When we think of heaven, we usually think of some place in the sky. But in John’s vision, heaven is a new city. I love this image. We can easily imagine...

Let’s stay with the story of the Ascension one more day. Why? Because Luke does. He ends the Gospel of Luke with the story of the Ascension, and then tells the...

Today we celebrate Jesus’ passing the baton of his mission to his disciples, the church. It’s a period of transition that reminds me of the first week of July in the...

I grew up in a conservative evangelical church in the holiness tradition, and I have a deep appreciation for this tradition’s emphasis on personal holiness and evangelism. The key questions were...

Yesterday we read about how salvation disturbs unjust economic systems. Today the story continues, and we learn that salvation also disrupts unjust power dynamics. Paul and Silas are thrown in jail....

In our story today, Paul and Silas encounter an enslaved girl who has a “spirit of divination” that is making her owners a lot of money. The spirit in her would...

Scholars call the book of Revelation a work of apocalyptic literature. It is not the genre of zombie wastelands but—from the Greek—the genre of “uncovering.” Revelation works to reveal the truth...

Water is essential to embodied life: Not only are human beings 60 percent water, but we last only three days without drinking it. For those who lived in the semi-arid world...

It appears that Lydia was an immigrant and former slave. To begin with, she shared her name with a region of Asia Minor known for her occupation: the production of purple...

We jump into the Acts narrative shortly after the Council of Jerusalem where, guided by the Holy Spirit, the early church agrees to include Gentiles in its community of Jewish Christians...