When my feet stood on the Promised Land in February 2000, I realized Israel is to the world what the heart is to the human body—the epicenter of life and breath. Perhaps it sounds overly dramatic, but when I exited our plane and stepped onto the pavement at Ben Gurion Airport, something inside me shifted. Though I was 6,000 miles …
Testing or Torture: Joseph’s Brothers in Egypt
I don’t look sick, do I? The year was 2002, right before the health crash that landed me in bed for six months. Between 1997 – 2005, I endured a lot of medical testing. (CLICK HERE for more about my chronic illness battle.) At times, I questioned whether it should be called testing or torture. Were it not for believing my doctors …
Joseph’s Dreams Meant Something–Do Ours?
Do you dream? Perhaps a better question is, do you remember your dreams? As a freshmen in college, we’re all forced to write that horrendous research paper on whatever topic we choose, right? For some reason, I chose the stages of sleep for my research and became fascinated by it! I learned that dreaming is healthy! In fact, dreams are …
Celebrating One God at Christmas
Ho-ho-how do we ignore the commercialism associated with Christmas and focus on the ho-ho-holy God who invaded earth in a lowly manger? Perhaps it would help to remember that our struggle is neither new to our generation nor unique to our culture. When Joseph was released from prison and elevated to the second-highest ruler in Egypt, he also faced unique challenging …
An Egyptian Rapunzel: Were Both Joseph & Asenath Held Captive?
Fact or Fiction: Joseph’s wife Asenath was held captive in a tower before she married Joseph? Well, I counted it as sort of both. An ancient Jewish novel, written sometime between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D., tells the story of Joseph and Asenath. It was reworked a few centuries later as ancient Christian fiction! Fascinating, huh, to think that “biblical …
What Makes You Different?
What kind of different are we talking about today? In one of my favorite movies, the little boy, Forrest Gump, is forced to undergo some standardized testing before he enters school. The principal explains his less-than-favorable results to Forrest’s mother in the clip above by saying the famous words: “Your boy’s different, Mizzz Gump.” Is being different a bad thing or …