Consider What Job Believes in the Midst of His Suffering After Bildad’s attack, Job stares into the distance. He sits in silence as if this time he will not respond. Still, his anger bubbles within him, slowly at first and then building until it boils. He scans the three men and closes his eyes. He […]
When Job’s Friends Try to Comfort Him, Their Words Only Deepen His Distress The Bible tells the story of Job, how Satan took everything from him: his possessions, his children, and his health. Left in deep pain with an unsupportive wife, four of Job’s friends come to offer comfort, but they fail. They should say […]
Strive to Build Meaningful Connections with Those Around You We know many more people on a casual level then we do in a deeper, more meaningful way. We can distinguish between them as acquaintances versus friends. Think of concentric circles, with yourself in the center. The innermost circle contains your friends, and the next circle […]
We Must Exercise Care with the Labels We Use for Our Spiritual Leaders Rabbi is a title I expected to find scattered throughout the Old Testament. It seems like a very Old Testament word. It’s not. It’s a New Testament word. Rabbi only appears in the Gospels and then just three of them: Matthew, Mark, […]
Paul Affirms Tychicus as a Dear Friend, Faithful Minister, and Servant of God Tychicus is a character in the Bible who most people don’t know. His name occurs only five times, once in Acts and four times in Paul’s letters. The letter to the Colossian church is one example. Each time Tychicus’s name is mentioned, […]
Attending Church with Friends With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #44. We revisited this church, which we attended some fifteen years ago. Though many of the people we knew then had scattered to other churches or just […]
We find the church easily. With a parking lot in front and another in back, I choose the closer one. Only after getting out of our car do I notice the sign labeling the building entrance as “offices.” Looking for alternatives, I spot another sign marked “sanctuary.” To my dismay, it points to the back […]
Social Media Has Trivialized What It Means to Follow Someone and Be Their Friend Today when we think of the word followers, our mind quickly takes us to Twitter. As in, “How many Twitter followers do you have?” Instagram and Pinterest also lists our number of followers. And when someone wonders about the number of […]
My wife and I are on track to start our “52 Churches” adventure this coming Sunday—look for my first update on Monday. As friends prayed about this, they prayed that we would have a positive impact on each of the 52 churches we visited. This surprised me. Though it is generally my goal to make […]
In the next word picture for God, we can consider God as our friend. As our relationship with God grows and progresses, there is an opportunity for us to become friends, perhaps analogous to a parent and their adult child. As friends, we (that is, God and us) spend time together, communicate with each other, […]