The Golden Gate Bridge stretches almost a mile across the San Francisco Bay, with its total length being about 8,500 feet. It is 220 feet tall at its highest point and was completed in 1937 at a cost of 35 million dollars. Building bridges was a dangerous business in the early part of the twentiethContinue reading “Tender Hearts and Open Hands”
Category Archives: Opening the Bible
Childish or Child-like?
There’s an intriguing picture in Psalm 131. It is offered to further develop and reveal the pilgrims’ perspective as they neared Jerusalem. After confessing they had steered clear of presumptuous matters (“things too wonderful for me”), we are told, “I am like a weaned child with its mother.” Not simply a child—but a weaned child.Continue reading “Childish or Child-like?”
Holding Out for a Hero
Joseph Campbell spent his entire life reading, writing, studying, and lecturing about mythology. For Campbell, mythology was much more than just stories from the Egyptians, Greeks, or Romans — it embraced historical figures as well as fictitious ones. Someone asked him one time why there were so many stories of heroes in mythology and CampbellContinue reading “Holding Out for a Hero”
We Must Have Wonder
Israel’s golden calf episode (Exodus 32), didn’t happen in a vacuum. They had been exposed to the wonders of God through the plagues, the deliverance at the Red Sea (while Pharaoh and his army were buried in the same waters), and God’s continual presence in the cloud and pillar of fire. But they soon forgotContinue reading “We Must Have Wonder”
Witnesses of God’s Glory
Mothers, I’d like to ask you a question. Think about when you first held your son or daughter in your arms for the first time. Now here’s the question: What kind of moment was that? It was a moment from God, wasn’t it? It was a moment delivered from Him to you, from His handsContinue reading “Witnesses of God’s Glory”
Your Texts and Your Bible
Imagine someone with access to all of the texts you have ever written. They’ve gathered them together and bound them into a book which they go around sharing with others. Only they rarely ever read a complete text — instead, they usually just quote a few sentences here and there. The quotations are accurate, butContinue reading “Your Texts and Your Bible”
Working Off a List
“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.” (2 Peter 1:5-7) A list can be a real lifesaver, can’t it? In the midst ofContinue reading “Working Off a List”
Working With Pictures
You don’t have to read the Bible very long before you appreciate the fact that God speaks to us in pictures a good deal of the time. Pictorial speech is part of the language of Scripture in the same way that rain is part of the weather. It may rain more at certain times ofContinue reading “Working With Pictures”
Rainy Nights and Dark Caves
Years ago, Brooke Benton recorded a song called, A Rainy Night in Georgia. As you might guess from the title, it was a melancholy tune that told the story of a man who had fallen on hard times. As the song began, it was late in the evening and he was “tryin’ to find aContinue reading “Rainy Nights and Dark Caves”
Trifling with God
At Meribah the people of Israel “gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron” (Numbers 20:2). The problem was a lack of water and Israel was so despondent over it that they told Moses they wished they had died “When our brothers fell dead before the Lord” (v. 3)! Think about that a bit. It wasContinue reading “Trifling with God”
