The book of Hebrews contains one of the most remarkable lists in all of antiquity. It is remarkable because if who it contains; a prostitute, a philandering husband, a leader who had to run for his life to avoid a murder rap, a judge who was brought down by a conniving woman and on and […]

Not so long ago, a young woman came to me for help. Through no fault of her own, life had been extremely challenging for her. Because I was in a position to help, and because I genuinely cared for this young woman deeply, I was happy to assist her. Our family went to extreme lengths […]

Uniquely, we don’t know exactly who the author of the book of Hebrews was. Scholars have suggested Silas, Timothy, Barnabas and others. Martin Luther plausibly proposed Apollos. Whoever the author was, his main point in writing was to convince Jewish Christians to continue to put their faith for salvation in Jesus Christ Himself, rather than […]

The downside to being a professional communicator is that you are generally really good at communicating. Nothing has gotten me into more misfortune than my own tongue. Twitter is especially troublesome for people like me because we can virtually always deliver a snappy comeback to any other person’s misguided tweet in 140 characters or less. […]

On paper, Timothy might not have been the obvious choice for the apostle Paul’s protégé. His father was Greek and his mother was Jewish, which probably doesn’t sound like a big deal to you and me, but in that day and time it simply wasn’t done. In Paul’s day, a girl had her marriage arranged […]

For those of us in the trenches of diapers, temper tantrums and the mind-numbing exhaustion that is parenting young children (or the terror of teenage drivers) the apostle Paul has some very good news! It matters. Every single second of it matters. Even the seconds when we are hiding in the bathroom because we aren’t […]

When I was in college, I took a Middle East anthropology class. In it, I met a young Muslim man and the two of us became study buddies. We had numerous spirited discussions about religion. He was convinced that the Christian Bible was full of errors and, at one point, even brought me a three-page […]

My very good friend and her spiritual mentor had a falling out. Things were said, feelings were hurt and I was in the middle trying to help them work it out. In the end, they walked away from their relationship. “I have to guard my heart,” the mentor explained. Do you know the feeling? The […]

Over the last few weeks, we have been able to witness (and hopefully even participate in) Christians answering the apostle Paul’s prayer from Second Thessalonians. In the first chapter Paul wrote; “We always pray for you that our God will make you worthy of his calling, and by his power fulfill every desire to do […]

Have you ever watched one of those TV shows where people are preparing for a future catastrophic event by stockpiling supplies and building underground bunkers? They aren’t that far off. The Bible actually tells us that we do need to be prepared for the end of the world. In the fifth chapter of First Thessalonians, […]