Good advice is always nice. It can help us find our way or sort through all kinds of problems. The only thing is, good advice still leaves one big issue- we have to apply it. We still have to go out and do the thing we’ve been advised on. Far better for us is good…
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Certain questions never go away. Throughout every generation, these questions constantly resurface with a variety of answers and schools of thought. When thinking through theology, the question of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility is a classic debate that has entertained theologians for centuries. The answer to that question comes in many forms and the Book…
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The brokenness of this world can feel overwhelming. When surrounded by sickness, death, suffering, and violence, it can be easy to think there is no light left in this world. This is the book of Judges and it’s exactly how Naomi felt in the opening chapter of the Book of Ruth. Three women widowed and…
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They say never meet your heroes, they’ll always let you down. Samson might be the epitome of that phrase. A man born with a purpose and gifted with nearly superhuman strength, Samson never quite lived up to what he should’ve been. He had it all, but was so far from God he never really came…
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Sometimes a story is too good to be true. Reality has a way of showing us the darkness of the world and preventing us from believing the best. No one would confuse the story of Jephthah of being too good, but it almost was. It could’ve been. It should’ve been. Which is really the whole…
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Sometimes in our rush to get what we want, we don’t really pay attention to what it is we’re getting. We rush to fill our need with something we think will solve the problem. Unfortunately, when we rush to fill that void, our solution is worse than the problem. So it is with the wanna…
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As Americans, we’re taught from childhood that independence is a good and powerful thing. We celebrate it every Fourth of July. We read about it in our history books. It’s part of who we are. While that may be a great thing for a country, we shouldn’t be so quick to assume that is the…
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Sometimes it seems impossible to know what God wants of us. Other times it seems so easy we don’t trust our discernment. When God called Gideon, he almost couldn’t believe what was happening. He needed to know for sure. He needed certainty. Is that how God works? Is that how faith works? Gideon’s story gives…
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Strong female leadership or weak, cowardly male? Maybe both? Maybe neither? The story of Deborah, Barak, and Jael is one that has a lot of unexpected twists and turns. From a female judge to the bloody victory of a housewife, this story shows us that God often uses the unexpected to accomplish the necessary. What…
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Violent, dark, depressing, graphic, crass. Welcome to the book of Judges. We begin our look at the judges of Israel with one of the strangest and most graphic stories in all of scripture- the story of the judge and assassin Ehud. What does a left-handed assassin have to teach a people so far removed from…
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It has been reported that Mark Twain said “History doesn’t repeat itself. But it does rhyme.” Whether he said it or not, that sentiment is undoubtedly true. We have no further to look than the book of Judges to see how that plays out- over and over again. While the book of Judges reads like…
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What we want, what we ask for, or what we really need? We like to pretend those three things are all the same. It’s clear, though, that what we want and what we truly need don’t always work out to be the same thing- which often leads us to ask for the wrong things. Jesus…
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Life is all about perspective, isn’t it? What seems like an insurmountable challenge to one person might be a walk in the park to another. Though bumps and valleys are rarely fun, we just might find with a little perspective that God interrupts our easy walk down the wide path with mountains meant to make…
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We are taught to believe what we see and question everything else. Is that really the right way to view things though? When Elisha’s young apprentice fears for the impending attack from the surrounding forces, Elisha reminds him that the truest thing about their lives isn’t what they can see, but the things they can’t….
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Wealth, fame, power, success, honor- you name it, Namaan had it. Unfortunately, he had one other thing too- leprosy. When a young slave girls suggests he go to his enemies God for relief, Namaan is desperate enough to try it. After learning some hard lessons about humility and how God works, Namaan finds healing- and…
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Do you believe in miracles? If you spend much time in the bible, especially the lives of Elijah and Elisha, you’ll have to answer that question. Unfortunately, talk of miracles quickly spins into arguments about whether miracles still happen today and what even constitutes a miracle. The far more important question is about what these…
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Sometimes stories in the Bible can leave us scratching our heads and asking, “What just happened?” The end of Elijah’s ministry and the beginning of Elisha’s ministry is full of stories that can seem flat-out strange. Some of those stories give us no explanation or means of understanding what is going one, but some give…
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There are two different, often conflicting views of life. One believes that we can write our own story and decide what our “verse” will be that we contribute to the world (see Walt Whitman). The other says we have no control of “who lives, who dies, who tells our story.” (See Lin Manuel Miranda). Who…
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Oftentimes in life we don’t recognize the things that we need the most. We go through our lives thinking about the temporary, the urgent, and the things we “feel” like we need. The things that are truly most important are left in the background or completely unnoticed. Fortunately, God did not wait on us to…
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Jesus almost never lives up to our expectations. That tells us more about our shortcomings than it does about his mission. Time and time again in the gospels, Jesus does things the disciples simply never saw coming. The story of the Good Samaritan is a story that makes a Samaritan the hero when just a…
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