PROVERBS / We all have certain people we go to when we need advice about life, but with so much at stake in our lives - which is best or even true? We are not orphans left to figure this out on our own, for we have a Father who desires to instruct us in the way life works.

EPHESIANS 5 / It's not hard to see that something evil is at work around us but no one is quite sure who is to blame for it... God? Us? Religion? Government? Demons? The answer to this question should change not only the way we think, but the way we live.

JOB / There is a lot going on in our visible world that leaves us troubled, confused, and with many questions. The story of Job takes a peek at what is happening behind the curtain in the invisible universe, but there may be more questions than answers for a while...

1 SAMUEL 15 / The first two kings of Israel were pretty flawed people, yet the difference between Saul and David isn't that one failed and the other didn't, but in how they responded to their failures.

NUMBERS 13 / A story of both courage and rebellion. It's amazing the power of people to either encourage or discourage us. But lasting courage comes not from inside of us, or even from a crowd, but from the outside place of faith and rest in an eternal, faithful, and unchanging God.

1 SAMUEL 1 / A woman troubled in her soul, Hannah is tormented with her bareness while living with the mocking of her peers. Yet rather than being consumed with bitterness and self-pity, she carries the pain of her family and taps into a trustworthy God on behalf of their future.

1 SAMUEL 1 / A woman troubled in her soul, Hannah is tormented with her bareness while living with the mocking of her peers. Yet rather than being consumed with bitterness and self-pity, she carries the pain of her family and taps into a trustworthy God on behalf of their future.

EXODUS 12 / Deliverance means we have been brought out of something but also that we are being brought to something by a power and grace that comes from outside of ourselves. Moses and Egypt are a picture of Christ and us in this world. We are a Passover people. We are never going back.

GENESIS 15 / To grasp the enormous implications of Israel's sacrifices, we need to recognize our modern preconceived ideas about sacrifice, blood, and animals that cause us to dismiss the whole thing as ancient and repulsive. What we will find is how sacrifice actually points us to the beauty of Jesus.

1 SAMUEL 25 / This crazy and dramatic Israel case study is full of useful takeaways for us today. Although we may now live in different times, our God has not changed and neither has our human nature! It is all there to teach us how to live in a covenant relationship with the God who calls us.