The father ran. In Jesus’s most famous parable, that is the scandal
In the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, a younger son wastes his inheritance and comes home expecting to be a servant. His father…
Category
Teachings
Biblical insights, sermons, and thought-provoking articles from a Christian perspective.
Psalm 23 was written by a man who had been a shepherd. That changes how the verses read
Psalm 23 is read at more funerals than almost any other passage. It is credited to David, who had kept sheep before he became king. Read…
He was strangled and burned for translating the Bible into English. William Tyndale’s last prayer was about a king
William Tyndale translated the New Testament into English from Greek and printed it in 1526, against the law. He was executed near Brussels in 1536. Much…
Blind from infancy, she wrote thousands of hymns. Fanny Crosby and “Blessed Assurance”
Fanny Crosby lost her sight as a baby and went on to write more than 8,000 hymns, including "Blessed Assurance", written in 1873 to a tune…
A thunderstorm in Sweden, a church bell, and a translation through three languages: the story of “How Great Thou Art”
"How Great Thou Art" began as "O Store Gud", a poem Carl Boberg wrote in 1885 after a thunderstorm in Sweden. It passed through German and…
The brothers who sold Joseph expected revenge. He gave them Genesis 50:20 instead
After their father Jacob died, Joseph's brothers feared he would finally punish them for selling him into slavery. His answer, "ye thought evil against me; but…
“Where you go I will go” is read at weddings. Ruth said it to her mother-in-law
Ruth 1:16 is one of the most quoted vows at Christian weddings. In the story, it is a young widow's promise to her grieving mother-in-law, and…
“Be still, and know that I am God” was first said in the middle of a war
Psalm 46:10 is often read as a call to quiet and calm. In its setting, it is a command given over a battlefield, where nations rage…
The man who wrote “Amazing Grace” once captained slave ships. The hymn is his confession
John Newton sailed in the Atlantic slave trade and commanded slave ships before becoming an Anglican priest. He wrote "Amazing Grace" for his parish in Olney,…
He lost four daughters at sea, then wrote “It Is Well With My Soul” near the place they drowned
In November 1873, the ship carrying Horatio Spafford's wife and four daughters sank in the Atlantic. Only his wife survived. Crossing the same waters weeks later,…