Years ago I remember playfully altering the words of the hymn by Judson W. Van Deventer titled “I Surrender All.” I wanted to point out the absurdity of partial commitment to...

Jesus said some shocking things about money. I just want to put that out there in case you hadn’t run across some of his radical thoughts on the subject. For years...

People find Jesus’ life and teaching compelling—compelling enough to cause them to leave their fishing nets at the drop of a hat (or net!), to inspire men and women to ask...

The author of Hebrews states emphatically that God’s word is not dead and in the past. It is a soul-dividing, joint-splitting instrument that pierces the darkness of our sin and our...

Years ago, Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross identified five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Yet long before this modern-day understanding gleaned from psychology, the psalms of lament gave...

Some people have heard of the “Jesus prayer,” popularized by the Eastern church tradition. It is an adapted form of the tax collector’s prayer from Luke 18: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son...

We easily critique Job’s “so called” friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. They work tirelessly to paste neat and easy answers over Job’s anguish and pain. For some strange reason, they feel...

We find Jesus angry only a few times in the Bible, and this is one of them. According to custom, parents desired a blessing for their children from the rabbi. But...

My youth pastor from years ago told me recently that as a student, I always asked “why.” I had lots of questions. It’s been said that Gentile parents tell their children...

Who was in charge when you were a child and your parent or parents were not available? To whom were you subject? My wife and I left our children with their...