Though this passage begins with an exhortation about the importance of praying for our worldly leaders, the author quickly shifts away from earthly authority to true divine authority. The author asserts...

The author of First Timothy first urges that prayers, supplications, thanksgivings, and intercessions be made for everyone, but then he singles out one particular group: kings and all who are in...

The world seems more divided than ever. Pundits argue on news networks, politicians pit themselves against one another, people attack one another on social media. Even families find themselves at odds....

Jeremiah reaches out for refuge in God as his people suffer. Jeremiah trusts, even as he is filled with questions, that God is listening and that God cares. The prophet offers...

We live in a broken world. All over the globe people suffer from conflict, disease, natural disasters, exploitation, bigotry, and injustice. We witness these struggles up close, in our communities, in...

Several months after I moved to China, a friend invited me to her cousin’s wedding in a remote village. When we arrived at the bride’s home, the family surrounded me and...

Water is remarkable. While sometimes soft and soothing, its fearsome power is on display in ocean waves or during floods. But water’s most remarkable transformations come over time. If you visit...

“It’s not about you.” It was just an exasperated retort by my then-boyfriend, but it turned out to be one of the more liberating and clarifying statements of my life. It’s...

Imagine you’ve spent an entire day running errands around town. When you get home, you realize something is missing. Would you go back and retrace every step if you were missing...

When I was growing up, my father often called me “my Bethie.” No one else was allowed to use a diminutive form of my name, much less with a possessive pronoun,...