Is God's Punishment Just? There is one sentence in the Bible that changed my understanding of disobedience and illustrates the heart- Gen 19:26. It reads, "But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt." It reminds instantly of the story of King Saul and Prophet Samuel. Instead of Saul waiting on the prophet to arrive to complete the sacrifice to God before going to war, Saul took it upon himself to perform the sacrifice with his unrighteous...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
In honor of May being Mental Health Awareness month, I’d thought I attempt to answer a critical question and get something off my chest. It’s time for a confession—I personally have a love/ hate relationship with the mental health industry. On one hand I love that people understand that their mental state is a serious indicator of their overall health and I love that my profession can help people get through some difficult moments of life while feeling supported. The Bible does say after all...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
It's Never Too Late For an Answered Prayer Imagine you are Sarah, Abraham's wife. You have been married for several decades. You have supported your husband in all his endeavors. You have been a dutiful wife and have not been able to conceive. You have prayed. You have believed God's promise to give your husband a son. You have prayed and believed some more and yet month after month you are still barren. What do you do? I think it's safe to assume that most of us would accept the reality that...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Why Names Matter It's one thing for us to have a name for God based on our relationship with Him, it's another thing for God to tell you exactly who He is. That name should be noted. Hagar names God, the One who sees me, but Abram was spoken to by God Almighty- El Shaddai. The weight of that revelation must have been a heavy moment for Abram, as he had already been faithfully obeying the instructions of the LORD God for almost 25 years at this point. He understands God is the Supreme One. He...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
What Can Hagar Teach Us About God's Love? My husband and I ended up having a conversation about the Trinity of God and how we as His people do not understand the intricacies of that trinity and therefore suffer in our understanding of who God really is. Let me take you back to John 17 when Jesus is praying to God about His soon return to eternity. Verse 5 reads, "Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began." Look at that again, it says before the world began. But...
2 months ago • 3 min read
What Can Abram Teach Us About Growing Our Faith? Before he became the patriarchal Abraham that was world renowned and favored by God and man, he was just Abram. He was a man who was chosen by God and chose to obey the call of God. Before the age of 75, Abram was just like any other human until he chose to act on his faith and allow God to transform him into his image. My favorite takeaways from Abram's story in the Bible are the ones that demonstrate how his faith evolved over time. Just...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Choices Have Consequences There are always a myriad of events happening in the world around us: political tension, war, systemic problems, crime, and every sin under the sun we can think of. Abram's model of how to deal with the world around us is one we can easily apply today. In chapter 14, war has broken out in the region against the kings of the Mesopotamian Empire and a collective of Canaanite kings because the Canaanite kings decided to stop paying tribute money to the empire. The...
3 months ago • 2 min read
God Is Patient I love the way our holy and righteous God weaves a story together and demonstrates His character so well while fulfilling His plan for humanity. Last week we read about Abram's calling to leave his home behind and his eventual travels to Egypt. We see Abram get blessed by Pharaoh with abundant gifts in one moment after lying about his relationship with Sarai and then turn around and get expelled from all of Egypt in the next moment when that lie was uncovered. This whole time,...
3 months ago • 1 min read
God Is Intentional Do you think it was a coincidence that God had Abram's father, Terah, to leave Ur of the Chaldeans first? Do you think it was a coincidence that when they initially left Ur, they were headed for Canaan but settled in Haran, still considered the land of Terah's people? Could that have been the end of that family lineage? God is so intentional about fulfilling His Kingdom destiny that He made sure to speak to Abram when the time was right and instruct him to "Go to a land...
3 months ago • 2 min read