At the moment, we are ready to celebrate Thanksgiving 2024 and I have so many reasons to be thankful, some of which are in the Thanksgiving bonus episode that dropped earlier. But being thankful isn’t just for one day. My recent study of Mark 8 has expanded my view of giving thanks and what it can look like every day of the year.

Welcome to a Thanksgiving bonus episode. You may have noticed that no new podcasts have dropped during the past 5 weeks. Well, sometimes in life, things don’t go as we planned, but our faithful God shows up in ways we didn’t expect.

God must love camping. After all, His presence lived in a tent for years, and the most joyful festival of the Jewish year includes building tents to live in for a week. But the Feast of Booths or SUkkot, was about more than living in the great outdoors. It was a time to remember where they came from and give thanks for where they were.

I am grateful that God’s forgiveness for confessed sin is available for every sin every day of the year. Most of the ancient listeners and readers of the scriptures lived under the law requiring them to make daily, weekly, and monthly sacrifices to pay the debt for their sins. Stick around to hear what they were required to do so they could be at one with a holy God just one day of the year.

You probably don’t think of God as a party planner, but in the book of Leviticus, God lays out details for exactly when, how, and why He wants His people to celebrate—not because he is a control freak, but because He wants His people to know how to come close to a Holy God and to remember how He has demonstrated his love for them in the past. Listen in to hear how the ancients celebrated.

Every generation wonders if theirs will be the last to exist, and the movie industry helps them imagine what that might look like. Jesus’ disciples were no different; they wanted to know what to look for and when the world would end. Jesus wasn’t known for direct answers, but in Matthew 25, he does give his followers a visual picture using three parables. We’re focusing on one of those today.

In our 21^st-century American culture, being a Good Samaritan is a common phrase that is like a badge of honor. I doubt many people know it comes from a story Jesus told in Luke 10 to answer a man’s question, “Who is my neighbor?” You may be wondering, Who is a Samaritan? And who is MY neighbor?

With a name like Joy, no one guessed I was depressed—battling hopelessness and the lies of the evil one. By the power of God, I live now in freedom that is priceless to me because I know the other side. Whether you’re living in chains or in freedom, there’s a woman from Luke 7 I want you to meet.

With a name like Joy, no one guessed I was depressed—battling hopelessness and the lies of the evil one. By the power of God, I live now in freedom that is priceless to me because I know the other side. Whether you’re living in chains or in freedom, there’s a woman from Luke 7 I want you to meet.

The first episode of Season 2 drops next Wednesday, September 4, 2024! Listen in to hear what’s new in Season 2 and what I’ve been working on this summer.

When I was growing up, people talked about “redeeming” coupons for their groceries, but I had no idea how that connected with redemption in the Bible. Redemption is not an easy word to define, but in this final episode of our 5-part series on the book of Ruth, we’ll see what timely sacrificial redemption looks like—in Ruth’s life and in yours.

There have been times in my life where I had a choice to do what I considered the safest or most logical thing OR follow the crazy thing God was asking me to do. This is exactly what happens to Ruth in chapter 3. She has a choice to make. Stick around and see what happens next in our series on the book of Ruth.

You know that saying, “Sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me.” I don’t believe that’s true. Words do hurt, and they can make us feel like we aren’t good enough, don’t belong, and don’t deserve God’s favor. As we continue our series on Ruth, we’ll see that we aren’t alone.

When we are in what feels like a wilderness, facing a crisis that challenges our strength and even our faith, it is easy to lose sight of God. Ruth chapter 1 tells us that Naomi was facing the same challenges. But if we look carefully, we can see God’s faithful, intentional provision—even in the messy middle of her life crisis.

You’ve probably known friends and family members who have selflessly loved and cared for relatives as they battled dementia or some other debilitating illness. But what kind of person would be loyal to love someone who wasn’t even a blood relative? We’ll find out in Part 1 of our series on Ruth.

When I was taught about Jesus’ death on the cross, I understood that his blood set me free from my sin. Nearly all of my understanding of Jesus’ once-and-for-all sacrifice centered around restoring relationship with God in a future heaven, which is true. But a recent study of Ephesians 1 opened my eyes to more of what Jesus’ death and resurrection means to those who have chosen to be His followers.

At the moment, my life is full of invitations and expectations—from responsibilities, things I’ve committed to, people around me in addition to my own often unrealistic expectations and goals. How can you find rest when you're exhausted?

When we see or hear something over and over, our brains can start to ignore it as old information, something we already know and don’t need to pay attention to.

John 3:16 can easily fall into that category, but understanding God’s extravagant love awakens our souls to see this verse in a new way.

In John 3, Jesus enters Jerusalem and he isn’t even trying to stay under the radar! Nicodemus, one of the most educated and influential Jewish leaders of the first century, is aware of the miraculous signs Jesus is doing in Jerusalem. He may have even witnessed them first hand. But Nicodemus has questions that his experience and education couldn’t answer.

The gospels include many characters and groups of people that the original readers and listeners would’ve recognized, but these characters may not be familiar to us. Meet the powerful political and Jewish influencers of first-century Jerusalem to better understand Jesus’ interactions with them.