Category Archives: Uncategorized

This week’s blog unpacks the book of Esther.  It is the last of the post-Exilic Historical Books.  Along with 1-2 Chronicles and Ezra and Nehemiah, these books share a similar perspective.  Together, they seek to understand what life after exile looks like.  The book of Esther is concerned with the preservation of God’s people inContinue reading “Esther: God’s Preservation of God’s People”

For this week’s blog, I’m going to be covering the two books Ezra and Nehemiah.  It makes a lot sense to review these two books at the same time.  The leadership and ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah are intertwined in the books that bear their respective names.  Moreover, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah shareContinue reading “Return and Restoration: The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah”

Throughout the rest of the year, we will be making our way through the Wisdom Literature and the Prophetic Books.  For the most part, we will be dealing with poetry in the Old Testament portions.  So, I thought it would be good to do this month’s special topic blog on how to read Biblical poetry.Continue reading “Special Topic: How to Read Biblical Poetry”

If you were a genuine Christian, you wouldn’t suffer so much.  If you say God is for you, how can so many things be against you?  Has anyone ever said these sorts of things to you?  Has that voice echoed in your own mind? The church in Corinth, which the Apostle Paul planted, was askingContinue reading “When I am weak, then I am strong: An Overview of 2 Corinthians”

WILDFIRE GROWTH.  Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about 20 years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.  In the span of two decades, the good news of Jesus had exploded into the Roman Empire – into modern day Turkey, Greece and North Africa.  The church’s early expansion in such short order, sometimes against all odds,Continue reading “1-2 Thessalonians”

THE CHURCH IN CORINTH WAS A HOT MESS.  A young man is living incestuously with his step mom, church members are suing one another, people are going to prostitutes, others are saying married couples shouldn’t be having sex at all, some were stuffing their faces at the Communion table while others would go away hungry,Continue reading “The Church in Corinth: A Hot Mess!”

We begin July with a blog on 1-2 Chronicles.  Admittedly, these two books don’t appear to be the most exciting among Old Testament books.  Readers making their way through the Bible come to 1-2 Chronicles and might experience them as a more boring “re-do” of 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings.  This is unfortunate.  There isContinue reading “1-2 Chronicles”

For this week’s blog, I want to hit on a topic that has come up several times as we’ve made our way through the Old Testament thus far.  The topic is kings in Israel.  This is an idea we’ve encountered in the Pentateuch, the Historical Books and the Psalms.  We will see that it’s alsoContinue reading “Special Topic: Kings in Israel”

Krista and I lived a season of our lives in the shadow of Mount Rainier in Western Washington.  The Mountain, as the locals call it, rises 14, 411 feet above the Puget Sound.  It hosts the largest glacial mass in the contiguous United States due in part to the massive amount of moisture that dumpsContinue reading “Psalms, Part 5, Considering Psalm 121”

In a previous blog, we covered 1 Kings.  This blog will give an overview of 2 Kings.  This book is a conclusion to a history of Israel, from Joshua through 2 Kings, from Israel’s entry into the land to their exile from it.  Later in the year, we’ll see how the rest of the HistoricalContinue reading “2 Kings”