-
“…we shall be saved by His life.” — Romans 5:10, NKJV I remember when I was a new Christ follower—a teenager, wide-eyed and still trying to figure out what it all meant. An evangelist came to our church for a week of meetings. He was animated and engaging, the kind of preacher who could startle…
-
“How do you pick up the threads of an old life?” —Frodo, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Twelve years ago, my family stepped off a plane from Seoul and walked back into our house in Boise, Idaho. Everything looked the same—the walls, the neighborhood, even the familiar smell of home—but…
-
“Who do you say that I am?” — Matthew 16:15, NIV Jesus asks a piercing question. We live in an age of endless questions — even in the life of the church, where questions about origins, authorship, history, science, genre, and intent abound. Seven days or billions of years?What version of the Bible is right?Which…
-
“Wise men still seek Him.” It’s on mugs and bumper stickers, framed in gold at Christmastime. It’s noble. Calm. Almost decorative. But seeking did not begin in Bethlehem. It began in a garden. After Adam and Eve stitched fig leaves together and hid among the trees, the Lord God walked in the cool of the…
-
“My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.” — Isaiah 26:9, NIV I still remember the day I found gold. I was out with my uncle doing some exploring — hunting fossils, turning…
-
As a kid, I remember my grandma using the word rich in a particular way. She didn’t mean expensive. She wasn’t talking about money at all. Rich was her word for something that had more in it than you expected—more than you could easily handle, in the best possible way. If a dessert had layers—real…
-
“You forgave the iniquity of your people and covered all their sins. Selah.”—Psalm 85:2, ESV Some words in Scripture explain things. Others interrupt us—inviting us to stop, and to stay. Selah is one of those words. Depending on your translation, it may show up plainly—or quietly disappear. In some Bibles it’s replaced with Interlude. In…
-
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal… in Christ Jesus. —Philippians 3:13-14, NIV A few weeks ago my wife and I had what I can only describe as a surreal experience. Our daughter and son-in-law lead worship at a church near us, and we couldn’t make…
-
[I’m currently working on a new book called The Best Miles, a reflection on faithfulness, aging, and the ways God continues to use our lives for His glory. The book is still taking shape, but what follows is one “nudging” from that work. Thanks for reading.] Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we…
-
Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever.—Psalm 106:1 (ESV) That phrase—“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever”—is one of the great pillars of Scripture. It appears again and again throughout the Old Testament—spoken, sung, proclaimed,…
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Ryan's Ramblings 