James doesn't have a lot of nice things to say about the tongue. He focuses on its destructive capabilities, calling it "a fire, a world of...
Apples of Gold in Settings of Silver
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Sabbath Thoughts
These posts are the heart and soul of the blog—food for though on God’s Sabbath day.
Written on Your Doorposts
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your...
The Secret Is Showing Up
People talk a lot about "being your best self" and "doing your best work." Those are, in a lot of ways, ideas I can get behind. Solomon said,...
The Overview Effect
I watched a video of a dad sobbing as he said goodbye to his young daughter and wife as they boarded a bus. They were leaving; he was staying...
Growing Up Is Hard Work
Growing up is hard work. I mean that in the metaphorical sense, but also in the very real, very literal sense. You began your existence as a single...
The Time That Matters
Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land, and it turns out that that Bible gives short shrift to most of those years....
(Spiritually) Sunk
It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the things we have are worth what we paid for them. They're not. They're worth what they can do for...
A Long Story About a Middle Name
Two weeks ago, I woke up angry with God. I wasn't proud of it. I didn't want to be angry. But I was. I propped myself up on an elbow and looked...
“For God Still Loves the World”
I saw that phrase on the December 2020 cover of Christianity Today. A giant, cosmic hand reaches out toward a world wrapped in darkness, drifting...
2021 Doesn’t Care What You Want
This is the last Sabbath Thought I'll post in 2020. Do you know what that means? …Very little, actually. It's easy to make a big deal about that...
The Secret to a Pure Language
I love words. That's a good thing for a writer to be able to say, but what I mean is, I love what you can do with words. Here's an example. If I...
What Brewing Coffee Can Teach Us About Being Christian
Earlier this year, my little Primrose went through a particularly rough sleep regression. She had a hard time falling asleep—which meant Mary and I...
Drunk With Blood, Part Three: Beyond Justice
Let's recap what we've learned from parts one and two of this series. We know that the nations God sent Israel to annihilate were corrupt in ways we...
Drunk With Blood, Part Two: Understanding Love
(This post is part of a series. Start with part one here.) We conflate a lot of other things with love. Love is tolerance. Love is acceptance. Love...
Drunk With Blood, Part One: The Proper Context
In his first epistle, John writes, "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:8). In Deuteronomy, God who is love says, "I...
Not of This World
"My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now...
But the Message Is the Same
What a year. I just… What. A. Year. Way back in 2019 (which was, by my count, just 83 short months ago), I remember joking that 2020 was going to be...
The Faces We Used to Have
The first time I saw my daughter's face, she was still in the womb. We were so eager to catch even a glimpse of our little girl that we paid for the...