God has a plan. The plan is much bigger than any of us. Mountains we can see; the depths of the ocean we do not. We are each in God’s…
Paul has been talking about requirements. We’re used to requirements, to apply for a job, get a driver’s license, a passport, a loan. To do just about anything there are…
Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic, Jew, Christian—“the whole world [is] held accountable to God” (3:19). It’s God’s world. Christians aren’t the only ones living on God’s earth nor the only…
We’re hearing hard things. Paul is explaining the meaning of what we can see everyday but perhaps not quite understand. It ought to be comprehensible. Some find it very difficult…
One of the big Jewish holy days is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement: the day above all others for seeking God’s forgiveness for the failure to live as God…
Now back once more on the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus returns to a place he had previously visited. Luke does not tell us exactly where these…
Around seventy years ago, a psychiatrist named Murray Bowen began to articulate a theory of how emotions operate in family systems. Bowen noted, as our own experience shows, that when…
More than the other three tellings of the Jesus story, Luke keeps the angels before us. Those angels are busy! It’s as if most people had stopped really expecting anything…
Through Paul’s letters, we learn that Luke was a companion and co-laborer with Paul, who calls Luke, “the beloved physician” (Col 4:14). Unlike every other writer in the Bible, Luke…
My phone buzzes at odd, unpredictable hours, especially around the big holidays: amber alerts—child abductions. Often at those times of the year, it seems one parent is taking a child…