The opening chapter of the book of Exodus presents a problem. It’s not just any problem, it’s a big problem. The entire family of God, the chosen people, are being held captive in Egypt by the most power person alive at the time...
One of the greatest examples of worship inside of the Scriptures is Isaiah 6. It’s not the prophet himself that does the worshipping (at least it’s not recorded that Isaiah worshipped God in the moment of the revelation), rather, it is...
The books of 1 and 2 Samuel (and in the Hebrew it’s just the single book “Samuel) are pivotal in the overall scheme of God’s World Renewal Plan. These books, even though named after Samuel the prophet, are all about David. But wait...
Living in Haiti for eight years now has forced me to think a lot about what it means to struggle. Webster’s defines “struggle” as “to try very hard to do, achieve, or deal with something that is difficult or that causes problems.” This word best...
Deepak Chopra is becoming one of the most widely read teachers on spirituality in the Western world. Over the past two decades Chopra has produced more than 20 publications, whose teaching focuses primarily on holistic healing (physical, emotional...
In this post, I wrote that observant Jews read Psalm 30 each morning upon rising. I also noted that Psalm 30 is a temple dedication psalm (as the superscription notes for us). In terms of genre (or “form criticism“), the psalm itself is...
Back to Ezekiel’s initial vision. One of the characteristics of the being “with the likeness of four living creatures” (Ex 1:5) is that it was mobile. “Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another...
NT Wright explains how the resurrection impacts the origins of Christianity as a Messianic movement in 1st century Palestinian Judaism.
We can only imagine what it must have been like for everyone the day after Jesus’ resurrection. Learning of his resurrection must have been overwhelming (Jesus wishes to overwhelm us at times), both for his followers as well as for his enemies...
No one imagined it. It came as a surprise to all. Everything thought they knew what God was planning. They believed that they knew what God would do to redeem the world. His plan was beyond their wildest dreams. No one fathomed that it would be...