There's a green chocolate bar sitting on a desk this week. It's pistachio-cream, "Dubai style," and it looks like someone smuggled guacamole into a candy wrapper. It's not really chocolate anymore. It's something else, dressed up to look familiar. And that odd little detail turns out to be the perfect picture for what almost happened to the gospel itself in Acts 15.The early church nearly lost the...  Read More

Imagine showing up to play pickleball in full tennis gear — racket, visor, tennis shoes, the works — only to be told you don't belong because you don't look the part. That's roughly the tension at the heart of Acts 15, one of the most consequential chapters in the entire New Testament. It's a passage about a heated church debate, but underneath the historical details lies a timeless question every...  Read More

Have you ever felt boxed in — every door closing, every plan blocked? That's exactly where the Apostle Paul found himself in Acts 16. Determined to reach Asia, he kept turning east, and God kept redirecting him west, until he ran out of land entirely, stranded on the coast at Troas.  Read More

When the apostle Paul arrived in Athens, he was waiting on friends. He had some time to kill, so he did what any curious traveler would do — he walked the city. What he found didn't just interest him; it wrecked him. Athens, the birthplace of democracy and the supposed capital of human wisdom, was packed wall to wall with idols. Statues to every god imaginable lined the streets, and just in case t...  Read More

Have you ever met someone whose joy was so real you could see it? Not a fake smile pasted on for the sake of appearances, but a deep, settled happiness that shows up even when life gets hard. That kind of joy isn't an accident. It's learned. And one of the best places to learn it is a short, energetic song written thousands of years ago by a group of men known as the Sons of Korah.A Warrior's Song...  Read More

When the Apostle Paul walked back into Ephesus at the start of his third missionary journey, he was returning to a city he already knew by reputation. He had seen Athens, the city of philosophers and idols. He had seen Corinth, the city of prostitutes and sexual immorality — the Las Vegas of the ancient world. But Ephesus was something else entirely: a wealthy, arrogant city of silver, home to one...  Read More

What Paul and Barnabas Teach Us About ConflictHave you ever had a falling out with a close friend — not because either of you did anything morally wrong, but simply because you saw things differently? If so, you're in good company. Two of the greatest heroes of the early church, Paul and Barnabas, went through exactly that. And how they handled it offers a model for every friendship, marriage, and...  Read More

Creation vs. Evolution: Does the Evidence Point to a Designer?Have you ever been out camping, staring up at a sky full of stars? Or hiking a mountain trail, or rafting down a river, or just driving home as the sun sets in colors you can't quite name? Most of us have had a moment like that — a moment when the sheer beauty of the world stopped us in our tracks and made us think, God is here.You're n...  Read More

The Sign You Already Have: What King Ahaz Teaches Us About Facing Hard DecisionsEvery one of us, sooner or later, faces a decision where neither option feels safe. You can go left or you can go right, and both directions come with risk. There's no clean, obvious, comfortable choice — just two paths, and you have to pick one.I know that feeling personally. Years ago I started sensing that God wante...  Read More

He had the strength of a thousand men. He could tear a lion apart with his bare hands, bring down an entire temple with a single push, and carry a city's gate on his shoulders for miles. If anyone had the raw material to be a hero, it was Samson.And yet, when we read his story carefully, something feels off. Something feels uncomfortably familiar.Samson's story is the longest narrative in the enti...  Read More

Change is one of the hardest parts of life. Even when we know change is necessary, we often resist it because the familiar feels safer than the unknown. We cling to habits, routines, and thought patterns that may not be helping us simply because they are comfortable. Yet when Jesus calls someone to follow Him, He is always calling them into transformation.Following Jesus is not merely agreeing wit...  Read More

Seven Steps to Understanding the Prophetic Books of the BibleOf all the caregivers in my life, it was my grandmother who taught me how to tie my shoes. I was four years old. I don’t know why this memory has stayed with me all these years, but it’s still a vivid one.I didn’t want to learn to tie my shoes. I had two older sisters and a mother who would do it for me. Tying my shoes was complicated. I...  Read More