Scripture: Revelation 2:12-17 12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword: 13 “I know where you are living, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you are holding fast to my name, and you did not deny your faith in me even in the... Continue Reading →
Text for the Week: The Courage to Speak
Scripture: Esther 7:1-10 1 So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. 2 On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to half of my kingdom, it shall be... Continue Reading →
Text for the Week: Impacting Your Circle
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 From Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy. To the Thessalonians’ church that is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to all of you. 2 We always thank God for all of you when we mention you constantly in our prayers. 3 This is because we remember your work that... Continue Reading →
Text for the Week: The Story Continues
Scripture: Mark 16:1–8 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they could go and anoint Jesus’ dead body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they came to the tomb. 3 They were saying to each other, “Who’s going to... Continue Reading →
Text for the Week: The Message Unveiled
Scripture: Exodus 34:29-35 29 Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of... Continue Reading →
Did God harden Pharaoh’s Heart?
I have been thinking a lot about "the hardening of Pharaoh's heart" in Exodus and how it relates to the Signs (or Plagues). It is easy to think of Pharaoh as God's puppet and that God's plan is to so callous Pharaoh's will that Pharaoh will play into God's trap. With this reading God is... Continue Reading →
Text for the Week: The Power of our Witness
Scripture: Hebrews 12:1-11 So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, 2 and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and... Continue Reading →
Rejecting Scripture for the Spirit?
Twice in the last few weeks I have seen posts that pitted Scripture against the Holy Spirit. In both cases the statement was worded in such a way as to say that the individual was going to trust the moving of the Spirit over (and in one contrary to Scripture). These were posts I did... Continue Reading →
Truth in Love
The devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil still. A. W. Tozer I find Tozer's words to be deeply troubling precisely because of their accuracy; throughout scripture we see those who resist God described as knowing God, God's word, and Scripture. I speak, of course, of stories like the... Continue Reading →
The Difficulty with the Church
I recently wrote on three situations within the American church-- Jerry Falwell' Vanity Fair interview, Phanatik renouncing Christianity, and Lecrae speaking about losing events over his social comments (read it here). In that post I teased that I would write about what troubles me with the Church today, there are two interconnected issues which do... Continue Reading →
Squinting in the Light 