Many people criticize the Bible—and those who follow it—for making women subservient to men. This is not a conclusion I reach when I read the Bible. I see the Bible—and those who truly follow it—as elevating the plight of women to the place they were created to be: equal to men. Consider in Genesis where God […]
Today’s passage: 1 John 2:18–23 Focus verse: As you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. (1 John 2:18) After John tells us to not love the world, he warns us about antichrists too. Anti means against and Christ means Messiah. Therefore, an antichrist is someone who is against the Messiah, […]
Successfully Move from One Year to the Next I never really understood the allure of staying up late on December 31 to welcome in the new year. As such, I saw no reason to celebrate New Year’s Eve. As a teenager, however, I embraced the idea of staying up until midnight as confirmation I was […]
The Convergent Church: Moving Toward the Unity for Which Jesus Prayed Church Research Now Available WARNING: The Convergent Church is a PhD dissertation (2012) and contains academic research. It’s made available primarily to aid others who are conducting their own research on the future of the Christian Church. If this is what you seek, here’s […]
Waiting for the Service to Start I volunteer at a budget program where I teach classes and encourage people to manage their finances, unlearn bad money-handling habits, and dig out of debt. It’s a biblically based program, and it meets at a local church, which is also today’s destination. In the brief time I’ve been […]
Baby Jesus in the Temple Luke 2:21–24 He was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived. (Luke 2:21) The shepherds arrived shortly after Jesus’s birth to see the child the angel had told them about. Our story picks up eight days later, when it’s time to circumcise him. We’re […]
John’s Vision for These Churches Provides Us With Practical Insight Today Many people love the Book of Revelation, the apostle John’s supernatural treatise of the end times. It’s an epic read of God’s awesome power and the amazing, scary, exciting events that will usher us from this world into our eternal reality. Yet readers are […]
Today’s passage: 1 John 2:15–17 Focus verse: Do not love the world or anything in the world. (1 John 2:15) John reminds his audience to not love the world or anything in it. Loving what the world offers is incompatible with loving God, as Jesus commands us to do. We can’t have the world’s love and the […]
Segregating the Two Sides of Christmas Is Christmas an important holiday to you? I suspect you’ll say, “yes.” And if you follow Jesus, you may say Christmas is the most important holiday because it celebrates his birth some 2,000 years ago. That’s when Jesus came to earth to live among us and die in our […]
Anticipating the Arrival of Baby Jesus I don’t really think of Christmas Eve as a holiday as much as the prelude to one. Yet there is—or should be—a spiritual reason to celebrate Christmas Eve. Anticipating Christmas As a child I looked forward to Christmas Day with much excitement. On Christmas Eve I found it hard […]