferings, which makes Romans 8 autobiography Scripture - Acts 9:1-19 (Damascus road, referenced) - Romans 1:1-15 (Paul's introduction) - 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 (Paul's sufferings, referenced) - Romans 7:24-25 (the lament that leads into Romans 8) Coming tomorrow | The Story. The structure of the chapter, walked slow. > There'll be more mail tomorrow. Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.

Letter 041 — The Envelope: No Condemnation to No Separation (Romans 8)

One of the most beloved chapters in the Bible. Paul at his theological and pastoral peak. Begins with no condemnation. Ends with nothing can separate us. Today we read the spine. In this letter - A reading of the key sections of Romans 8 (NKJV) - The therefore at verse 1 and what it points back to - The Spirit of adoption and Abba - The Spirit's groans and our prayers - All things work together for good in context - The seven-fold and longer lists at the close - More than conquerors — the apex phrase Scripture - Romans 8:1-2, 14-17, 26-28, 31-39 Coming tomorrow | The Sender. Paul at the apex of his most carefully built letter. > There'll be more mail tomorrow. Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.

Letter 040 — The Whole Letter: Goel (Ruth + Matthew 1)

The Hebrew word that runs through Ruth twenty-one times is the same word the New Testament reaches for when it describes what Christ has done. Goel. Kinsman-redeemer. In this letter - Goel (H1350) — kinsman-redeemer - The four qualifications of a goel under the law - The threshing floor as the heart of the book - Boaz at the city gate as the pattern of Christ on the cross - The genealogy in Ruth 4 — Obed, Jesse, David - Matthew 1 and Ruth in the lineage of Jesus - A direct pastoral landing for outsiders, the empty, the ones who need a redeemer Scripture - Ruth 3-4 - Matthew 1:5 (Ruth in the genealogy of Christ) - Hebrews 2:11 (Jesus not ashamed to call us brothers) - John 10:18 (referenced) Hebrew word studies - goel (גֹּאֵל, Strong's H1350) — kinsman-redeemer. The relative who steps in. - davaq (H1692) — to cling (carried from Wednesday) - hesed (H2617) — covenant lovingkindness (carried from Wednesday and from Week 4) Next week's letter | Romans 8 — More Than. > That's this week's letter. We'll see you Monday with another. Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.

1 of 5