March 2024

The Sacrifice of Isaac

Genesis 22 records some unexpected words that God spoke to Abraham. He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Now, those words are surprising for […]



Here We Go Again

Repetition is something we see a lot of in the Bible. Joseph had duplicate dreams with the same meaning. Pharaoh did too. Jesus told the parable of the lost coin and the lost sheep and the lost prodigal son all in a row to communicate the same, singular truth. On two separate occasions two different […]



February 2024

Sodom and Gomorrah

Today, “Sodom” and “Gomorrah” have become almost bywords for unchecked depravity and divine judgment. The author of Genesis highlights the sexual immorality and violence of these cities, and the author of Ezekiel highlights their pridefulness and their fat-hearted disregard for the needy. (Ezekiel 16:49-50) We find the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18:20 […]



Choices

Some of you are undoubtedly wrestling with big decisions right now. According to a study cited in Psychology Today human beings make an eye-popping 35,000 choices a day. If that’s true, and I must admit that is a hard number to believe, then an average person makes 12,775,000 decisions a year. Multiply that over the […]



January 2024

Certain of What You Cannot See

At Houghton College there is an indoor pool contained within the athletic complex. During my years there it was kind of a tradition for students to break into the gym after hours and go swimming in the dark. I was always kind of a stick-in-the-mud, rule-follower, and so I never took part in this particular […]



Before Jesus Came

It was during my early teenage years that my parents gave me a devotional book by Chuck Swindoll entitled “Abraham…The Friend of God.” As I typed this sermon preview for the mid-week email that same dog-eared copy sits on the desk next to me. I read it through during my teenage years, and then once […]