The sunsets in the desert are particularly spectacular. The rugged mountainous terrain covered in stately saguaros create long shadows on the desert floor behind a crimson curtain fading toward the horizon. As you watch the sky, it slowly, but continually transforms into night. The sun disappears behind the mountains, darkness flows from the east and the evening air begins to grow cold. The dry desert atmosphere allows the heat, which was collected throughout the day from the sun, to escape unencumbered into the night. The light fades and the heat rises, until only a cold, crisp darkness rema ..read more

In this episode we will be exploring Matthew 1:1-18 (with a sneak peak at Matthew's use of Emmanuel). Please subscribe to our Rumble channel to be notified when a new episode posts ..read more

Last week, we posted the first five episodes of our new Mission One Video Series on the Rumble platform. And, last night, we released Episode 6. ,(Click here to see the latest episode.) We would like to thank you in advance for your patience as we continue to work on improving the audio and video quality of these videos to provide the best possible online experience. Our goals is to produce two videos each week. Therefore, we need to keep the production time short and the process simple. We are excited to start our exploration of the Gospel of Matthew. If you have any questions or would like ..read more

At the end of this paragraph, I want you to close your eyes. When you do, imagine the perfect destination for your next vacation. Focus on the details. Think about where you would go, who you would like to travel with you, the time of year, where you would sleep at night, and even the kinds of food you would enjoy. Ready? Sit back, relax and… 3, 2, 1, go. (Don’t forget to come back.) Now, let’s wind the clock back to the 48-hour period before you leave for your ideal vacation. Did you make arrangements for your mail? Who will take care of your pets and plants? Did you set an automated respons ..read more

After spending the last three hours untangling Christmas lights and hunting for that one miniature bulb preventing a hundred others from offering their peaceful glow, I happened upon an interesting question. What do I do with the nativity set for Christmas 2020? Per our family tradition, each year I try to make the nativity set as biblically accurate as possible. I have already removed the Magi because they won’t show up for a couple of years. I left the donkey in storage because we have no record of Mary actually riding on a donkey. We had a set of angels looking peacefully upon the scene. B ..read more

My high school girlfriend was a farmer’s daughter. If you believe most country music songs, dating a farmer’s daughter means you spend days fishing together off a pontoon boat, watching sunsets on the back of a John Deere tractor, or driving down an old backroad with dust billowing in the rearview mirror. From firsthand experience, however, I can tell you that country music doesn’t paint a complete picture. For example, they don’t tell you that as the boyfriend of a farmer’s daughter you are automatically recruited to be an unpaid “hired hand.” Or, that square dancing every other Saturday nig ..read more

During my final year in seminary, I decided to take an elective course on the Psalms. While I typically prefer stories over poetry, I greatly admired the professor who was teaching the course, and I wanted to learn how to better translate Hebrew poetry. The entire grade for the course was based on a final research paper which analyzed a psalm that the professor assigned. The emphasis here is on the word “assigned.” Instead of allowing us to pick our favorite psalm, which really means the shortest and easiest to translate, we were assigned to examine a psalm that was notoriously difficult, cha ..read more

Apples are nothing like ice cream cones. I know that might be stating the obvious, but allow me to explain. Several years ago, I tried to convince my kids that an apple sitting on an empty waffle cone was a new, awesome, healthy ice-cream-styled desert. They knew better. But now that I think about it, I wasn’t far off. If you replace the cone with a stick you have the beginnings of a caramel apple, right? To create a caramel apple, a classic fall dessert, you just skewer a nutritious apple with a stick and apply copious amounts of caramel, sugar, and dark chocolate. Now, what if you replace t ..read more

Why do we take vacations? We tell ourselves that we need to get away from the world — or at least our corner of it — to rest, reflect, and untangle the knots we have tied in our muscles and minds. But, when our vacation has ended, did we actually accomplish our goal? When our children were little, most of the vacations that our family embarked upon seemed anything but relaxing. Many times, I was more exhausted when we returned than when we left. It all started with the packing process. My wife must have earned several merit badges for preparedness. She always ensured that we had enough clothe ..read more

“Daddy, read me a story,” whispered my three-year-old daughter as she climbed onto the couch and handed me her children’s Bible. Reluctantly, I set my spellbinding textbook on the finer-points of Greek linguistics on the end table and slid her onto my lap. “O.K., Sweetheart. What story do you want to hear tonight?” “Jonah!” she replied excitedly. “But, we just read that story yesterday. How about Daniel and the Lion’s Den or Noah’s Ark?” I quickly tried to turn the page to a new story, but a pair of big blue eyes looked up and me and silently said, “Daddy, I would really love to hear about Jo ..read more