God’s system is best
Our gut reaction, especially if we are Americans, is to hate submission. When the Bible commands, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority” (1 Peter 2:13), we cringe. But we shouldn’t. According to my dictionary, the word submit simply means “to yield to the authority or will of another person.” That idea—yielding—isn’t […]
The arc of history
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is credited with saying that the arc of the universe bends toward justice. I think that’s true because God is perpetually bending the arc of history toward himself. But it takes a long, sometimes very long, view of history to have that confidence. The arc of history doesn’t bend without […]
Grace brings you from the back to the front
My wife and I once purchased tickets to a magic show. As we usually do, we bought the very cheapest tickets in the back row of the theater. When we got to the theater, however, we were in for a surprise. The usher looked at our tickets and said, “How would you like a better […]
Light in dark places
Important words sometimes lose their freshness and impact when they become overly familiar. We stop paying attention to or taking joy in the thoughts and emotions expressed. Think about a question we ask or respond to out of habit: How are you? How about the most crucial words of all: I love you? Even favorite […]
Jesus’ love is for anyone … that’s you!
The Bible says something touching just before Jesus feeds a crowd of five thousand people: “He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things” (Mark 6:34). Jesus gave the people what they needed most: his Word to feed their souls. Then with five small […]
Open your eyes
There’s a story about a man who waited on the roof of his house during a flood. The waters kept rising, and he waited so long that he drowned. This happened after a boat, a helicopter, and more tried to save him, but he refused each attempt, saying, “I’m waiting for a sign from God.” […]
The last word
I recently watched a national news anchor interview a potential presidential candidate. The news commentator iterated to the presidential hopeful a laundry list of all the things he’s worried about in our country. China, rising inflation, foreign wars, national debt, energy independence, border issues, and woke agendas were among the things that were keeping him […]
Short but sweet
Twenty-nine words; that’s the entirety of Psalm 117. Frankly, it’s so short and so like other psalms that we might brush past it without contemplating what the words ask of us and the claim they make. “Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and […]