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“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1 NIV Thanksgiving will be here soon and our family will toe the line at the neighborhood Turkey…

The people at Chewy must hate me. I keep changing the shipping date for the dog food. Our puppy is growing. Rapidly. He eats more than double what our aging Lab does and has caught up to him in weight. He’s six months old. Growth requires fuel, even spiritual growth. Valor gets his fuel from…

What happens when the tie that binds comes untied? While God knit David and Jonathan together in 1 Samuel 18, in that same chapter, Saul unraveled. Perfect stitches pulled by an unseen hand. In 1 Samuel 15, God removed His Spirit due to Saul’s repeated disobedience. If the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,…

“Now it came about when he [David] had finished speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself.” (1 Samuel 18:1 NASB) Knit together. I love Samuel’s imagery. One soul knit to another’s in friendship. Knitting is no easy task, you know. I…

“Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?” Romans 2:4 (NIV) A blind eye? Or grace? Life would be easier—spiritually speaking—if God disciplined me every time I sinned. My growth curve would be sharper. I would learn more quickly and…

Camels have extreme thirst. They can drink 30-40 gallons at a time. I think my puppy is part camel. When he drinks, he flops down, wraps his paws around the bowl, and plunges his head in the water dish. Sometimes he goes to the Texas-sized water bowl (the pool) for a drink. He’ll jump in—slurping…

Grace, faith, and works. Incompatible? Or irretrievably interwoven? While grace and faith pair well, works have been the odd man out when it comes to salvation. Yet your concordance will show extensive lists of verses for all three. Have you considered their relationship? Let’s focus on just a few verses that show the tension created…

Hurdles. They bring to mind Olympic runners, not a blind man from the pages of the Gospels. Yet Bartimaeus was driven by far more than a gold medal. Let’s look at his story. He’s unnamed, known by his father’s, not his own. He’s alone. No family, no friends guide him through the streets of Jericho.…

Where the head goes, the whole body tends to follow. I’m leash training my puppy. A neighbor suggested a Gentle Leader, a collar that rests high behind the ears with another strap fitting over the nose. The leash attaches underneath so that when you pull, you pull the head and not the neck, similar to…

Abraham. A man of rock solid faith, right? Sometimes. Sometimes, he found himself in the sifty, shifty sand. As we dig our toes into the beach sand this summer, let’s look at the sandy spots that shifted Abraham’s world and avoid them in ours: The Sand of Helplessness: In two incidents (Gen. 12:10-20; Gen. 20:1-18), Abraham…