My friend has a gift that I sometimes envy. She can walk into an antique shop, slowly peruse the aisles, patiently consider piece after piece and always leave with a treasure....

When I was a camp counselor, we were told three things. One: Day three is when homesickness is at its worst, so plan fun things for your campers accordingly. Two: The...

Jesus now invokes the prophetic tradition and identifies himself and his work with this lineage. Yet what is a prophet? This word has often come to mean someone who tells the...

This short passage, coming as Jesus slowly wends his way toward Jerusalem, begins with the ominous warning: “Herod wants to kill you.” It’s scary when the local ruler wants you dead,...

Dualism, the creation of pairs of opposites, is common not only in the Bible but also in our daily experience of reality: good/bad, right/wrong, best/worst. Dualisms are an extension of the...

The desire of our heart is to recognize and see God. As in the first few verses of the psalm, here in the last section we find another instruction regarding our...

One subtitle for this psalm is “Triumphant Song of Confidence,” which is fitting. The psalmist is quite confident. Yet part of me wonders if perhaps the psalmist protests too much. Is...

What follows Abram’s questioning of God is a description of ritual action which strains our modern sensibilities. The sacrificing of animals and Abram’s ensuing trance state is certainly not something common...

Although Abram was trying to live a faithful life and follow God’s will for him, it seemed he had reached a dead end. He and Sarai were old, far beyond child...

Paul has gone down in history as Christianity’s greatest hype-man. There is no denying his ability to rouse even the saddest of spirits. With just a few words, he will have...