Today we are starting at the end of the book of Judges, and we are going to finish the Old Testament. As I mentioned at the beginning of this series, the bible is actually one big story, told six times, in six cycles, and each cycle gets longer and more complicated. Adam’s cycle was very […]
Back at the beginning of Book 7 of Genesis, God called Abraham to leave his family, his nation, and his homeland. And God made it clear that this was a test for Abraham: if Abraham proved himself faithful, God would reward him with a family of his own, a nation of his own, and a […]
Imagine a world where women have been put on a bit of a pedestal. They are seen as the gentle sex. It is believed that they are born with higher moral standards than men, that they are not driven by sensual appetites the way men are. It is believed that men need to have a […]
Thousands of years ago God the Father planted a vineyard. He built a wall around it, he fertilized the soil, and he left managers in charge to take care of the grapes. The vineyard is the Jewish nation. The wall around it is the city of Jerusalem. The managers are the priests of God’s temple. […]
In the beginning, God created a man and gave him the ability to choose obedience or disobedience. God warned Adam that on the very day Adam chose disobedience he would die. As we know by now, he was deceived by a serpent — actually, Satan — who told him that true freedom comes from disobedience. […]
So as we catch up with the people of Israel here, they have been camped at the foot of Mount Sinai in Arabia for more than a year. They have assembled and consecrated their tabernacle — which was their sacred tent, a mobile temple. They have seen the glory of God descend from the mountain […]
We like to say we are a Slow Church, a Small Church, a Simple Church…but Still a Church. That’s because we believe well-digging must be done SLOWLY and SIMPLY if we are to keep from muddying the waters. We believe that a community gathered around a well should be SMALL to keep from exhausting the […]
In the beginning, we are told, God created the heavens and the earth: he created the universe and all it contains. And the Spirit of God — the living Breath of God — was hovering over the turbulence of that primordial universe. Then God used his living Spirit to speak a living Word: “Let there […]
So last week we learned that who we are does not actually come from what we do. Instead, who we are comes from who we are related to. In Christ, through Christ, a person is adopted into God’s family. So Christians are related to God! That is who we are. But we also learned last […]
Friends, what do you want more than anything? When you’re a kid it’s usually pretty easy to answer this question: you want a million dollars, or you want that special girl to like you, or you want to wish for infinite wishes (though everyone agrees that’s against the rules somehow). But the older you get […]
In the beginning God created a man and placed him in a garden. And he told him, “If you are obedient, you will continue to be my son. You will always have enough to eat, you will never get sick, you will never die. But if you are disobedient, you will cease to be my […]
In the beginning, scripture tells us, God created the heavens and the earth. But the next verses reveal that the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. In other words: God began by creating the raw materials that he […]
Okay: so last week was Moses’ introduction to Book 9 of Genesis: the Story of Isaac and His Sons. It began well, with Isaac living at peace in the land his father Abraham had left to him…and then the boys got involved, and plunged Abraham’s new land right back into the same old conflict between […]
So, last week: girl sees boy, girl flirts with boy, girl sneaks away with boy, girl shuts boy down, girl brings boy home to meet the family. And from these episodes we learned a few things about how God views human sexuality. We learned that sexual desire is good, that it was God’s gift to […]
