I sat across from a friend sharing coffee and conversation when I confessed a longing I had been hiding. After the words were out of my mouth, I almost wished I could push the rewind button and take the desire of my heart back. But the words had been spoken,
“I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” –Luke 5:32 In Luke chapter 5, we witness a stunning scene: Jesus shared a meal with tax collectors, some of the most resented people in His day. When you read the Bible for yourself, specifically the Gospels, you
Waiting is my kryptonite! I am very vulnerable to impulsivity, recklessness, and discouragement when I do not have an obvious expiration date for my periods of waiting. Yes. I have prayed daily about it, but we all know what happens when you pray for patience! The way that God graciously
Have you ever faced awkward questions about your faith? Or had people ask you awkward questions, with their only intent being to trick you? It’s never a nice place to be, and yet even these times can provide us with opportunities to point people to Jesus. In Mark 11 we
I am a theology nerd. I once greeted my roommate in the morning with a rant about Jesus’ temptation and the hypostatic union, unaware that she might want to wait until after breakfast before diving into a theological problem. Her groggy response was met with an exacerbated, “That’s not how
“So Paul entered the synagogue and spoke out fearlessly for three months, addressing and convincing them about the kingdom of God. But when some were stubborn and refused to believe, reviling the Way before the congregation, he left them and took the disciples with him, addressing them every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two
God’s Revealed Word Praise God that His Word never fails but accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent. That purpose is to bring about our belief in Jesus (Isaiah 55:10-11; John 6:29). It is important to thank God for His Word, for it is a gift. Through it, He
I spent many, many mornings in my seat at church. I used to sit and fidget and wiggle. Some Sundays I was so tired from getting everyone up, fed, dressed, and out of the house that I would let my heavy eyelids fall and even close all the way. Just
It was Mary Magdalene who was the first one to see Jesus after His resurrection. I love that the Lord chose women to be the first ones to discover that the tomb was empty. When we found out we were expecting a girl, we named her Madeline, a derivative of
For most of us, the application of our Bible study tends to be the favorite part of our quite time. We live in a world where we can have access to everything quickly. This mindset can creep into our Bible studies and cause us to want to skip the hard