Verse for the Week 1 Peter 2:20–21 (NIV) 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an …
What makes Psalm 118 so powerful is its context. This was a song written for and often sung at Israel's great feast days including Passover and the high holy days. It was likely on the lips of the crowd when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and possibly sung again in the Upper Room after …
The above picture and caption/title were recently posted by our daughter Amanda on Facebook. This is a very different blog for me. It’s about Amanda’s cancer, and a call I made to her husband Jake. I wrote it hoping the journal ChristianityToday/Pastors will print it for Jake, so I wrote it with that in mind. …
I had some folks ask me for a reading I did at the end of the service yesterday. It all comes from Psalms 23. I adapted it from the conclusion of Traveling Light by Max Lucado. I hope it encourages you this week. In Psalms 23 God says to you, If you will stop playing …
In CS Lewis’ classic book The Screwtape Letters a demon, Screwtape, is training his nephew on how to tempt humans. He writes, “whatever their bodies do affects their soul. It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: In reality, our best work is done by keeping things out.” Here …
[picture by Alessandro Cerino on Unsplash] When I was a kid, my dad would listen to a radio show by Paul Harvey called The Rest of the Story. Paul Harvey would tell a story but at a key point stop and say, “In a minute you will hear the rest of the story.” Then they …
I still love it.
JoLynn and I enjoy the monthly hot date at Costco. Usually, we pull in on a weekend and the place is packed. Still, I’ll find a nice spot close to the handicapped parking. She says, with jealous disdain, “You’re so lucky.” I reply, “Yeah, well, I had my devotions.” Is God like that? Does he …
I got off the “L” in Chicago (short for elevated railway), and said to myself, “self,” I said, “I don’t know where I am, but it looks like the worst slums in America, and I’m pulling a suitcase. This could be a bad day.” It almost was. It had been one of those weekends. The …
Sometimes I have difficulty getting into the skin of what verses in the Bible are trying to say. So, I go into my fancy Logos Bible program - or jump to Bible Hub or Blueletter Bible on my phone - and took up the word-for-word translation. After some study, and stealing from other translations, I …
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