“Fire” is a big deal within the biblical narrative, figuring prominently into its vision of who God is and how God is encountered by created beings. No clear comprehension of the final demise of the wicked can be achieved without a serious grasp of what Scripture says about “fire.”  I...

I need to tell you about Donald and his fellow Bible worker, ​​Juan Moisés, who recently experienced something incredible. They were hiking through the pouring rain in the Cordillera Mountains of Costa Rica, heading toward a village inhabited by Cabécar people, the largest indigenous group in Costa Rica. Juan and...

I have to tell you about a young man named Patrick, a law student at the University of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who has recently encountered the good news of the gospel in the most profound way. Patrick is the kind of person who burns hot for...

My youngest son enjoys cooking. He tells me that there are two kinds of cooks: those who follow recipes and those who don’t. He’s the latter. And I can enthusiastically report that the food he prepares, like the from-scratch egg ramen he made yesterday, is delicious. Recipe-following cooks aim for...

For a number of years, my mother was in an abusive marriage. That was a really bad thing. Eventually, after being brought to the brink of death, she escaped that relationship. That was a good thing. But raising four kids alone in Los Angeles? That was brutal. So, she moved...

Stomach acid burned Mikael’s throat as he vomited. How many people had noticed he had come to church hungover? Mikael just wanted to belong. So, he began partying and drinking with friends. If you could’ve met him back then and somehow seen his future, you’d be surprised to learn that...

For my eighteenth birthday, my mom gave me a card that read, “I used to live each day as though it were my last. But people got tired of hearing me scream, ‘I’M GONNA DIE!!! I’M GONNA DIE!!!’ Hope your birthday’s a scream.” Funnily enough, that pretty much described the...

Dear Abraham, Kill your only son. God. Let's face it—that's a tough Bible story to swallow. At face value, it assaults the very idea that God is love. Or does it? New Testament scripture offers insight into this Old Testament mystery. John, for example, recorded a parallel of God’s call...

"We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:37). Whoever you are, whatever your struggles and temptations may be, sweet victory is yours for the taking. Right now! All you need do is appreciate, appropriate and act upon what already belongs to you in the person of...

“Ellen White said…” Those are three apparently innocent words that have been used and abused with much zest and confidence. They have been known to strike dread and incite rebellion in the hearts of some. But why? Is it in reaction to Ellen White’s message or because of what people...

It was a crisp winter day, and snow blanketed the quaint landscape surrounding me. Bright rays of light sparkled off the fresh snow that had fallen the previous night. Tall evergreens could be seen just about wherever one looked, and the rich smell of these majestic trees filled the air...

Elihu exemplifies one of the major reasons why we might not listen to what someone has to say about God. Young and obscure, Elihu presents a testimony that carries little weight among many intellectual greats. This may be one reason why God has employed farmers, shepherds, fishermen and even children...

There are traits and talents latent within you that can only be brought to active expression when you are in healthy, honest relationships. By remaining in destructive relationships, you are suppressing your unborn potential. I recently posted the above idea on my Facebook page. In response, a number of people...

The Bible is filled with agricultural symbolism as a means of depicting God’s grand and glorious purpose for humanity (Matthew 13). God is in the business of growing things—a new crop of humans, to be exact (1 Corinthians 3:6-8). Human beings, like a farmer’s crop, move through a growth process...

When it comes to metaphors of God’s love, Fathers often get the spotlight. They no doubt communicate God’s love in an irreplaceably unique way. But Scripture tells us that it takes both genders to understand the fullness of who God is (Genesis 1:27) and God actually compares Himself to mothers...

What does it mean to be comfortable in your own skin? What does that look like? I recently asked these questions to my youth Sabbath school class. We briefly remembered awkward adolescent stages of our lives in which we weren’t so comfortable and then pondered its definition in the word...

Once I began a sermon by asking the congregation to shout out the first thing that came to mind when they thought of the Second Coming. One guy yelled, “It won't be a secret rapture.” I like to think the goal in preaching the Second Coming shouldn’t be to merely...

Someone sent me a recent article by John Piper, Reformed Baptist preacher and best selling author, titled, Fierce Tornados and the Fingers of God. The opening sentence was as terrible to me as the tornados themselves: “Why would God reach down His hand and drag His fierce fingers across rural...