The Birth Narratives Don’t Prove a Thing

One of the things that I frequently encounter as a teacher of the Bible is that people believe the birth narratives of Jesus, particularly the miraculous parts of them, prove his divinity. That is so typical of us Moderns, with our need to have our beliefs based on provable facts. The truth is, however,...

How to Pass the Wilderness Test

Between Egypt and the Promised Land there was wilderness, and the direct route between them was also the shortest route. This northern route near the Mediterranean Sea was also the route to take if you needed to eat off the land and have fresh water to drink. But that’s not the route God led the Israelites...

Redwood Time and the Kingdom of God

The Coast Redwood is the world’s tallest living organism, with the tallest towering 35 to 38 stories high. From a distance a tree that tall looks long and slender like a basketball player, but in fact the Coast Redwood is massive. At eye-level the trunk can be 27 feet in diameter, the length of two VW...

Forgetting Faith in Formulas

A couple of years ago I was making a guitar with zebrawood for the back and sides. Zebrawood is an African hardwood with bold tan and brown stripes, and it was my first time working with it. The guitar was a cutaway, which is tricky because it requires the wood to be bent into some pretty severe curves. My...

Christmas Faith

It is back around 732 B.C.E. and Ahaz is king of Judah. He’s just a young man in his early twenties, but he was surrounded by some older advisors, among them the prophet Isaiah. Assyria is a rising power and is threatening the nations of the eastern Mediterranean coast. The kings of Syria and Israel, who...

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