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Holy Week Is Humble Week: “Beware of Becoming Caesarified” Jesus’ Approach to Power Holy Week is Humble Week. We learn from Jesus’ approach to power that great leaders guard against tyranny and dignify our common humanity. May each of us follow suit and dye our imaginations in Jesus’ blood...

How Should We Evaluate Claims Of Visions or Dreams from God? It’s true that far too many Bible believers are in effect anti-supernatural. Some Christians argue against the miraculous with the same scorn of atheists and agnostics. The irony is stunning, since the Christian faith is rooted in...

The Forgotten Truth: Jesus Is Full of Happiness by Randy Alcorn The Glad Heart of Jesus In the first-ever gospel message of the newborn church, the apostle Peter preached that Psalm 16 is about Christ: “David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand...

Have You Missed It? [ 1 min read ★ ] . . . he rewards those who seek him—Hebrews 11:6 If God chose to speak to us using methods unmistakable, undeniable—a clearly audible voice or a conversation with an angel, perhaps—identifying his voice would be simple...

Living With Urgency [ 1 min read ★ ] The night is about over, dawn is about to break—Romans 13:11-14 No question, a lot of us men are living in “I know, I know” mode . . . in “I’m gonna do it, but just not right now” mode. You see, we know what’s important; we’ve just...

5 No Good, Very Bad Reasons for Divorce He gets on your nerves. Maybe he’s lazy, works too much or is bad with money. Or you think you might be happier with someone else. Do you find yourself pondering, “Should I get divorced?” I get it. Marriage can be a struggle. People sometimes use...

Lent and Why We Still Meet God in the Wilderness It’s Lent: Let’s Go to the Wilderness Budget cuts in the US government have resulted in more folks paying attention to the National Parks recently. While arguments over which branches of government are more or less vital or efficient, my own...

“Power Without Empathy Is A Sin” Can someone have too much empathy? No. Only misdirected empathy. In this photo a group of people on the Ithaca Commons participated in a protest. Only the Weak Will Fail “Only the weak will fail.” (Donald Trump) “Power Without Empathy Is A Sin” (Noah Harley...

Making Decisions Involves The Head And The Heart Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2 There is a connection between what we really...

What Difference Does That Little Bit Of “Extra” Make? Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. Colossians 3:23 Good, better, best; never let it rest till your good is better and your better is best. Anonymous What difference does that little bit of “extra”...

Three Temptations, and Three Triumphs Today’s blog is a slightly expanded reprint of a post I did at this site a couple of years ago. The post seems so suitable for the Lenten season. In 2023, I published the book He Will Save You from the Deadly Pestilence: The Many Lives of Psalm 91. Many...

The Proverbs 31 Wife vs. My Wrinkled Reality Wanted- A Good Wife I’m up before dawn, I’m cooking and negotiating to buy a field/image courtesy of PexelWanted- A Good Wife The Bible presents a noble vision of a wife—a woman of virtue, strength, and wisdom. Proverbs 31 describes her as...

How the Heck Do We Know? [ 1 min read ★ ] . . . show me a sign that it is you who speak with me—Judges 6:17 "That was God . . ." "I felt God nudging me . . ." "I got the sense that God wants me to . . ." We...

How to Spot Misinformation Before It Destroys Lives According to a United Nations report titled Tackling Terrorists’ Exploitation of Youth, young people are a critical target for recruitment. | Image rendered in Meta AI and post-processed for Patheos. Saving Our Democracy: 5 Things You Can Do...

Learning from Amos: Faithfulness Amid Nationalism and Chaos Amos stands out among the Twelve Prophets as an unexpected and powerful voice of God’s presence and judgment in a time of great nationalism, confusion, and conflict. Identified as a sheep farmer from an agriculturally significant...

Falling in Love Can be Easy but Staying in Love is Real Work Bailey, 36, and Kevin, 40, sat on my couch for their couples counseling session and shared their disappointment about their bickering and falling out of love. Bailey put it like this, “Kevin works long hours and when we do see each...

Heard God Through Others? [ 1 min read ★ ] The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me; his word is on my tongue—2 Samuel 23:2 God speaks through his people. He empowers us as agents to carry his messages—as Ananias did...

Selfless Sacrifice and Mary Slessor’s Crazy Amazing Faith There are some people in history whose lives make us stop in our tracks. Their stories challenge our comfort, stretch our faith, and inspire us to live bolder for Jesus. One such person is Mary Slessor, a woman whose fierce devotion...

The Day I Realized I Didn’t Love God For part of my childhood, I didn’t love God. However, I spent many hours at St. Andrews Church in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, where my dad was organist-choirmaster (more about him here). Much of that time was in the historic sanctuary, built in 1857, as...

Grabbing Some Solitude [ 1 min read ★ ] . . . he would withdraw to desolate places and pray—Luke 5:16 Why are we men so bad at solitude? Our king did it quite well. As a man, Jesus knew his limitations. He understood his need to connect with his father—to his guidance and...