This has been a summer of weddings for me. In this season of life, it feels like there are more weekends with weddings than not. Amidst all the festivities, there is one wedding tradition I always avoid: the bouquet toss....
The exodus is the Old Testament picture of the cross for us. The Israelites, once slaves of the Egyptians, are freed from slavery, lavished in riches, and prepared to reconstitute their identity as a new nation. Despite Pharoah’s attempts to thwart God’s promise to rescue...
At this point in the Exodus narrative, the first three plagues have occurred over the land of Egypt, and Pharaoh has not budged in his stance of holding the Israelites captive (Exodus 7:3-5)....
We often buy into the idea of our own personal sovereignty rather than acknowledging the only Sovereign. Our culture has created a narrative with us at the center of everything. Instead of trusting in a God whose character does not change, we attempt to trust...
Through the obedience of Moses and Aaron, we are reminded that obeying God does not guarantee that things will get easier for us. We trust in a God who is sovereign and bigger than short-term suffering; His plans exceed our momentary affliction. ...
When we get older, we often see the events of our past with folly and foolishness compared to where we are now and where our thinking is. What is powerful to me, though, is to see how God is working on and developing us in...
In Exodus 3, God reveals Himself to Moses in the midst of obscurity. Although Moses’ circumstances are seemingly bleak, God asserts Himself as bigger than the moment while at the same time personally engaged with Moses’ life. Although the timeline of Moses’ life appears to...
I somehow made it into my thirties without a major tragedy in my life. My adolescence was peppered with significant trials, suffering, pain, and the like, but I had no battling experience with a mighty all-consuming tragedy. Then last summer the sky opened up and...
Often we find ourselves in seasons where we feel far from the work that God is doing. In Exodus 2, Moses’ circumstances leave him in a foreign land with a new family and far away from everything he had ever known. In what appears to...
“Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done" (Exodus 1:8). Historically and culturally, Ancient Egypt is fascinating to me. It was home to one of the oldest civilizations on Earth and was a major...
Who knows you best? Who has seen you at your best and at your worst? Who has seen you when you're in the in between of your best and worst? Who has seen you when you're energized, upbeat, creative, and goofy? Who has seen you...
The Hebrew people tend to find security and rest in the old ways of the old covenant, but the author attempts to introduce them to the new covenant where they can find hope once for all. Although we cannot identify with the familiarity of the...
I've always been fascinated by small towns. Maybe it was the teaser I got by growing up on the edge of an old family farm, or maybe it was my overactive, Tom-Sawyer-and-Laura-Ingalls-Wilder mind, but I've always been irresistibly drawn to a Mayberry lifestyle on the...
How quick I am to call places my home. How eager I am to connect with new people and hold tight to old friendships. I could say my home is Chesapeake, Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Nashville, Martin, or Greenville. I could say my “second home” is...
At my daughter’s school they are studying indefinite pronouns. I don’t personally have a memory of learning indefinite pronouns, per se. Do you? All. Another. Any. Anybody. Anyone. Anything. Both. Each. Either. Everybody. Everyone. Everything. Few. Many. More. Most. Neither. Nobody. None. One. Other. Several....
The letter to the Hebrews should serve as a warning and a challenge for us to know the Word and to know Jesus. The author of Hebrews counted on the biblical knowledge of his audience in order to draw attention to the supremacy of Jesus—to...
It was 1982. I was a wide-eyed, naïve, college freshman dancing in my pj’s, singing a brand new song and pretending to party like it was 1999! I blinked and 17 years went by. Suddenly it really was 1999. The world was afraid of what...
While the encounter between David and Goliath is a demonstration of David’s faith, the encounter between David and Saul in the cave shows David’s deep desire to follow God’s plan. When Saul enters the very cave that David and his men are using to hide...
We will all face battles in our lives, but how we approach each battle reflects what we believe about God. Do we believe that God is sovereign and fully engaged in our circumstances, no matter what the outcome is?...
As the youngest son, David performed the lowly, menial job of taking care of the goats and sheep in the fields. But when David comes before Samuel, the Lord said, “This is the one; anoint him” (v. 12)....
David’s life shows us that God uses the unexpected and the unlikely. Choosing broken people like David to participate in His plan makes His great power known. David’s life is one of tension as the Bible describes him with a heart of integrity and skillful...
I first found out about Cultor House because a friend from my university did an internship through Grace Church and had a really positive experience. At the same time that I found out about the opportunity to intern at Grace, I became aware of sin...
As limited and finite beings, we are helpless and in desperate need of God’s love. Like oxygen provides life to the blood, so also experiencing the love of God provides vitality to the soul....
This weekend brought to a conclusion our series on Esther, an orphaned Jewish castaway whose improbable rise to Queen of the Persian Empire became an instrumental piece in the preservation of the Jewish people. As we examine the last two chapters, an initial decree from...
Despite Haman's death, Esther and Mordecai still have work to do, as Haman's decree that all Jews are to be annihilated from the land still remains. Esther's compassion for her people drives her to plead for them before the King and points us to Jesus'...