Women in the Bible: The Widow of Zarephath During a long drought and famine, God sends Elijah away from Israel to the city of Zarephath in Sidon where God directs a widow, a foreigner, to give Elijah food. When Elijah reaches the town gates, he...
An Off Sunday (Visiting Church #42) As I blog about the churches we visit, I desire to focus on the positive. While each congregation has their good points and their weak areas, my goal in my posts is to share their more encouraging moments, to...
Isaiah Issues a Call to Pursue Justice Pursue Justice for the Oppressed, Widows, and Orphans A short passage in the book of Isaiah warns against those who make unjust laws to deprive the marginalized of their rights. Isaiah targets the lawmakers...
It Doesn’t Matter if You’re Worthy or Not There’s a story about a military leader, a centurion, who desires Jesus to heal his dying servant. The centurion doesn’t approach Jesus himself, but instead he calls in a favor, asking some...
How Many Spiritual Gifts Are There? The Holy Spirit Gives Jesus’s Followers Special Abilities In the Bible, Paul talks about spiritual gifts, special abilities given to us by the Holy Spirit. These aren’t for our personal use but for the common...
Women in the Bible: Zipporah With the Pharaoh out to get him, Moses flees for his life. He marries the shepherdess Zipporah, daughter of the priest of Midian (Exodus 2:21-22). They have two sons: Gershom and Eliezer. Years later when Moses and...
Making Personal Connections (Visiting Church #41) “Hi, are you the DeHaans?” The usher’s question surprises me. “Yes, we are.” I nod, a bit confused, but pleased at his acknowledgment. “I’m Greg.” Then gesturing towards Candy, he explains, “I...
Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty Celebrate the Holiness of God The prophet Isaiah has a dream, a vision. He sees into heaven. God sits on his throne over the temple. Six-winged angels, seraphim, hover above him. They sing out, “Holy, holy...
Years ago my son Dan was on spring break from college and challenged me to a game of chess. Although I hadn’t played in several years, I readily accepted. It had been a while for Dan, too, so I figured we would be equally rusty. After...
How Should We Observe the Sabbath? God Intended for Us to Take a Day of Rest Each Week The Old Testament talks a lot about the Sabbath. God wants his children to work six days and then rest on the seventh. In fact, he commands that they observe...
