Blog Posts

  • Losing Jesus

    The other night we visited a Catholic shrine decorated with Christmas lights, where people stroll and sip hot cocoa. At the center of the path stood a hill with a large cross, and beneath it… Read more

  • This is Lent

    Are we born free? If so, it is only after first knowing constraint—emerging from the narrow walls of the womb, shaped by forces beyond our control. Freedom is learned through limits. What prepares the soul… Read more

  • Jude

    When we talk about contending for our faith, we are talking about fighting a battle. In every battle we have to know who the enemies are, we must be fighting against the enemy; not God.… Read more

  • Kingdom Coming (Luke 17:20-37) 

    The Pharisees ask a question that prompts Jesus’ teaching about his return: “When is the kingdom of God coming?” Without extensive study, it is difficult to know precisely how the Pharisees processed the kingdom of… Read more

  • Go Your Way (Luke 17:11-19)

    Jesus is walking the borderlands—the space between Samaria and Galilee—when ten men appear. They do not approach. They cannot. They stand at a distance, bodies marked, voices raised, shouting the only prayer they have left:“Jesus,… Read more

  • The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–20)

    The rich man and Lazarus is about compassion, mercy, the afterlife, reaping and sowing, wealth and repentance.  The rich man was not able to secure a place in heaven through his ancestry or his wealth.… Read more

  • The Mulberry Tree Parable (Luke 17)

    Jesus begins with a severe warning: “Woe to the one who causes others to stumble. It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and be thrown into the sea.”… Read more

  • The Prodigal: A Story for the Religious (Luke 13-15)

    The parable of the prodigal son has been retold countless times, often as a story about wayward sinners returning to God. But in its original context, it is primarily a message to the Pharisees and… Read more

  • The Synagogue Official (Luke 13:10)

    Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath day and healed a woman. A synagogue during the time of Jesus was a place of worship, torah reading, prayer and community life. These… Read more

  • A Call to Trust (Luke 12:15)

    A man in the crowd asks Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Instead of arbitrating, Jesus uses the moment to expose a deeper issue: not merely greed, but a profound… Read more

  • Stepping on One Another (Luke 12:1)

    It’s no secret that the Bible instructs us to love one another. This may be one of the most quoted and well-known teachings in all of Scripture. Perhaps that’s why Luke 12:1 caught my attention:… Read more

  • Silent Witness

    There is a quiet irony in prophetic utterance. Throughout history, God has spoken words to mankind and we call it prophecy, yet prophecy is not dependent on words alone. From the opening chapters of Genesis,… Read more

  • Search for Significance

    Where does lasting significance come from ? Read more

  • The Beach

    This is the place where everything is magically okay. Where just for a moment in time and space I can forget the world around me and yet at the same time the world is all… Read more

  • The Hard Work

    What are the rocks in your life? Maybe God calls us to work at removing obstacles in life like rocks in a garden and he wants us to do it ourselves; maybe He wants us… Read more

  • God Created

    I like to start here in the beginning the place where we always forget to start. And I like to see God as the One who made all the beauty around me. And just sit… Read more

  • Supplement Your Faith

    Peter implores those who have faith to, “Supplement your faith with virtue, knowledge, self control, steadfastness, godliness and brotherly affection and love.” What exactly is he saying? One thing we know for certain is that… Read more

  • The end of the letter

    1 peter 5:6-12 Peter ends his letter by telling us how we are to relate to God and the devil. Before God we humble ourselves, before the devil we resist. “Humble thyself therefore under the… Read more

  • Judgment

    My natural instinct is to ask God to take away suffering, ease it, remove it. Why would God want to see his children suffer? Why would he not deliver us at all costs? But here… Read more

  • Gifts and Grumbling

    1 peter 4:9-16 We should all show hospitality to one another without grumbling. We should all love one another, be sober minded and self-controlled. This is a tall order indeed and without grumbling we are… Read more

  • Noah the Prophet

    There are a lot of questions in this portion. It feels like a hodgepodge of scripture. What did Christ proclaim to the spirits in prison and who were these spirits and what prison does he… Read more

  • Marked by his Faithfulness

    We have to know how to preach the gospel to ourselves when we are losing hope and discouraged first before we know how to give an answer to anyone else. Read more

  • The Hidden Person

    As Christians and people of faith our conduct is far more important than our words. Read more

  • God’s Goodness, Not Mine

    God did not choose Israel because they were mighty and God does not choose me because I am good and talented. I believe God makes his choices about who will be His long before we… Read more

  • Some things you might not know about me

    From the moment I was born; I was odd. The cord was wrapped, not once but twice around my neck, “the devil tried to kill you, he did not want you to be born, there… Read more

  • Living Stone

    we are now to love the brothers with that new pure heart and put away malice deceit etc…because we are now able to we have fresh power, fresh new start, clean and new. Read more

  • Sincere Love

    From the beginning of time Jesus has been God plan of redemption. Read more

  • Hope Fully

    How would my life change if I lived as if my faith is not for temporary things like health money or a second house, in other words the things we wish for here, but rather… Read more

