There is a funny line in the movie Miss Congeniality where the contestants of a beauty pageant are each asked what one thing society needs most. One after another, they each smile broad, white-toothed grins and answer: “world peace.” Sandra Bullock’s character, however, confidently answers; “That’s easy, Stan. Tougher sentences for parole violators.” The audience […]

Peter Marshall was once the chaplain of the United States Senate. One day, a man came to Dr. Marshall with a concern about tithing. The man explained that he had been practicing the discipline of tithing for some time. It wasn’t too hard, the man said, when he was only making $20,000 a year. He […]

When I was pregnant, someone told me that having a child was like having your heart walking around outside your body. How true it is! Most of King David’s children turned out completely rotten. With so many wives and concubines having children, David’s family dynamic was certainly complicated. His oldest son raped one of his […]

Last year, a very powerful, well-known ministry professional tweeted something that, in my opinion, was at best tacky and at worst utterly offensive. I told him so. Of course, his many followers leaped to his defense and it became a huge thing in my Twitter feed. When I told my friend about it, he laughed […]

Bathsheba’s story is complicated, isn’t it? While there are many questions that we might like answered (was she David’s victim or accomplice in their adultery? How did she feel about her husband, Uriah? Uriah was listed as one of David’s famous “mighty men”. He was a close and loyal friend. How could David have done […]

My daughter has a boy in her first-grade class who can’t navigate stairs without assistance. Sadly, her class is on the second story of their school building. Her teacher is very good about helping the boy up and down the stairs, but told me that recently she led the students out the door and down […]

Michal. Princess daughter of Israel’s first king and first wife of its second. She has been vilified by most who have attempted to write or teach about her and is even listed in a book called, Bad Girls of the Bible. All of this negativity comes from one interaction with her husband recorded in Second […]

Have you ever just felt unsettled? Perhaps a career or military life has kept you on the move and it leaves you longing to put down some roots and just be home. If so, you probably have a little taste of what King David must have felt for the fifteen years between being anointed king […]

The book of Second Samuel in the Bible opens in a grisly way. The Israelites were in a losing battle to their enemy, the Philistines, and there were dead bodies strewn all over the battle field, including those belonging to Israel’s first king, his three sons and King Saul’s armor bearer. Ordinarily, the death of […]

The only ghost story in the Bible is enough to make us ask; “What in the world?” About this narrative, the famous story teller, Lord Byron, said, “I have always thought this the finest and most finished witch scene that ever was written or conceived, and you will be of my opinion if you consider […]