Pastor Joe grew up in a very poor family during the Great Depression. One day, he asked his mother how she and his father got by with six children. His mother...

Have you ever walked into a room and felt like you were interrupting a conversation? When a passage begins with the word “indeed,” that’s what I think about. “Indeed” is used...

High priests are the people God chooses as liaisons between the things pertaining to God and the needs of the people (see Hebrews 5:1). Jesus, as our high priest, has struggled...

Flying from Johannesburg to Atlanta takes sixteen hours and forty minutes on a 296-passenger plane. Two of us occupied the window and aisle seats in our row and waited for the...

Time and again Jesus tells his disciples he is not the Messiah they expected. And here, again, Jesus challenges tradition and religious teachings in surprising and difficult ways. Chapter 10 is...

Psalm 22:1 is most often heard on Good Friday, for these are Jesus’ last recorded words before he “breathes his last” (Mark 15:33-37). So it can seem unseasonal to read these...

When I served as a youth minister, our group went spelunking in southern Indiana. There is an extensive underground system there, so we experienced almost everything caving offers: squeezing through narrow...

Job 23 is midway through the chapters where Job’s friends offer many (unhelpful) ways for Job to understand and end his suffering. Job’s friends toss out ideas and solutions but don’t...

I love the priority Jesus places on welcoming children. In moments when I’m aware of my own failings—aware of things I’ve done and left undone that have caused harm—I find blessing...

I find it impossible to read this passage without thinking about what it means for people I know. As I read Jesus’ response to a question about divorce, I think of...