There is a question worth sitting with for a moment: if someone in authority sent you a message telling you to do something, why would they do that? Maybe they trust you can handle it. Or maybe, more likely, it needs to get done precisely because it is not being done. That second reason carries a particular weight when we consider one of the most striking commands found in the book of Revelation.  Read More

There is a question worth sitting with for a moment. Think back across your life and ask yourself: who were the people who showed you what genuine Christian faith looked like? Not just people who talked about faith, but people whose daily lives made belief in God unmistakably visible. For many, the answer comes quickly. A grandmother who opened her Bible every single night after the dishes were done. A father whose name was first on the list to purchase a new study Bible. A pastor whose teaching shaped the way a young person understood God for the rest of their life. A sister in religious life whose devotion was impossible to ignore.  Read More

There is a moment in Romans 10 where the apostle Paul asks a series of questions that build on one another like a chain. How can people call on God if they have not believed? How can they believe if they have not heard? How can they hear if no one proclaims the message? How can anyone proclaim it if no one is sent? The logic is airtight. Faith comes through hearing, and hearing comes through someone opening their mouth.  Read More

There is a claim worth sitting with for a moment: when you strip away all the complexity, all the ritual, all the cultural tradition, and all the theological nuance, there are really only two religions in the entire world. Not hundreds. Not thousands. Two.  Read More

There is a verse tucked inside the Gospel of Matthew that has a way of stopping people cold when they truly hear it. In Matthew 24, Jesus describes the conditions of the last days, and among the familiar signs, wars, earthquakes, famines, he says something that cuts far closer to home than any natural disaster. He says that because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold.  Read More

There is a kind of courage that does not come from within. It is not the result of self-discipline, positive thinking, or sheer willpower. It is something given, something caught from watching another person refuse to back down when every circumstance screams at them to do exactly that. Most of us have experienced this at some point. A teacher who believed in us before we believed in ourselves. A mentor who modeled something we thought was beyond our reach. A friend who stood firm when standing firm cost them something real. And because they stood, we found that we could stand too.  Read More