Isaiah 40

Being baptized requires becoming vulnerable to at least one other person.

When I fear a dystopian future, I hold on to stories of everyday resistance.

If God is present in the planting and the harvest, then God is present in the time when nothing seems to be happening.

There is a clear distinction between being comfortable and receiving comfort.

We gave our readers a one-word writing prompt: “Wind.”

We gave our readers a one-word writing prompt: “Wind.”

Mysterious truth in fiction and in reality

It's Advent, and accusations against prominent men are shaking things up like a highway construction project in the wilderness.

There is comfort, and then there is comfort.

In Flint, we know something about nostalgia and despair—and hope.

For a long time, Luther's hometown lay forgotten.

My words feel small. Like I’m trying to beat back the ocean with a stick. I could command the waves to stop, but the sea will keep pounding the sand. Recent world events have generated a lot of fodder for preachers and writers, and yet I have nothing to say. 

The son of a truck driver, I like highways and image of travel. Checking The New Interpreter’s Bible Dictionary's entry about roads and highways, I learned that a messila was a built-up road, intentionally constructed and improved, while a derekh (Num. 20:17, 19, Judg. 21:19) was a path was formed because of constant use and thus had become a road.

Patience is not one of our stronger characteristics. A flight delay or traffic jam can become an emotional and physical crisis.

When our girls were still quite young, my husband Norm and I moved our family from our fast-paced life and work in Chicago to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where Norm had accepted a teaching position. Feeling a bit like Abraham and Sarah, we made a radical change of landscape.

I'm afraid I want the good news of Christmas without the challenge.

We know things only insofar as we can describe their likeness.

Every valley shall be exalted—but when?

Isaiah is a master at putting God and humankind in perspective.