Questions

There is a lot of controversy about this chapter. Is Naomi’s plan a good one? Why does she send Ruth to do this? What exactly happens between Ruth and Boaz? Was Ruth right to obey her mother-in-law? Was she right to change the plan in the moment? Should Boaz already have “redeemed” Ruth? Was he [...]

Samson’s redemption – YELLOW

Samson’s ended up in some pretty big trouble – the kind you can’t really get out of.  Most of us won’t experience that kind of trouble in our lives, thankfully.  But it’s worth noting that God gave him one more moment of strength back – just enough to bring down the Philistines. Why do you [...]

Be strong and courageous

On Sunday, if you went to the 9:00 service, we talked about becoming cross-shaped people.  (If you didn’t, you can see the photo of the sermon on my Facebook page – the basic gist was that things like love, faith, sacrifice, etc. are the line segments that form the outline of a cross, and then [...]

Whose story is it, anyway?

Ok, we’ve had weird and tricky stories already in the first few books of the Bible, and we’ll have more.  But usually the people whose job it is to think and write about these stories can at least agree on what the story is about. Numbers 12 is different.  Some people think it’s about prophecy [...]

Great visual!

I often google our readings for interesting thoughts, questions, videos, art, poems, etc. to share here.  So I googled “first passover” – and one of the hits caught my attention.  Here’s what showed on the search page blurb: The First Passover – The Tenth Plague on Egypt The first Passover and the tenth plague on [...]

Looking back

This is it. The death of the firstborn son will be the last, and most traumatic, of all the plagues. Tomorrow we’ll read about what the Israelites were doing while the Egyptians were mourning, but for now, we’re basically sitting in the middle of a war zone. Which makes it a great time to look [...]

Prince of Egypt

Do you have a picture in your mind of what the plagues were like? If not, take a minute now to think about it, before you read any farther. See them in your mind’s eye. Got an image or two? Good. Now check out the way the moviePrince of Egypt portrays the plagues: How does [...]

Bricks, straw, and Legos

So, my guess is that Moses’ story is one you’ve heard before. That’s ok – one of the glorious things about Scripture is that you can read it over and over and get new things out of it every time. But sometimes, with stories we know really well, it helps us to look at them [...]

God can tell you what it means

My biggest disappointment in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat centers around this part of the story (and another part at the end).  I love the Elvis-Pharaoh song: But when it’s Joseph’s turn, he seems to interpret it all by himself.  Nowhere in the show does he say “Interpreting dreams is God’s business” or “It’s [...]

Justifying the beans? – ORANGE

Judah lies to Tamar. Tamar lies to Judah. Judah seduces Tamar. Tamar seduces Judah. The whole thing just seems like a big mess, but the Bible seems to think that Judah’s actions are pretty awful, while Tamar’s are righteous. Believe it or not, it all reminds me of a scene in Into the Woods, when [...]