(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...
Sabbath Thoughts
These posts are the heart and soul of the blog—food for though on God’s Sabbath day.
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...
Coasting.
Next week will mark the fourteenth anniversary of my baptism. Fourteen years. Almost a decade and a half since I formally accepted Jesus Christ as...
The Bigger Picture
We can't see it. We like to tell ourselves that we can, but we can't. Sometimes, if we position ourselves just right, we can bolster our perspective...
The Model Nation That Wasn’t
On the cusp of the Promised Land, Moses told the Israelites, See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the LORD my God commanded me, that you...
Speaking the Truth in Love
There are two important facets to that instruction: "The truth" and "love." What are you saying, and why are you saying it? We can try to show love...
YHWH Yireh: The LORD Will Provide
"Is anything too hard for the LORD?" (Genesis 18:14) That's the question at the heart of Abraham's story—and at the heart of every Christian's...
Remember Lot’s Wife
The only thing we really know about Lot's wife is that she looked back. That's it. We don't know her name, we don't know where she was from, we...
When My Neighbor Can’t Breathe
Jesus taught that the two great commandments, the summation and foundation of "all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:40), the pathway to...
How to Save the World
I want to live in a world where black people don't have to worry about being abused, harassed, or murdered by police officers who have no business...
The Key to Being Understood
…is to understand. It's great to have the best argument, the clearest articulation, and the cleverest presentation. But the (often frustrating)...
What We Took for Granted
The coronavirus changed things. It doesn't matter how you feel about it or whether you disagree with how it's being handled. It changed things, and...
We’re Not All #SafeAtHome
This is something my wife got me thinking about a couple days ago. One of the more popular hashtags on social media right now is #SafeAtHome. People...
When the Lines Blur
My least favorite side-effect from this global quarantine has been the way it makes the holy days feel. We're all home more often. We all have fewer...
The Body and the Blood
"For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep." What a weighty, uncomfortable verse. Members of the church in Corinth were...