temptation – 300 words a day

please take care of me

“You aren’t going to leave me, are you?” When you are getting to know someone too good to be true, you have questions. You acknowledge their greatness. You ask them for help. You acknowledge your weakness. Then, after all that, as you are starting to relax a bit, you are suddenly seized with fear. What […]

by Jon Swanson

when help comes.

Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. Matthew 4: 11 How far will a text stretch to absorb the applications we try to make? We often take what people say and we add to it, we misquote it, we leave words out, we add implications. It happens all the time in […]

by Jon Swanson

learned means usable

Many people have memorized the Bible. Most people who watch sporting events have memorized John 3:16, for example. But that doesn’t mean they know what it means. Some people have memorized parts of the Bible. From phrases to sentences to paragraphs to pages to whole books, people have memorized the Bible. But that doesn’t mean […]

by Jon Swanson

up and down

[Matthew 3:17-4:2] The heavens parted. We use that phrase jokingly when someone is about to make some dramatic pronouncement. In the situation that Matthew talks about, there was a dramatic pronouncement. Though not a joke, it feels pretty friendly. The Father says of the Son, “I’m proud of him.” And then, while there is still […]