Bible Studies

A Biblical Reflection on the Creation Order I think I was 12 when I saw my first “jackalope”--a weird hybrid creature part rabbit and part antelope. My grandma took me and a couple others on a road trip to California and we stopped at a truck stop somewhere in Nevada. When we went into the restrooms, there it was, right at the front door, standing and staring at me in all its frozen weirdness. I won’t say I was frightened but that’s because it was obviously not going to eat

What does it mean to stand firm in the faith when your knees are knocking? A Reflection on Ephesians 6:13 My dad was a faithful man of God, serving as a pastor for nearly 60 years. The last few years of his life were tolerable, as far as health challenges (though he died from a stroke at the end). Though I suspect the hardest challenge for him at the end was not his body but his soul. As is the case for so many men, performance is the measure of their usefulness and usefulnes

Romans 6 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:1-4) I first memorized Romans

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) Poor old Thomas. Next to Peter, which disciples has gotten thrown under the bus in sermons more? The self-righteous snobbery of those who do this to those guys has gotten really annoying to me. We love to dump on Peter because of his denials and his impulsiveness. We do that to Thomas and even label him as “Doubting Thomas” as if his word

For though we live in the flesh (natural world), we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5) In my younger years when the temptations of my mind leaned toward impure thoughts, I

I recently received a phone call from a contractor who did $30,000.00 worth of work in my home asking why I had not paid the outstanding balance of $700. I’ll spare the boring details other than to tell you I had never gotten a receipt from my earlier payments and, not hearing anything for twelve months, had no reason to even think I owed him money. (For the record, he was correct about it and I have paid him in full!). This got me thinking about the importance of business/l

Hunger is one of the most basic experiences of our lives. Ironically, when we were in our mother’s wombs we never felt hungry. The cord that connected us to her meant a continuous supply of food. Of course, after we were born and the umbilical cord was cut, that meant we began feeling it and would for most of our lives. This simple picture of a child leaving the womb for the outside world illustrates beautifully the story of humanity. In the original creation, Adam and Eve w