God’s call to Jeremiah follows a familiar biblical storyline: God calls, the person resists, God reaffirms the call, and God empowers the person to fulfill the call. Jeremiah objects that he...

Though I knew a few psalms in my youth, I really began to love the psalms in middle age. While attending the Upper Room’s Two-Year Academy for Spiritual Formation, I began...

The Hebrew Bible has quite a number of prophecies that point to the coming of Jesus. Some of these notable prophecies are in Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:6-7, and Micah 5:2. In...

Paul’s message to the Corinthians has two parts. As we explored yesterday, unity is an essential principle of working together in the church community. But unity isn’t uniformity. We don’t need...

Nigeria is a country of about 210 million people who speak over 500 different languages. This diversity has not been as much of an asset as it could have been. In...

I remember my first trip as a pastor to a village in Nigeria where I baptized fifty-two people. At the end of the baptismal ritual, the people I had baptized, who...

Governments around the world, especially in the region of Africa where I live, fail to support and protect the people they are intended to serve. Many individuals are hurt by the...

In the beginning of chapter 8 of the book of Nehemiah, Ezra read the law of Moses to all those who could listen, and the leaders of the rebuilt community helped...

Growing up in Nigeria, I recall several events such as a fishing festival, an annual harvest festival, and other celebrations that brought the whole community together. Amidst such celebrations were those...

The texts this week highlight the liminal nature of Christian faith. Our world is broken, and the temptation is always there to believe that restoration is beyond reach. The world is...