Jesus teaches that loving God and loving one’s neighbor as oneself are the greatest commandments and that, indeed, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matt. 22:40,...

The psalmist tells us not to misplace our trust by putting it in human beings whose thoughts and plans end when they die. Instead, the psalmist tells us to put our...

Journeying to the Promised Land, the Jews encounter many challenges. In the wilderness of Shur, they find no water. At Marah, the water is bitter. In the Desert of Sin, they...

Abimeleck, his wife, Naomi, and their two sons go to live in Moab. Actually they are “escaping death” in the form of famine because there is food in Moab while there...

When Naomi decides to return to her homeland of Judah, she insists that her widowed daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, go back to their mothers’ houses. She spells out the reason. Naomi...

The blood of Christ described in today’s reading refers not simply to the bodily fluid but to the whole atoning, sacrificial work of Christ in his death. The death of Jesus...

In today’s scripture, we read that the Lord Jesus came as a high priest of “the good things that are now already here” (NIV). Some earlier texts say “the good things...

“Today is the day God brings good news to the poor, proclaims release to the captives, gives sight to the blind, and sets the oppressed free. And so shall we.”* These...

Further revelation of God usually results in God’s being stripped of our human-imposed limitations. It also leads to God’s creation finding new life and availing itself to the renewed call to...

Some years ago, my family doctor recommended that I see a psychologist. To my great surprise and joy, by the end of the third session with the psychologist, we had gotten...