As we move through autumn, lovely green leaves change into a colorful palette before melding into winter’s dreary gray. Change. It’s all good when we talk about leaves, but when we talk about our lives–or changing habits or how we feel about something we’re passionate about–it gets a little uncomfortable. A Big Fat Question–Or Three In one of my all-time …
Blessed In the Storm
When Yahweh sent judgment on His sinful people, it often came in the form of drought. Cracked, dry ground refused to embrace the seed and produce a crop. People perished from dehydration and famine. But what about too much rain? What about floods? What about storms? While much of America’s East Coast still reels from the effects of Hurricane Florence, I feel the need to share about storms—life storms—and find some sort of …
Is Suffering Always God’s Judgment?
I once heard a pastor ask his congregation if they looked for demons in door locks. “When you go to a hotel and your room key doesn’t open the door, do you cast demons out of the lock or accuse God of punishing you? Surely, not. You simply go to the desk and get a new key!” His point was that every bad …
Real People, Real God—Bezalel and the Tabernacle
Download the Study Notes A Tabernacle Build With New Hearts “Then all the congregation of the people of Israel…came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord ‘s contribution to be used for the tent of meeting…So they came, both men and women. All who were of a willing heart brought …
Giving the Holy Spirit a Microphone
Our job as parents is to train our children’s conscience when they’re young. As Christian parents, we’re sort of the “microphone of the Holy Spirit” during their formative years. When our two girls were little, Roy and I never watched R-rated movies, never listened to anything but Christian music, and seldom watched TV. When they grew into middle school, we …
Almonds Get a Good Word in God’s Word
The flowering trees in the Great Pacific Northwest dazzled Hubby and me when we made our first trip west of the Rockies. It was April 2007, just in time for the rhododendrons to explode with color, and Roy had been chosen to interview for a faculty position at Multnomah University (Multnomah Bible College at the time). Huge blossoms of pink …