Martyrdom is not a comfortable contemplation. The passage for the day needs to come with the familiar warning that some of this content may be disturbing—stoned to death, sawn in two,...

All those who are named in the passage today—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel—did great things. All also stood in need of forgiveness. Perhaps chief among the sinners was great King...

The psalmist shares his heartfelt cry as one who believed God’s way was one of restoration: “Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved!” A few...

Before reading the entire psalm, we must focus on its beginning, “Stir up your might, and come to save us!” It is hard to read this lamenting psalm without mourning the...

In these verses from Isaiah, God is portrayed as a farmer who prepares the ground for a vineyard and plants grapes in hopes of yielding sweet fruit. Instead, God gets wild,...

If you’re going on a lengthy road trip, you have to have your basics covered. Are the tires full and aligned? Did you check the oil and fill up the gas...

In high school, my friend drove a beat-up Honda Accord with the bumper sticker, “Don’t be fooled, my treasure is in heaven.” It was funny because of how terrible her car...

In today’s passage, we can picture faith as a family packing everything they have into a U-Haul. After a litany of heroes of the faith, the author of Hebrews gets to...

Though we don’t know who wrote the epistle to the Hebrews, the author gives us the most famous definition of faith in the Bible: “Faith is the reality of what we...

This psalm is a call to inspection. Like the rising of the sun, God’s light is on the rise. When God’s light shines, all will be revealed. This inspection is specifically...