READ: 1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-11; 8:1-3; PHILIPPIANS 1:9-11 I was just reading an article about sheep, and I learned about something called sheep bloat. Sometimes a farmer goes out one morning, and there’s this dead sheep laying on its back, feet up in the air. Its belly is swollen tight. And sheep bloat has slain another [...]

READ: PSALM 37:5; PROVERBS 3:5; ISAIAH 26:3-4; 1 PETER 5:6-7 "I don’t think I can go any higher.” I glanced down at my friends, saw how far away the floor was, and gripped the handholds more tightly. I was regretting my decision to go rock climbing. “Okay,” my friend Natalie called, “then just push off.” [...]

READ: PSALM 37:1-7; PROVERBS 16:1-9; 19:20-22 As a young child, I dreamed of many variations of my future: a ballerina (which I was told I could never accomplish), or a nurse who flies in helicopters to help with medical emergencies, or an environmentalist who protects God’s creation. I also fantasized about opening a shop that [...]

READ: MATTHEW 22:34-40; ACTS 9:1-20 When I worked in Japan as a young international schoolteacher, I often spent weekends exploring Tokyo’s neighborhoods or other parts of Japan. Sometimes, I’d get lost and have to ask strangers the way in my simple Japanese: “Migi? Hidari? Massugu?” (Right? Left? Straight?) Their rapid, fluent answers often left me [...]

READ: PSALM 13; 1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18; HEBREWS 10:36-39 There are times when I get on my knees to pray, and I don’t feel like praying. There are times when I talk to God, and it doesn’t feel like He’s listening. There are times when I’m in a tough spot, and I feel like screaming, “God! [...]

READ: PROVERBS 1:1-7; 1 CORINTHIANS 1:30; JAMES 1:5-8; 3:13-18 The ball was out, right? It all happened so fast that I couldn’t tell. Did it touch the line? I tried to replay it in my head, but the decision wasn’t becoming any clearer. This was the biggest tennis game of the season. If we won, [...]