In many and various ways, God spoke to those people of old, sending them prophets and priests, wise men and shepherds, calling them back to Himself. Yet even the most pious and godly of those men and women were sinful at their core. They were afflicted with a mortality no medicine could cure, no science could solve….
Read MoreEvery day is a battle, a battle against the darkness, a battle against the lie, a battle against our own impulses. But David had not gone out to the battle. He had already put himself in a position to sin.
When we skip our prayers and Bible reading, when we take the drink we know we shouldn’t, when we go out when we should go home, a thousand times a day we have opportunities to put ourselves in a position to sin, or a position to do what God has called us to do.
“So David sent and inquired about the woman…”
Read MoreDo you believe in monsters?
Our word monster comes from the Latin monere, which means “to show” or “warn.” I’ve never seen for sure, but I suspect that monster stories arose to warn people about dangers in general. The monster put a scary, if imaginary, face on the general danger that is outside the safety of home and village.
So our history is filled with monster stories: Leviathan, the sea monster; Cyclops; Beowulf’s Grendel; up to more modern monsters like Tolkien’s Smaug.
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