Intentional Bible Study – Part 1 There’s Bible study and then there’s intentional Bible study. But did you know intentionality begins with several non-negotiables before you open your Bible? A high view of God and His Word Instead of a high view of God and His...
Strong Women In honor of Mother’s Day, many church sermons will be shared this weekend extolling the wonders of that noble, excellent, worthy, or virtuous (depending upon your translation) woman described in Proverbs 31. But I much prefer to be like the other...
Called, Loved, and Kept There’s a lot of talk in Christian circles about being “called,” and rightly so. The Bible tells us: We’re called to a holy calling (2 Timothy 1:9) Many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 22:14) God works all things together for God...
Four Reasons Why Christians Should Read the Old Testament Between teaching a Bible study on ancient Israel’s divided history and listening to my pastor’s Sunday morning series on Psalm 119, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the Old Testament for the past few...
Context is King One of my favorite scenes from The Princess Bride includes a conversation between a character named Inigo Montoya and the arch-villain. Montoya spends much of the story listening to the arch-villain repeatedly use the word inconceivable. But...
A Favorite Bible Verse I Don't Always Love The world around us is becoming increasingly challenging. Challenging to live out our Christian faith in a morally relativistic culture. Challenging to share the joy of our faith in a society that is not just...
Psalms: A Book of the Heart I have more questions than answers these days. The world is making less sense to me as the days pass. People are more divided and angrier than ever before. Common sense seems to have been abandoned. Civil discourse has disappeared....
Catch Up to Scripture A friend recently shared a tender prayer request, then closed our conversation by saying, “I just want my heart to catch up to what Scripture tells me.” Wow. That conversation occurred two months ago, but her statement has stuck with me....
The Power of Prophecy The U.S. presidential election is less than a month away. Each side is extolling the benefits of voting for their candidate and confidently predicting victory. Don’t you wish you possessed the power of prophecy to know the outcome of the...
No-Comfort Zones God and I have been having an ongoing conversation. Then again, it hasn’t been so much of a conversation as a monologue on my part. An ongoing monologue centering on my affection for comfort zones. I like being comfortable. Working with the familiar....
Do You Eat Scripture Like a Squirrel or a Raccoon? I have a mango tree in my backyard. Some years the harvest...
When Bible Reading Becomes Discouraging Discouragement is real. And often the easiest time to become discouraged is...
Who Are the Least of These? Who are “the least of these”? The answer may not be what you expect. The phrase,...