When I was in college, I listened to a lot of sermons by Louie Giglio. He led a citywide Bible study in Atlanta for many years, and I also heard him speak at a few conferences. One particular thing he said has stuck with me for more than a decade. In discussing a passage of…
The Way of the Essenes
About 150 years before the birth of Jesus the Messiah, some of God’s people — the Essenes — established a community in the Judea Wilderness near the northern end of the Dead Sea. We know it as Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Not all scholars agree that Essenes lived at Qumran, wrote…
Fight Cleanly
No two people are alike. God created each of us different — with unique preferences, desires, values, and dreams. When we don’t know how to negotiate these differences with others, we can feel threatened and respond in immature ways, especially when under stress. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to navigate our differences and…
I Want to Know Why!
It does not help to try to quantify suffering, I have learned along the way. That the tsunami of 2004 killed far more people than the tsunami of 2011 or that more students died at Virginia Tech than at Sandy Hook Elementary School does not make one event more tragic than the other. Likewise, to…
Isaiah’s Prophecy
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a Son, and they will call Him Immanuel” — which means, “God with us.” — Matthew 1:22–23 Have you ever stopped for just a moment to ponder the majesty of…