John 20:29 “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Seeing is believing. Seems like a harmless expression. An idiom that describes the necessity of physical, concrete evidence in order to accept something as real. It’s how most people live the Continue Reading…
Numbers 14:3 “Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” Oh my, I’m 30 years-old and not married. God must want me to be a Continue Reading…
2 Corinthians 4:16 “Therefore we do not lose heart….” Stress so heavy it feels as if life itself is being squeezed out. Thoughts swimming in a sea of uncertainty. Feelings of rejection, ridicule and defeat threatening on every side. Ever feel like this? Paul certainly did. Yet he sends Continue Reading…
Luke 8:25 “ ‘Where is your faith?’ he asked his disciples….” I’m sure you’ve experienced it. You’re reading the scripture when suddenly regular print transforms into italics. Something transpires that causes you to move from simple reading to listening. The Word of God is speaking to you, muting every Continue Reading…
I Corinthians 15:3 “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day….” First importance. At the risk of sounding redundant, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the Continue Reading…
Mark 10:49 “…Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Bartimaeus—a blind beggar on the side of the road. His affliction had stripped him of all dignity, leaving him, according to Jewish society, only a few steps above a leper. His self-sufficiency had been replaced with total dependency on human Continue Reading…
Acts 3:6 “Then Peter said, ‘Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’” He had been a cripple for over forty years. He depended on others to literally carry him every day to his Continue Reading…
Mark 9:24 “Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’” I believe! Help my unbelief! I wish those words—those polar opposite words—weren’t reflective of my own experience with faith. How can both be true? The footnote in my Bible says, “Since faith is never Continue Reading…
Matthew 15:28 “Then Jesus answered, ‘Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.’ And her daughter was healed from that very hour.” She came like a dog, begging Jesus for a morsel of mercy. She broke all the rules. This woman. This Gentile. But she was desperate. Her daughter Continue Reading…
Romans 4:18 “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed….” I’m thankful that hope is so stubborn. If it wasn’t, I think I’d be a goner. In spite of how many times circumstances tempt me to throw in the towel, I find that entity of hope again popping to the Continue Reading…