Category Archives: Bible

Sometimes it doesn’t get better. John the Baptist was a faithful prophet of God. His life had been a hard one, born to an old man and old woman, who, according to tradition died when he was still quite young, … Continue reading →

Proverbs 31 is a popular passage, which describes a strong and powerful woman. The author argues that a strong and powerful woman is worth a lot. The book of Proverbs is a composite work, written by more than one person. … Continue reading →

Paul tells his readers that another characteristic of love is that “love doesn’t boast.” (1 Corinthians 4) Love is not boastful because you suddenly lack pride, but because you don’t feel the need to boast. Boasting is a consequence of … Continue reading →

I went to a small Christian liberal arts college–many years ago. We were required to attend chapel three times a week and I actually came to enjoy them; the chapels would be conducted by various professors and they would speak … Continue reading →

In 1 Corinthians 13:4 the first thing that Paul says about love is that “Love is patient.” Paul had just been explaining to the Christian community in the Greek city of Corinth that there was nothing more important than love. … Continue reading →

How important is freedom, anyhow? When God created Adam and Eve, he put them in a garden with abundant food, in pleasant conditions. But he gave them a rule: they could eat from every tree in that garden they wanted … Continue reading →

In the world that Jesus had come to live in, women and men rarely spent time alone together. It was considered, as in modern Moslem culture, disreputable for a woman to spend time alone with a man to whom she … Continue reading →

Forgiveness and restoration don’t come easily. Jesus told stories to get his points across to those listening to him speak. The parable of the prodigal son is one such tale. The younger of two sons came to his father and … Continue reading →

The story of Jephtha in Judges 11 and 12 is very disturbing. Jephtha and his daughter demonstrate that sometimes following the rules is exactly the wrong thing to do. Jephtha became one of Israel’s leaders—traditionally translated as “judge”—and at the … Continue reading →