Having a job is a grind. Whether you work full time or only part time, you reach a point of needing some time away to maintain healthy functioning. Even in ministry, there is a threshold of too much work that can easily be reached. While vacation helps in the individual and family context, something else is needed as part of the organization’s structure that will provide this necessary ingredient....  Read More

There are generally four characteristics of God’s Word pointed to by scholars that are taught in  the Scriptures themselves that give us confidence in their reliability and authority:1. Scripture is inspired. The Bible was composed by a number of different authors, with different personalities and contexts, yet Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16 that “all Scripture is breathed out by God.” The doctri...  Read More

Psalm 147:5 states, “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power.” If there is one over-arching lesson we can learn from the plagues on Egypt, it is that God is abundantly powerful. There is nothing and no one that can stand up to him. He does what he wants when he wants how he wants. At the same time his power always flows from his goodness. So often in our broken world those in power use their powe...  Read More

The goal in all of Moses’ dealings with Pharaoh was for Pharaoh to release God’s people and send them away, letting them go for good. In Exodus 9:7 Pharaoh finally does some sending, but it is not the kind of sending he was supposed to be doing. The sending in this verse is not of God’s people out of Egypt, but rather it is the sending of a team of investigators to see if it is indeed true that Is...  Read More

Having just finished an audiobook of Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities, the opening paragraph struck me as very apropos to the year we’ve just experienced. I’m sure all of us can find a phrase or more to relate to.It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season o...  Read More

For centuries scholars have noted that the first nine plagues are presented in a pattern of three sets of three. This can be seen primarily in the way that each plague is initiated. The first plague of each set (plagues 1, 4, 7) is initiated after an early morning conversation between Moses and Pharaoh. The second plague of each set (2, 5, 8) is initiated after a direct warning from Moses to Phara...  Read More