February 24, 2022 | Philippians 4:10-13 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue When my son Jarred was little, he liked to watch cartoons on Saturday mornings. The commercials were mostly aimed at children and usually promoted a new toy. After each one, he would say, “I’m going to get that.” I have learned to be content whatever […]
February 8, 2022 | Philippians 2:5-6 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue when I am sitting quietly, my wife will smile and tell me what I am thinking. She is almost always right. We truly know someone when we understand the way they think. In today’s passage, Paul opens a window into the mind of Christ and […]
Mentiasie wishes everyone a happy new month. (February, 2022)
January 23, 2022 | Psalm 73 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Mental health is an important dimension of our well-being that we sometimes don’t like to address. In any given year, an estimated 26 percent of adults have a diagnosable mental illness. During our lifetime, at least half of us will have a mental health issue, […]
January 12, 2022 | Deuteronomy 31:9-13 DEVOTIONS This Month’s issue The phrase Sola Scriptura means “Scripture alone.” This was one of the foundational principles of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformers believed that church tradition had been wrongly elevated to an equal position with God’s Word. Instead, the Bible should be given authority over the church. […]
January 6, 2022 | John 7:14-24 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” we’re told. Why not? Because “all that glitters is not gold” and “the beard does not make the philosopher.” After all, “beauty is only skin deep.” An older proverb puts it this way: “Things are seldom what they […]
January 5, 2022 | Acts 26 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue God called me back to school at age 40 to earn a Ph.D. I wasn’t entirely happy about it. I preferred learning on my own. Even in a good program with terrific professors, there were days I understood why some say that PHD means […]
January 4, 2022 | Isaiah 44:24-28 DEVOTION This Month’s Issue Elisha and his servant woke up one morning to find their city surrounded by an impressive enemy army (2 Kings 6:15–17). “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” cried the servant. “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more […]
January 3, 2022 | Ecclesiastes 12:9-14 DEVOTIONS This month’s Issue “Ecclesiastes is realistic,” wrote seminary professor Thomas Schreiner. “It teaches us that life under the sun is often empty, futile, and absurd, and yet it does not run us into the rocks of despair…When we understand that this world isn’t paradise on earth, we are […]