“For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.” (Proverbs 26:20, ESV) I suspect all of us have felt this. Something happens. Within a few hours the same people are angry about the same thing in nearly the same words, and you can guess who will say what before... Continue Reading →

Matthew 16.13-20 There is a way to be near Jesus for years without ever answering the question he actually asks. You can grow up in the building. You can know the songs by heart and know roughly where the passages are. You can hold a set of opinions about Jesus that you inherited from your... Continue Reading →

The technician turns the monitor toward you, and there it is. Your own spine, the curve of it, the wear at the joints, the places where the years have pressed down. Nothing is hidden. “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4.16). Paul essentially validates... Continue Reading →

You know the kind of tired that sleep does not touch. You wake already behind. The list resets. The effort never seems to close the gap between who you are and who you think you should be. Into that weariness, Scripture speaks two words that sound like rivals. Two verses seem to pull in opposite... Continue Reading →

Luke 19.11-27 The road out of Jericho rises fast. You gain about 3,300 feet in seventeen miles, and on the western edge of the city you pass the ruins of Herod’s winter palace, last remodeled by his son Archelaus before Rome stripped him of power and sent him into exile. Every Jew walking that road... Continue Reading →