August 18th, 2014 
I love sharing with the community words that inspire me. When I’m in a dark valley, when my heart is full but I still don’t know what to pray, sometimes I borrow words from the saints of long ago. Saying them over and over knits my heart to theirs, and points me in the direction they chose. These words come from
The Valley of Vision, A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions.
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August 11th, 2014 
God portrays himself in the Scriptures as a jealous God. We naturally misunderstand this attribute, giving it human implications, like a jealous wife who resents her husband’s job. The Hebrew word has the idea of being zealous and passionate. Dr. Ron Allen, seminary professor and theologian, writes,
“Yahweh has zeal for the truth that He alone is God and that makes him jealous of any rival.” Two aspects of this jealousy …
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July 28th, 2014 
By no means a major character in the New Testament, Demas haunts me as the person I don’t want to follow.
Paul mentions Demas briefly in three of his letters. The first two, Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 1:24, identify Demas as Paul’s companion and co-worker during Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome. The final mention of Demas, during Paul’s second imprisonment, tells a different story. Written to Timothy, shortly before Paul’s execution, these …
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July 23rd, 2014 
Many people assume that I’m a prolific reader. Not so. I would guess that I read less than ten books a year. I spend considerable time in the best-selling book of all time, and after that, much of what’s out there seems like a bunch of fluff. When I do read other books, I’m drawn to deep theological works by scholars gifted in expounding the Scriptures. OK, I admit it, I’m a Bible …
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July 21st, 2014 
Joseph’s story in Genesis, familiar to many, intends to give us hope when life overwhelms us. At 17 years old, Joseph was sold by his brothers, carried off to Egypt by slave traders, falsely accused by the wife of his master, thrown into prison, and then forgotten for two years by a fellow prisoner he had helped. When Joseph was thirty years old, he was released from his dungeon and elevated to second-in-command …
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