King Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful king in all of Babylon, has a dream that troubles him deeply. Some commentaries suggest that he doesn’t even remember the contents of the dream because it was so intense and troubling. Distressed by this great mystery, the king turns to the smartest people he knows to interpret his dream, but they are unable to help. In fact, the wisest people in all of...
This era in history is not friendly toward humility. Humility, many think, is weak, small, ineffective, cowardice-in-disguise, part of the feminization of culture. Of course, we could say this about any era in history. Power and strength have always been the real human ethic, with personal boasting considered a sign of healthy confidence. But our disregard of humility today seems even more...
I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that as a church living in the modern world, we don’t really know what to do with a book like Lamentations. Traditionally, the book has been read in the Christian church during Holy Week. But unless you keep the church calendar, I doubt you have read the book of Lamentations on an annual basis every Easter season. If you read through the Bible each...
My family’s adoption story did not begin in a courtroom. It began in a hospital. The day our daughter was placed in our arms, we stepped into a world of trauma, special needs, and spiritual battles that we were not prepared for. The joy was real—our adopted daughter is one of the greatest joys of our lives—but the cost was real too. Adoption is beautiful, but it is also hard. And like every...
Jesus takes a simple story of a farmer and seeds and magically turns it into an opportunity to challenge his followers. What is Jesus specifically pointing out? If you carefully read the three retellings of the parable, you will note the same words at the conclusion of each one: Let anyone who has ears to hear listen. Let’s take some time to unpack Jesus’s power-packed statement. The point Jesus...
