The Purpose of Lent? An Invitation of Decrease and Increase
I never quite understood Ash Wednesday when I was younger. My home church never emphasized anything about Lent, or even Good Friday for that matter. In my experience growing up in church, winter was over, spring started springing, then it was time for Easter Sunday! That meant getting up before the crack of dawn, putting […]
Idolatry in the Bible (and in Our Own Hearts)
Satan is always scheming and making efforts to tempt us, to dishearten us, and to break us with many other things that can take away our focus from God. The Scripture says, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8, NASB) and […]
Who was Jezebel in the Bible? It depends on your worldview.
Who was Jezebel in the Bible? She was a Phoenician princess who became a queen of Israel. As the wife of King Ahab, Queen Jezebel forcefully introduced Baal worship into the nation, a move opposed by the prophets Elijah and Elisha. In popular culture, Jezebel has come to be seen as a scheming, shameless woman […]
What Does the Bible Say about Mediums?
When I was younger, I didn’t believe in things like ghosts, psychics, and witchcraft. I believed ghosts and monsters were in the same category: figments of imagination and folklore meant to whip listeners into shape. Psychics and witches were more like charlatans—good fact-gatherers with a knack for turning a dollar. But that automatic assumption changed […]
Gratitude and Meaninglessness
I’ve been doing some study from the book of Ecclesiastes lately. This is partly related to a book that I hope to write next year. I also spoke from Ecclesiastes at my daughter’s baccalaureate service recently. The more I’ve studied the book over the last several months, the more I’ve been impressed by a puzzle […]
Household Gods: On Our Tendency to Worship Family
Have you noticed that parents have been acting a bit crazy? The parents getting ejected at youth baseball games for harassing the umpires; The parents losing their minds at school board meetings. The parents schlepping their kids around suburban hotels that exchange uniformed weekday business travelers with briefcases for weekend uniformed children with soccer balls. […]
Ash on the Altar: Reflecting on Our Affinity for Idols
Have you ever read through the Old Testament, muttering, “Why do the Israelites keep setting up shrines to pagan gods?” They trembled at the foot of Mt. Sinai as it burned. They were guided through the wilderness by pillars of fire and smoke. Ample food sprang from the desert wastes for forty years. They experienced […]
Image
The more we get to know God, the more we can see His image in us.
