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Sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas, Thanksgiving gets the squeeze. Even Black Friday sales bleed over into Thursday. Now I’m all about Christmas as long as Jesus remains its focus, but we do harm to neglect Thanksgiving.  “Thanks” and “thanksgiving” pop up over one hundred times in Scripture. Yet surprisingly Hebrew has no specific word for…

The world is known for divisions: culture, education, socio-economic status, race, language, gender.  The early Church was marked by love—and oneness: All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their…

I had done my homework, but still, I was unprepared for the demands of our new family addition. A working dog. Specifically, a Belgian Malinois. Two years later, I’m still amazed by his abilities. I expected our new pup to require a lot of physical activity. What surprised me was his need for mental stimulation. …

As the book of Exodus opens, the author drops his readers into a cauldron brewing with evil. The Israelites living in Egypt have been enslaved and Pharaoh has commanded his citizens to kill every Hebrew baby boy.  At stake is the life of Moses, the deliverer, and ultimately Christ, because if Israel is wiped out,…

Administer justice. Has that ever shown up on your job description? If you work with people, be they little peeps or big ones, you can bet the need for justice will arise. Whether we play referee for the kids at home or negotiate contract terms, we all benefit when justice prevails.  Many of us have…

I want to address an observation I’ve made as the culture gap widens in our country. In times past, though two parties differed, sound arguments could be made for both sides. Open debate where ideas could be expressed and examined from many angles helped us think through issues and, even if we disagreed, enabled us…

We recently welcomed another grandbaby into the world. Though the baby is our second granddaughter, she’s the first child for our son and daughter-in-love. New parents have that deer-in-the-headlights look. After nine months of preparation, reality hits as this new little person looks up at Mom and Dad—completely dependent on them. Talk about overwhelming! All…

Rahab didn’t start her day with a plan to commit treason. When two Israelite spies sauntered into Jericho, trying to look natural, but failing miserably, only then did she make her decision. So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they…

The mission was secret: two men sent to Jericho for reconnaissance. The nation of Israel knew nothing as the they slipped from Joshua’s tent into the wilderness.  However, the entire city of Jericho knew within hours:  Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they…

Imagine walking into your weekend church service. The worship team takes the stage and begins to sing—a psalm.  On the way home from church, the kids hit their favorite Christian playlist—of psalms. A popular Christian band wins a Dove award for—an album of psalms.  For ancient Israel, the psalms held the top spot in worship…