Devotionals

I don’t know if it was original to him, but I had a close friend who used to say, “The truth stands on its own two feet.”  He was the kind of guy that was not intimidated by interpersonal conflict.  He was a tell-it-like-it-is type whose propensity for giving it to you straight made for some awkward moments.  In our culture we generally don’t [...]

There are probably words your grandparents use that are not in your vocabulary because their meanings have changed over time.  Language evolves over the course of a generation and exponentially so over the course of centuries.  Interestingly, there is a word concept that has stood the test of time—a very, very long time.  It’s the idea that the “heart” is the seat of thoughts, [...]

“Wilderness” is a term used many times throughout Scripture.  It is neither a singular location nor a consistent terrain, but a reference to a wild and uninhabitable territory marked by desolation.  Job refers to it as the place “where no man is” and in the Psalms is described as the home to owls, jackals and vultures.  The Bible does not, however, use the term [...]

You may have noticed that a couple days ago your electronic calendar autopopulated the holiday “Rosh Hashanah.”  I suspect you ignored it.  It is a reference to the Jewish civil new year and comes from Leviticus 23:23-25 where it is referred to as “The Feast of Trumpets.”  If you’ve read it before you may have disregarded that as well.  If you’re being honest, perhaps [...]

It’s an interesting question.  Is it an inappropriate one?  Is it disrespectful?  The question is not only compelling, but both appropriate and respectful.  And the answer is yes! It is evident in the account of Esther—the whole book!  Because we don’t think of God using humor, one author described God in the book of Esther as “a comedian performing before an audience who is afraid [...]

Two social psychologists produced a hypothesis known as the Dunning-Kruger effect.  Their study asserts that people who are unfamiliar with a task tend to overestimate their ability to accomplish it.  Another title for the concept is “Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Incompetence.”  The idea of minimal knowledge leading to unwarranted confidence has a biblical application.  Those who study God’s word the least [...]