Articles

Imagine what it was like for her, just her and her little boy. Her husband had died, and together, mother and son were starving to death. They were victims of a widespread famine, and there was no place to go and nothing to do about their plight. She had faced the reality of their coming demise. She would take her little pot of flour and the little bit of oil she had left, gather some sticks, make a little cake, eat this final meal with her son and lay down to die. What would you be... Read More

It was a crazy request: build a boat. But there's no water around. Build it anyway, and trust that water will come. Fill it with all the animals of the land, then board it with your family. Oh, and just a disclaimer – this is going to take decades and result in persecution and mockery. Such was the nature of the task assigned to Noah. It was crazy, when you think about it in its historical and geographical context. There was no amount of human logic, rationality or wisdom that... Read More

We don't know much about the man Enoch. The Bible doesn't divulge any details of his life, amazing feats, battles won, or journies taken by faith like it does with other biblical characters. All we know is that he was the seventh generation between Adam and Noah, that his father was Jared, and that his son was the famous long-living Methuselah (see Genesis 5:18-24). Despite his unremarkable life (in terms of historical prominence and biblical detail), Enoch is the second character... Read More

Want more on the story of Cain and Abel? Check out this sermon I preached on Genesis 4 He's the first martyr in Scripture, and his death is recorded only four chapters in. Perhaps a more gruesomely accurate description is that Abel becomes the first victim of sibling homicide in the history of the world. It's the kind of story that starts trending on social media, capturing your interest as it turns your stomach at the very same time. I almost titled this story... Read More

I want to introduce to you a series of posts that will focus on stories of people of faith. You will be familiar with some of the names, like Noah and Abel and Enoch, while other biblical characters will be less renowned, like the Widow of Zarephath, who still have important stories to tell. But before we begin, I need to remind you of something important: the purpose of their stories is not to give you heroes to emulate, but rather to point you to a Person in whom your faith should reside.... Read More

A few days ago I said that you and I are at risk of becoming too familiar with the Bible and the stories in it. I think there's another area where you and I are at risk in our Christian faith: We read the Bible too quickly. We need to slow down and pay attention to every single word, because there are words and phrases that tell huge stories. If we breeze by them, we could miss something powerful that the Lord is trying to teach us. In today's video clip, there are two words... Read More

I don't know about you, but sometimes I like to read the Bible with self-righteous glasses and look down on the men and women who make faithless blunders and selfish decisions. But I can't get very far before God convicts me of my own sin and reminds me that I'm more like these people than unlike them. Jonah is one of those characters. I like to think that I would never run from the call of God, but in ways that we don't even realize, you and I run everyday. Why do we... Read More

I don't know many of you, apart from maybe your name and email address, but I do know something about you: You're familiar with the story of Jonah. Who hasn't learned of the man who got swallowed by a big fish! But are you too familiar? Has the story of Jonah become such a routine part of your Christianity that you forget to ask what God wants you to learn through this narrative? I'm afraid that often in the church, we have informed brains and unchanged hearts. You... Read More

There are two very famous men in Scripture who share the name Joseph. There's the Old Testament Joseph, the great savior of the nation of Israel, whose amazing story from abandoned brother to Egyptian lord is chronicled in Genesis. Then there's the New Testament Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, who believed in the angel's report and became the guardian of the young Messiah. But there's a third Joseph, often overlooked because of the drama of the moment onto which he stepped.... Read More

At the center of a biblical worldview is this radical recognition: the most horrible thing that ever happened was the most wonderful thing that ever happened. What could be more terrible than Good Friday? Could any injustice be greater? Could any loss be more painful? Could any suffering be worse? The only man who ever lived a life that was perfect in every way possible, who gave his life for the sacrifice of many, and who willingly suffered from birth to death in loyalty to his... Read More