The Blog

Read Psalms 45:1 through 47:9 Tillie, a little brown-and-white dog is terrified of thunder. A series of storms rattled the windowpanes. Sunday through Saturday, it was the same every day. After a week of this, Tillie expected thunder every time it rained. The following Monday a light shower pattered gently against the windowpanes. Trembling, Tillie huddled close to her master, …

Read Ecclesiastes 3:9-5:20; 1 Corinthians 15:29-58 Whether he was Solomon or some other poor soul, the world-weary writer of Ecclesiastes does not seem to be a cheery fellow. He seems like a guy who would make a gloomy day gloomier. The writer of Ecclesiastes was not necessarily a bore. His book simply reflects the extent of hope one had on …

Read Psalm 11:1 through 18:50 Many of the Psalms are full of praise to God. We sometimes visualize David as peacefully strumming a harp as he quietly watches a flock of sheep grazing on a grassy slope. Psalm 13 presents a different picture. David apparently had doubts, troubling thoughts, and enemies. Things did not always go well for him. In …

Read 1 Corinthians 1:1 through 5:13 Members of a writer’s group sat at their normal places. As usual, a debate erupted. One participant had read his new story to the group. They all loved it, but each person wanted a different opening. They felt the beginning was dull. They wanted drama, conflict, action. So, the group discussed various openings to …

Read Job 1:1 through 2:13; John 21:10-25 “I told you I was ill.” That amusing epitaph marks the grave of British comedian Spike Milligan. The gravestone of Martin Luther King Jr. features a line from his 1963 speech in Washington, DC: “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty I’m free at last.” The inscription on William Shakespeare’s monument …

Read Esther 1:1 through 2:23 In the summer of 2002, Craig DeMartino nearly died when he fell 100 feet to the ground while rock climbing. But God was working to preserve his life. DeMartino’s climbing partner didn’t usually carry a phone since he couldn’t get a signal in the wilderness. That day, however, he did have a phone – and …

Read 2 Chronicles 27:1 through 29:36 John asked Jesus into his heart about a year ago and began attending the youth group meetings on Tuesdays. On the way home one night, something started nagging at his heart. Funny, he had never really thought about it before, but certain movies and music in his collection were not all that edifying. The …

Read Luke 12:1 through 13:35 Have you ever been frustrated because you’ve shared God’s Word, talked with a person about Christ, and prayed fervently that he or she would come to Christ or grow spiritually – and nothing seemed to happen? [Jesus] asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took …

Read  1 Chronicles 24:1 through 26:32 God identified David as a man after the Lord’s own heart. David deeply valued worship. As a musician himself, David understood the power of music to touch human emotions, intimately connecting the people with their God. So, the king personally supervised the official integration of music into temple worship. All these men were under …

Read 2 Kings 18:1 through 20:21 Bad news often comes in the form of a letter. I once got a frightening letter from the Internal Revenue Service. I read, I wept, I prayed, I appealed, and I won. That letter was a snap compared to other letters. Some have opened letters from their spouses, letters that amounted to final notice …