What Is Your Path? When we focus on other people, we may lose sight of our own calling As Jesus wraps up his stint on earth, he spends some time with his disciples, the core group he trained for three years. They will need to carry on without...
Do We Need to Include the Lament in Our Sunday Worship Services? Expressions of grief and sorrow abound in the Psalms but the church has forgotten how to lament In the churches I have attended throughout my life and visited in the past few years...
The Simplicity of Faith: Jesus Says “Follow Me” In Peter’s darkest moment, he denies that he even knows who Jesus is. I don’t criticize Peter for this, however. Despite a desire to respond differently, I suspect that if facing death, I could...
If God Cares for Every Bird, How Much More Will He Care for Us? God Cares for the Lesser Things of His Creation and We Are So Much More In one of Asaph’s Psalms he exalts God for his power, beauty, and perfection. In doing so Asaph envisions what...
Living Stones: Replacing Temples and Priests Through Jesus we become his priests and his temple, which should change everything In the Old Testament the people go to the temple to encounter God. The priests help them in this. They act as a...
How to Confront Someone: Lead with a Story Nathan takes a wise approach when confronting David about his sins King David, a man after God’s own heart, is far from perfect. After the Bathsheba affair and the subsequent murder of her husband at the...
Those in Power Must Curb its Use or Risk Becoming Corrupted By It When leaders have absolute power they can commit terrible atrocities In the early days of the nation of Israel, a time under its first king, we witness a bad transition of...
Women in the Bible: Naomi God Takes Away Naomi’s Bitterness Over Losing Her Husband and Her Sons Naomi means pleasant. She, her husband, and their two sons leave their home country and travel to Moab because of a famine. While in Moab, her...
Deborah, the Judge and Hero Judge Deborah was a reluctant hero. Deborah, also a prophetess, received instructions from God to relay to Barak. His mission was to lead a battle against their oppressors. When she shared this with Barak, he balked...
Archippus is Encouraged to Complete His Work Archippus is mentioned twice in the Bible, both times in letters from Paul. First, in the letter to Philemon, Archippus is one of the addressees and is called “a fellow soldier.” Then in Paul’s letter...
