No matter who she talks to, no matter how many books and blogs she reads, nothing will eliminate the shock and awe that comes with being a new mom. It’s a joyful, tumultuous season that the norms of pre-parenthood rarely survive. I work from home, which allows… Read More

“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” (John 1:14 MSG). Who is your neighbor? In a time when nearly 70 percent of Americans are on social media, we can think of “neighboring” in terms of both physical space and cyberspace. Just… Read More

I once asked legendary Bible scholar Brevard S. Childs to describe his method for interpreting the Bible. He replied that he didn’t have a method at all, but instead he let the text speak for itself, in its own context. He went on to explain that this context involves faith,… Read More

Help! We’re being held captive, bound by a rusty 800-year-old device! I’m talking about the chapter divisions of the Bible invented by Archbishop Stephen Langton in the early 1200s. While his system has benefited Bible students—helping us find and talk about specific parts of Scripture—it has also created… Read More

“The Bible does not present us with texts to be mastered … but with a Word intent on shaping our lives, on mastering us.” Joel B. Green offers this valuable insight in a piece on the Catalyst site (”Cultivating the Practice of Reading Scripture”). This is… Read More

How does God want people to respond to him? Scripture gives us many answers to that question—worship, fear, obedience, love, even curiosity—but one of the most basic responses is thankfulness. The Israelites had a “thank offering” as part of their worship rhythms (Leviticus 7:11-15), and the Psalms bubble with gratitude… Read More

As we lead people into Bible engagement, there’s one great blessing we shouldn’t ignore: the text itself is readily available online. Bible Search, Bible Gateway, YouVersion and other services offer a free Scripture library unimaginable even thirty years ago. While… Read More

It was my first day as discipleship pastor at Browncroft Community Church. A key volunteer approached me and blurted, “We are two months behind in the Read365 program. What do you want to do?” This was the stuff of nightmares. I hardly knew the program, much less the… Read More

I was young, on my own, struggling to make a living. Then a friend said, “Pssst. You wanna write some Bible lessons? You’ve been going to Sunday school all your life. Maybe you could create some curriculum and pull in some extra cash.” Those probably weren’t the exact… Read More

The transformation started nearly 500 years ago, when we changed the way the Bible looks. Beginning with the Geneva Bible in the 1550s our sacred writings were redesigned to make them easier to reference. The chapter numbering system we know had been introduced 300 years earlier, but it was… Read More