Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” (Jonah 2:1-2) If you grew up in church, you know the story of Jonah. God asked him to go to Nineveh, a city of 120,000, to help him save them from their own wickedness. Like most of us, when we run from what we think is trouble, we often go somewhere we think we […]

“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26) No one was more prepared to speak about vanity than Solomon. He lived a life chasing all the traps that his money could set for him. After he finally learned that it would get him nowhere, he wrote a book about it and called it “Ecclesiastes”. Ecclesiastes means preacher and boy did Solomon ever preach about how “wine, women, and song” almost cost him his relationship with […]

“Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’” (2 Samuel 12:7) When the prophet Nathan pointed his finger at David and told him his sins were known by God, it shook him to the core. No longer could he think he could hide the fact that he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, Uriah. He had foolishly convinced himself that out of sight meant out of mind until Nathan reminded him that God knew his sins, not to mention others who worked and lived […]

The governor answered and said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” They said, “Barabbas!” (Matthew 27:21) In Jesus’ time, the Romans had a long-standing tradition at Passover of releasing one prisoner as a gesture to illustrate its respect for the Jewish holiday. Mark’s account of Pontius Pilate’s decision to release Barabbas covers the exchange between Pilate, the Jewish leaders and others as Pilate struggled with his decision: Now at the feast he was accustomed to releasing one prisoner to them, […]