For a third time God reveals to Abram that God has chosen him, selected him to receive a vast amount of land and to have countless descendants. Neither promise makes any...

We urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.” God does not promise that our lives will be easy, only that they will be blessed. Afflictions, hardships,...

As a young pastor I remember reading that people in the Bible not only act out their feelings; they also act their way into feelings. When a tragedy occurs, they rend...

Every time a server sets a meal before me in a restaurant I wonder about this passage. Jesus instructs us not to make a public show of our piety. And yet...

When I was growing up, my pastor introduced the collection of the offering each Sunday with these words, “With gratitude for all we have received, let us offer our gifts to...

Today Christians begin the forty-day journey of Lent that ends at Easter. For centuries Christian seekers and believers have observed this as a time of self-reflection, sacrifice, and repentance. Some Christians...

When a person breaks an arm or a leg, if it isn’t set straight the bone may grow back crooked. It may even be necessary for the doctor to rebreak the...

Blessing comes with temptation. Every time we receive some encouraging sign of God’s work in our lives, we run the risk of becoming spiritually cocky. Of all those who came for...

The disciples, “weighed down with sleep,” look up to see Jesus in dazzling clothes talking with two of the great heroes of the faith. Peter, as is often the case, speaks...

The disciples seem to have a sleeping disorder. Every time Jesus asks them to wait with him while he goes off alone, they doze off. Do you remember that this will...