  • Chosen

    God has been teaching me that I did nothing to earn a place in his kingdom. I can fully rest knowing he has chosen me. It is not my work, job, responsibility or obligation to… Read more

  • Passover

    In 21 days Passover is celebrated by thousands of Christians and Jews all over the world. Those who celebrate have about 20 days to ‘prepare’ themselves. But what does that mean exactly, ,how does one… Read more

  • Exodus 39

    The tabernacle is constructed in the exact order as God instructed Moses. The very last task to be completed is making the garments the priests must wear to minister to God in the Holy Place.… Read more

  • God’s Design

    The people sinned with the golden calf, Moses intercedes God seems to pardon the people and renew the covenant by rewriting the commandments on new tablets that Moses cut for himself. Read more

  • Exodus 32

    The people of Israel are impatient. They have not learned from their forefather Abraham the lesson of waiting upon the Lord. Read more

  • Exodus 16

    I believe, Jesus but I still need supper. Jesus is not talking of actual food, but is using food and water as a metaphor, in this passage. What spurred Jesus to say these things? Read more

  • Exodus 11

    The final plague was actually the first to be foretold to Moses as a result of Pharaoh killing Hebrews babies. Read more

  • Exodus 9

    Only in the Land of Goshen Israel was protected by God’s hand of mercy, even as Egypt was afflicted by it. The only “claim” they had to God’s allegiance was being the seed of Jacob,… Read more

  • Exodus 8

    Egypt is known to have had upwards of 1500 different gods. Read more

  • Exodus 7

    God sometimes hardens hearts for his greater purposes. Read more

  • Exodus 5

    In Ancient Egypt the children of Israel made mud bricks to build cities for Pharaoh. According to archeological sources, mud-bricks are made with organic material such as silt, sand, top soil and wheat chaff. Read more

  • Exodus 4

    God equips Moses for the task of going to the sons of Israel and to Pharaoh. He gives him power to perform signs and wonders, three in particular: he gives him the power to turn… Read more

  • Exodus 3

    At Mount Horeb, we don’t see Jesus on a cross, though Moses does encounter the angel of the Lord and God does say he will stretch out his hand. We don’t see Jesus healing people… Read more

  • Exodus 2

    Moses was a man without a land. He was homeless, but not godless. He was a man without a country, but not without a king.  Although Moses didn’t choose his life of wandering, God used… Read more

  • Exodus 1

    What is happening in the opening scene of Exodus? We are introduced to one overarching, painful reality. The descendants of Joseph are being afflicted. Read more

  • Foreknown

    Jesus Christ, the perfect spotless lamb of God, the salvation and Love of God was foreknown. Read more

  • Unknown Sands

    The tiny islands of Bermuda are actually made up of more than 100 islands, formed by extensive volcanic activity. The island is known and loved for its white sand, pink beaches and turquoise waters. I… Read more

  • Maya Angelou

    Maya’s life inspires me and it truly should inspire us all. Read more

  • Harry S. Truman

    it was during Harry S. Truman’s presidency that Israel became a Jewish State. Read more

  • If I Fail

    This poem is for any parent who ever felt their work was not good enough. Read more

  • His Name is Jesus

    There is a man I used to know, I think his name is, Jesus He walked upon the land and sea I think his name is Jesus he spoke with words of God and man… Read more

  • Decisions

    The future choices we must make Before time steals our youth Before order and innocence Has been swallowed by truth, What is this prison? These invisible bars A cell of indecision A night without stars… Read more

  • Jesus is the Kingdom of Heaven

    Jesus is a King and has a throne and a home and a people and this is a kingdom, but is all this living inside of me?  When we speak about the kingdom of heaven,… Read more

  • Salvation is a Gift

    But what does it really mean to be saved? Read more

  • A voice we can trust

    When my son was a child, he asked me, ‘How do I hear God’s voice?’ It was before bedtime, I was tired and young. I didn’t know at the time this was a once in… Read more

  • Master of the Mess

    we are tempted to only recognize God in blessings, rewards and happy times. We effortlessly attribute to him the pleasantries in life, but would prefer to deny that God says he comes in a thick… Read more

  • Where is God?

    I think we have learned in our sensory saturated planet to rely much too heavily on feelings and experiences. God is present with us in ways that are entirely different than anyone or anything else… Read more

  • The Work is Done

    Oh my Father, oh my Shepherd King The love you offer are tears that sting  salty wounds and ashen face  lonely deserts , lands of waste  Rocky Terrace , unknown Depths a wooden cross ,… Read more

  • Struggles of Faithful Proportions

    Lord I know that you know me,  for that reason my fear is small  the innermost parts of my heart,  the innocent Ways that I fall.  Every thought and intent of my soul, The longings… Read more

Welcome to Exodus

“The central point of scripture is that God has mercy on us who are stuck so fast in the mire -if I may be pardoned by the expression-that we cannot help ourselves.”            Emil Brunner