I’m posting notes on short passages from the gospels. Come and join me in reading the passages and leave me some thoughts and comments. The notes can be used individually, or they can be used systematically to work through a whole book, or all four gospels. The most recent notes are on my Journeys of heart and mind site (JHM), and more will follow. Older material is on an older website, some links may need updating but navigational links work seamlessly across old and new.
I’ve made a start in Matthew, Mark, and now John; it’s been an interesting journey for me. You can start from any point, all the old posts remain and new ones will appear once every week or so.
A note on names
When I began this series I used the conventional names found in most Bible translations (Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter and so forth. More recently I’ve started to use these names in their original form (Jeshua, Miriam, Yousef etc). And usually I write Jeshua as Yahshua – that needs additional explanation, I think. Jeshua is the Aramaic name used by Jesus himself and by his friends and family, the Hebrew is Yahoshua. I use a hybrid version, Yahshua, pronounced the same as Jeshua. The name means ‘Yahweh saves’ which is, of course, very appropriate. Spelling it ‘Yahshua’ reminds me of this critically important fact every time I write it or read it.
Alan Hirsch
Alan Hirsch has developed a model for vibrant, missional church life and at the heart of the model is the idea that Christ should be central in all that we do. Few people would argue with that! One habit that he recommends to help us keep Jesus at the heart of our lives is to cycle through the gospels as part of our Bible reading. Not only that, he recommends reading all of the Bible ‘through the lens of the gospels’.
I agree with that; and it’s where these articles come in.
Latest news:
1st May2026 – I’ve added a banner image to recent posts in John to bring them in line with other posts on JHM. I’ll continue updating all the ‘Cruising the Gospel’ posts as and when I have time.
22nd June 2025 – Today I finished the task of repairing broken links in the old version of these posts. You can now navigate the entire series using the links in each article – Matthew, Mark, and most of John. Next I must complete the last couple of chapters of John; and finally, I propose revising all the material from the old version, moving each item to the current version of Journeys of heart and mind as I go.
See also:
Index – Cruising the Gospel
Journeys of Heart and Mind 