Jesus Offers a Prayer for Unity The last thing that Jesus did as a free man was to pray. The last thing in prayed for was that his future followers would get along. This strongly suggests that unity was important to Jesus. While unity among his...
Once, as I made my way through airport security on a trip, I was randomly selected for a chemical scan. After passing a gauze-like material over my hands, the female TSA worker popped it in a machine for analysis. To my shock and her dismay, the...
Is it Okay to Contend with God? Job and his Friends Contend with God Job’s life has crumbled. His wife turned on him. And his friends don’t help. After listening to their back-and-forth dialogue that accomplishes nothing, God interjects. At last...
We Can Study the Bible for Ourselves We Don’t Need a Spiritual Guide to Help Us Study the Bible I use the Bible to study the Bible. To me, studying the Word of God is the best way to write about it. I don’t read much about what other people have...
A few years ago I read some of my past posts on this blog, not for any nostalgic reason, but to see if I could merge some of them into a book, codenamed Woodpecker Wars. Here’s what I found: Though some posts are dated and others are not good, I...
God Speaks to Job—and to Us When God speaks to us, we need to be ready to listen Job’s friends come to comfort him. At least that’s how it appears, but in actuality they’re not much help. Their words assault Job and his character. In exasperation...
Embrace the Biblical Story Arc Though God Doesn’t Change, the Way People Perceive Him Does I enjoy a good book, one with a satisfying story arc. The Bible has an arc, too, a biblical story arc. Some people see the Old Testament as focusing on...
In general, I appreciate the lengths financial institutions go to in keeping my account—and the information behind it—safe from hackers. These steps include multi-page sign-in procedures, displaying a personal phrase, and requiring that a random...
Are Our Beliefs Flawless or Flawed? If we claim to know the truth, that implies every other perspective is wrong The book of Job is mostly dialogue between Job and his four “friends,” with God having the final word—as he should. The words of...
Why Read What Other People Say About the Bible When We Can Read It Ourselves? To Better Understand the Bible, Use Scripture to Interpret Scripture I shared part of my book, Women in the Bible, with some friends at a writers group. They liked what...
