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Can You Relate?
1 Corinthians 3:5–9; Philippians 1:12–21 “It can never happen here.” “No one respects God here.” “How could God move in this [horrible] place?” You can probably think of a number of questions or statements that give an excuse or justification for why you can’t be a missionary where you are. Let’s not devalue those statements.
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Mercifully Faithful
Matthew 9:9–13; Luke 10:25–37; James 2:5–13 “For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” — Hosea 6:6 (CSB) It’s interesting that the same translation, the CSB, translates Hosea 6:6 with faithful love, while in Matthew 9:13 it’s mercy. What makes it even more interesting is that the same word
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Graveside Dancing
Psalm 30; Hosea 13:4–14 Yesterday was the birthday of my stepfather. He passed away years ago. For whatever reason, this year his birthday hit me kind of hard. He and I had our good moments. We had our bad moments. Just like any parent-child relationship. I was his only child. At his burial, the priest
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Dancing in the Streets
Luke 10:17–24; Revelation 19:6–10 One of the greatest joys a parent can have is the success of their children. This isn’t necessarily financial nor even survival. The best times are watching them succeed when they do not think they are capable. That’s Jesus’ joy when the 72 disciples return. They recognized that through Jesus they
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Veritas
Acts 21:34–22:28 Have there ever been times in your life when you knew speaking the truth would, at best, keep things the way they were? And, at worst, make things horribly wrong? Or, have you had the experience that no matter how much you speak the truth, others only hear lies? These scenarios might seem
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Message Over Mammon
Luke 10:1–9; 2 Corinthians 12:1–14 There are many people who attract attention naturally. Some do it with mere charisma. Some do it with money. Others do it with the words (positive and negative). There are others that do it out of gain. Whether it is to gain the attention of people or to feel power,
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What’s The Matter?
Numbers 3:44–48; Numbers 18:20; Deuteronomy 10:8–9; 1 Peter 2:3–10 Inheritance wars have long been a genre of popular fiction. Whether the fights were over business or titles of nobility or who will take over the family criminal enterprise. Sometimes, battles are fought over who gets what, or who got the most. That last one may
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See and Be Seen
Genesis 16:7–14; John 1:47–51 Have you ever been to a big event? Maybe a concert? Maybe a sports game? And then you spend anywhere from 2 to 4 hours with thousands of your closest friends. Most of those people really aren’t your friends. Unless you are ticket holder buddies, you are unlikely to see them
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Evangel
Luke 1:68–80; Ephesians 4:7–16 Many years ago, there was campaign against man-caused forest fires. The campaign “starred” a little bear cub that, while burned, survived a man-caused forest fire. The tagline for the campaign was, “Only YOU can prevent forest fires.” From a strict understanding, of course, it’s not just you that can prevent forest