by David Anderson
used to be Saul, and the name change—signaling a new beginning—may have been the only way he could have gone on, could have lived with himself. We first meet him at a murder. Young Stephen is being stoned for his faith in Jesus, and the accusers who took off their coats to limber up for […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Change, Character, Conversion, Epiphany, Faith/Trust, Forgiveness, Freedom, Grace, Gratitude, Identity, Lent, Mercy, Repentance, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized
lives in a meritocracy. He’s in debt to the tune of ten thousand talents, an astronomical sum that would take the average worker of that era 150,000 years to repay. Following the custom of the day, the king decides to sell him into slavery, along with his whole family, to try to recoup at least […]
by David Anderson Leave a Comment Filed Under: Conversion, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Lent, Mercy, Repentance, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized
is one more explosive revelation we have safely turned into a children’s Bible story. When God asks Jonah to go preach to the Ninevites—to repent and find God’s forgiveness—Jonah refuses. He’s afraid God will forget all those passages in the Torah about how gentile nations are anathema, and only Israel is God’s choice. Jonah knows […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Anger, Belief, Change, Conversion, Forgiveness, Grace, Lent, Mercy, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized
discovered that no one could steal his essential blessing. It’s been twenty years since Jacob tricked his near-blind old father Isaac into giving him the blessing to which the firstborn Esau was entitled. He stole it, the little momma’s boy, and ran away to escape the wrath of his swarthy hunter brother who could have […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Abundance, Anger, Conflict, Family, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Lent, Mercy, Uncategorized
On Saturdays our companions are musicians. This song by The Call is a big, bold anthem of belief in the midst of struggle, the perfect capstone for our week, “Stories of Dogged Faith.” The opening lines, the cave and the forty days, speak to me of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness. I’ve been in […]
by David Anderson 8 Comments Filed Under: Lent, Uncategorized
suffered from bullying and depression (1 Samuel 1: 1-28). Like her matriarchal sisters, Sarah and Rachel, Hannah is a “barren woman.” In an agrarian culture that prized children and demanded them of women, infertility is seen as a curse. Something’s wrong with you. In the Bible—and until recently—infertility was a woman’s problem, never a man’s. […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Faith/Trust, Faithfulness, Lent, Surrender, Uncategorized
just schooled the Messiah. She came out of the crowd, a Canaanite, begging Jesus to heal her daughter afflicted by a demon. The disciples tell Jesus to get her out of here, “for she is crying after us.” At first Jesus tries to dodge the whole scene. “I was sent only to the lost sheep […]
by David Anderson 8 Comments Filed Under: Change, Forgiveness, Lent, Suffering, Uncategorized
is known only as a bathing beauty, as the voluptuous partner in King David’s famously tragic tryst. Like many silent women in the Bible, however, we have to work to recover her story (2 Samuel 11 & 12). The king is strolling on his roof when he sees her, bathing. But this isn’t likely our […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Character, Faith/Trust, Hope, Lent, Uncategorized