Will God Ever Tell Us Not to Pray? Even If We Don’t Understand Why God Tells Us to Do Something We Should Do It Anyway After giving Jeremiah a stinging message to tell the people, God gives a personal message to his prophet. He says, “You are not...
Why Getting a Sunday Sabbath Rest Is Essential Something Is Wrong If I Wake Up Monday Morning Unprepared to Embrace My Week The Old Testament talks a lot about the Sabbath, the final day of the week. God—through the Old Testament writers...
A Simple Gesture (Visiting Church #32) We ascend the steps of the church, and a gregarious woman approaches. She’s wearing a white vestment, and I spy a clerical collar underneath. We’ve never been received so cordially. She thanks us for...
Four Johns but One Mark In “Another Man with Two Names” we talked about a guy known as John Mark. Although no one knows why he’s called John Mark, it does distinguish him from other men in the Bible named John. John In addition...
Can the God of Creation Control the Sun? Justifying Bible Accounts Through Human Reasoning Limits God’s Power As Joshua leads the nation of Israel into the promised land, they defeat Gibeon in a most amazing battle. Though Joshua’s army does its...
Why I Don’t Dress Up for Church—Anymore May My Clothes Never Keep a Visitor from Encountering God My parents, especially my mom, taught me to dress up for church. That’s what people did when I was a kid, and I didn’t question it—even though I’m...
A Traditional Yet Modern Service (Visiting Church #31) It’s Saturday, and we head to church, a Seventh Day Adventist gathering. The focal point of the sanctuary is a large stained glass array. Modern and abstract it portrays an arm reaching up...
Who is Jude? In the Bible, there is only one mention of a man named Jude. That lone reference occurs in the opening greeting of the letter that he wrote. However, Jude is a variation of Judas. Apparently, Judas was a common name two thousand...
Jesus Will Return Unexpectedly: Are We Ready for His Return? The End Will Come Unexpectedly Like a Thief in the Night John’s epic vision that he records in the book of Revelation includes many perplexing allusions. One is a warning that Jesus...
Make a Difference by Having a Meaningful Spiritual Conversation We Can Impact Others by Being Intentional with Our Words Are we someone who others want to talk to about spiritual matters? Are we open to pursue a meaningful spiritual conversation?...
