Job 19:1-21:34 In suffering there is always an opportunity to find hope. Yesterday we saw what God was actively doing in heaven brought hope to Job (Jesus' current intercession). Today we see what God will do in the future brings hope. We can look beyond our present circumstances to the reality of eternity to find hope. Embracing this mindset is to choose the hope of eternity over the grumbling an...  Read More

Job 15:1-18:21 Where do you find hope in the midst of pain and suffering? During Job's whining, complaining, and anguish we see a few breakthrough moments of hope. One of those is found in Job 16:19-21: "Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God..." Job finds hope amid his suffering knowing he has a witness, advocate, and...  Read More

Job 12:1-14:22 We can probably all remember times when people told us completely unhelpful things. I can remember going into my son’s first MRI, before we knew he had a brain tumor, and someone telling me they were sure that nothing was wrong. Nope! We constantly have people, who maybe with the best of intentions, tell us things that are either wrong, insensitive, or unhelpful. This is where Job f...  Read More

Job 8:1-11:20 One of the major issues we see in the conversation between Job and his friends is the distinction between knowing the truth and applying it. As we look at Bildad’s and Zophar's statements we see they clearly understand God's justice and humanity's sinfulness. They comprehend these truths but misapply them to Job's situation. They believe that since God is just and we are sinful, Job ...  Read More

Job 5:1-7:21 As we sat for our Thanksgiving meal in 2007, my mother, wracked with pain, wanted us to read The Message Bible’s introduction to the book of Job. “When these people go through suffering, their lives are often transformed, deepened, marked with beauty and holiness, in remarkable ways that could never have been anticipated before the suffering.” This was true in her life. She saw her ma...  Read More

Job 1:1-4:21 One of the clearest opportunities to find what we believe is to suffer. When we find ourselves in a hard place like Job, it quickly reveals our true beliefs about God. Job loses his wealth, family (except his wife), and physical comfort, and after this spends nearly forty chapters wrestling with the why of his suffering. Job cannot understand why he would be made to suffer and determi...  Read More

Genesis 47:28-50:26 One common objection skeptics have against the Bible is that God is not as clear about certain moral issues, like slavery, as they think he should have been. The Bible gives principles that would ultimately eradicate slavery but, as we read through the Old Testament, we may find ourselves wrestling with why God would seem to go along with the culture in various ways. Despite th...  Read More

Genesis 45:16-47:27 I think we have a secret desire for our lives to be like a dot-to-dot puzzle─let me explain. In a dot-to-dot, there is a clear next step for your life. You move from number 1, to number 2, etc. There are no surprises and, from the very beginning, you can get a general sense of where you are headed and what the picture is going to be. Life is not like that. It is filled with twi...  Read More

Genesis 42:1-45:15 We love movies with a surprise ending. I can still remember the first time I watched Sixth Sense and only discovered the real meaning of the movie at its conclusion. Many of the stories in the Bible have similar stories of twists, turns, and shocking outcomes. Joseph’s life is one of these. He shifts from favored child, to slave, to prisoner, to second in command of the nation E...  Read More

Genesis 40:1-23, 35:28-29, 41:1-57 Have you ever had the experience where you were praying but felt like you were simply talking to a wall? You were talking, but God seemed silent? We may feel like God is silent, distant, and potentially even uninterested in our lives. However, the important truth we need to embrace is that God has spoken and is speaking in a number of ways, if we would only liste...  Read More

Genesis 37:1-38:30; 1 Chronicles 2:3-6, 8; Genesis 39:1-23 How we respond to the ups and downs we face in life reveals a lot about our character and our relationship with God. Joseph is introduced as a spoiled, favored child of Jacob who did not mind gloating over his brothers. He is exalted in his family but is quickly brought low as a slave and prisoner in Egypt. In these humiliating circumstanc...  Read More

Genesis 36:1-19; 1 Chronicles 1:35-37; Genesis 36:20-30; 1 Chronicles 1:38-42; Genesis 36:31-43; 1 Chronicles 1:43-2:2 We are introduced to the mighty nation of Edom today. In their time, these descendants of Esau would have great strength, power, and political prowess. We spend fifty-nine verses recounting their generations, chiefs, and accomplishments, then we have two verses at the end that spe...  Read More