READ: PSALM 139:7-12; LUKE 15:1-7; ROMANS 8:31-39 I spread mortar on the next brick. The thick sludge looks like grey toothpaste as I smother it on the porous red block. I set the brick firmly on top of the others and reach impatiently for the next one, scoop another trowel-full of mortar and slap it [...]

READ: JOHN 16:33; ROMANS 1:12; 12:15; 2 CORINTHIANS 1:1-12 Second Corinthians 1:1-12 has been one of my favorite Bible passages for quite a while. Paul and Timothy are encouraging the Christians in Corinth, saying, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all [...]

READ: LUKE 11:9-13; JOHN 16:1-15; EPHESIANS 1:18 In college, I had a professor who started class discussions about readings by showing us a picture of a lightning bolt striking the earth. Then she’d ask the question, “What struck you?” Sometimes, I like to ask myself this kind of question when I read the Bible. I [...]

READ: GENESIS 1:26-31; PSALMS 119:73; 139:14; EPHESIANS 2:1-10 Who am I? This question is one we wrestle with throughout our lives. And it’s an important question to ask, because much of what we do flows from who we believe we are. Here’s the thing though—we can’t answer this question without God. And thankfully, He provides [...]

READ: GENESIS 1:26-31; EPHESIANS 2:1-22 “How does God see my generation?” It’s a good question, and one we don’t often think to ask. We hear a lot of talk about the different generations: what they’re like, what their strengths and weaknesses are, how they’re different from other generations, and on and on. The concept of [...]

READ: MATTHEW 1:18-25; 28:16-20 Recently, I was looking up verses about Jesus being with us, and I noticed something really cool. In Matthew’s Gospel—his account of Jesus’s life— Matthew includes two pointed statements about how Jesus is with us, and he places one of these right at the beginning of his account and the other [...]

READ: PSALM 66:16-20; JAMES 1:19-27; 3:13-18 Sometimes our orchestra would split into ensembles. In these smaller groups, we’d sit down with our sheet music, then all start at the same speed, or tempo. But sometimes, it didn’t stay that way for long. Soon the cello had sped up, the violin had slowed down, the bass [...]

READ: GENESIS 1:27; LUKE 8:1-3; MATTHEW 27:45-56 Sometimes, when I look at our broken world and I see more and more ways that women have been treated as less than men, I just get overwhelmed. Sometimes I wonder, does God see women as less than men? Are we less? One day, I was sitting alone [...]

READ: PSALMS 36:5; 148:7; EPHESIANS 3:14-21 The ocean makes me nervous. I really don’t like movies where people are lost at sea—especially if they’re stuck on some sort of tiny raft and no one knows how to find them. How awful would that be? The sky, huge above you, could release a storm at any moment. The [...]

I read an interesting Bible verse the other day: “The end of a matter is better than its beginning” (Ecclesiastes 7:8, NIV). Another Bible translation phrases it this way: “Finishing is better than starting” (NLT). I'm no ancient-language scholar, so I can't go into the meaning of the original words and sentence structures, but this [...]