I saw a meme yesterday about how easily you can hurt yourself when you’re over 40 – you know, like straining your back getting out of bed or hurting your shoulder while doing dishes. I’m 43, and that meme holds a little too much truth. Two months ago, I started working at a thrift store,…
Tag: joy
Hope Is Kindled
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more,…
You Who Have Made Me See
Ask anyone who has ever studied the Bible with me – I’m big on context. Bible verses, and really any kind of writing, should never be plucked out of their surrounding text and infused with meaning all their own. Yet I’m writing today because I did just that. I was praying in front of my…
A Brand or a Sword?
My Bible study is in our eighth week of studying the first epistle of the Apostle Peter, with only one more week to go. As I tried to settle into this week’s text, chapter four, I kept having trouble focusing on the text as a whole, which is how I usually start each week of…
Emmanuel
I woke up at 4:15 this morning, and I am not a morning person. But, as I desperately tried to fall back asleep, my mind wouldn’t cooperate. Unusually for me, I left some Christmas errands until the last minute, and I spent too many hours yesterday trying to deep-breathe my way out of parking lot…
The Grace of a Humble Birth
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. -Philippians 2:8 Have you ever held a newborn during its first seconds of life? The most terrifying rotation I did in medical school was Obstetrics. Each of my classmates delivered probably three to…
An Inheritance of Gold and Glass
The Revelation of John. How many Christians are frightened of studying it? Controversial interpretations and the manipulation of numbers and symbols have discouraged too many from studying, or even reading, this book. Gruesome beasts and a lake of fire, a slain lamb with seven eyes – who wouldn’t be intimidated? Like any other book of…
Weep With Me
Sometimes it’s easy to see why the “health and wealth” perversion of Christianity is so popular. Just be a good person, just check off these boxes, and life in this world will go well. I’m a box-checker by nature. I have five whiteboards in my house devoted to various lists of activities. But I also…
Our Finest Gifts We Bring
Unto us a child is born, unto us a king is given. Today we give thanks for the greatest gift ever conceived, the gift of everlasting life, held in the hand of a newborn child. Countless carols describe both the ripples of power emanating from Bethlehem that first Christmas night, as well as the world’s…
Before the Fire 