belief – Page 14 – 300 words a day

My Grandfather’s Bible

Over the weekend, I was given a Bible. It’s worn. There is a handwritten date inside: 1914. This was one of my great-grandfather’s Bibles. It was given to my grandfather at some point, and now it’s been passed to me. There are a couple things between the pages, as often happens with Bibles. One is […]

by Jon Swanson

An interesting prayer story.

I love stories about people praying and then having answers. It’s exciting. I mean, look at this story. Paul writes a letter to some people in Rome. He talks about his travel schedule and his desire to visit them. And he asks them to pray for him. Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers […]

by Paul Merrill

Impatient

(Paul Merrill writes here every First Friday.) I grew up hearing the phrase, “in ‘the fullness of time’ “. That’s found in Galatians 4:4 in the King James Version of the Bible – a translation that is no longer commonly used. (The English language has changed a lot since 1611.) In my favorite translation (the […]

by Jon Swanson

just one picture, please

Philip was a normal guy. After Jesus invited Philip to follow him, Philip went to find his friend Nathaniel. Rather than talking about his own understanding of Jesus, Philip rooted his invitation to his friend in theology: “This is the one Moses and the prophets pointed to.” When Nathaniel argued, Philip merely said, “Come and […]

by Paul Merrill

It’s not perfect

(Paul Merrill writes here every First Friday.) Life down on this planet can be frustrating. Nearly everything we deal with has its problems. Even when we relax with a cool drink and look out at the perfect sunset, a mosquito is probably buzzing around our ankles, ready to bite. Paul wrote about some of the […]