hear ⁽⁹⁶⁾

Psalm 110; Matthew 22:41–46; John 1:1–18 (read online ⧉) John calls Jesus the Word. In his phrasing, it wasn’t just any word or words. Jesus was (is) the actual physical embodiment of God’s words. It’s…strange. It’s…incomprehensible. It’s…impossible. It’s…faith. When Jesus speaks, we’re to listen. That…

Psalm 102; Matthew 6:7–15; 1 John 5:12–15 (read online ⧉) Prayer is mysterious. Prayer is powerful. Prayer is…confusing. The psalmist’s opening is the simplest and purest, hear and listen to me (yes, they are different). The psalmist is miserable. The psalmist wants things to stop…

1 Thessalonians 4:13–14; 1 Corinthians 13:4–13; James 1:22–25 (read online ⧉) The well-known atheist, Christopher Hitchens, had many debates (philosophical, scientific) with Christians. During at least one (and probably many) of the debates, he was asked what his hope was or what hope his view…

Jeremiah 26:20–24; Matthew 23:29–24:2 (read online ⧉) The most famous Uriah in the Bible is not the one we read about in Jeremiah. The famous Uriah died because the king slept with his wife. He was…inconvenient for the king. Perhaps being named Uriah isn’t a…

Exodus 28:39–29:9; Exodus 32:1–21; Romans 5:1–11 (read online ⧉) The pomp, display, mystery, pageantry (and politics) that surrounds the elevation of a cardinal (or, per rule, any Roman Catholic male) to the position of pope is pretty amazing and can be quite stirring. It should…