I've never participated in a marathon or driven a car in an all-day race, so I don't know what it feels like to reach a place of exhaustion that requires a break just long enough to sip a cup of cold water or have my tires changed. But I do have a job that in some...

Yesterday we said goodbye to Moses. Left him on Mt. Nebo, overlooking the Promised Land as he took his final breath. We turned the page on the early history of the Israelites, completing our reading of the first five books of the Old Testament. Forty years in the...

I didn't want to read the last few chapters of Deuteronomy this morning. Maybe because I knew what was coming. If I could just skip these chapters, maybe it wouldn't seem as real. Moses was about to die. That's right. The man who entered our story as a tiny baby,...

If Deuteronomy were a musical, the background music would be swelling today as the intensity of Moses' last words to the Israelites surely draws a speechless crowd. Moses briefly reviews all they have witnessed in the wilderness, reminding them once again of God's...

When I finish reading a section of Scripture and then find myself staring at my blank computer screen, I sometimes read the next days' chapter selection in my chronological Bible........ hoping for something to stir my thoughts. This morning was one of those mornings....

There are so many rules and regulations in today's reading. From Festival guidelines to rules for appointing a king to recognizing a true prophet to dealing with people involved in occult practices. Like a father sending his child off to college, God goes over every...

It's funny how a song you haven't thought about in years can suddenly pop into your mind while reading the Bible. This morning as I read Deuteronomy 12 - 15, I began hearing a song in my head. A song I had not thought of since church camp over thirty-five years ago:...

Were they able to see the blessing in the manna they received every day, even though they grumbled about it from time to time along the way? Did they ever reflect on and talk about the times God sent water from a rock just when they thought they would die of thirst?...

While taking senior pictures in downtown Ashland early yesterday evening, I never dreamed the middle-aged woman who passed us in an alley was a priest at a nearby church. I'm not sure if it was her sweatpants or the purple stripes in her short brown hair that threw me...

We'll never feel conviction from our sins quite like the Israelites did, not only offering sacrifices every time they fell short..... but also every time they even had thoughts of falling short. We'll never know the fatigue of wandering in the wilderness for forty...