These essays are slow reflections for real life—written from the conviction that faith is not about having all the answers, but about learning to trust God in the middle of ordinary days, honest doubts, and unfinished stories. You’ll find Scripture, personal experience, and gentle theological reflection woven together in a voice that’s more neighborly than preachy.
If you’re curious, weary, hopeful, or somewhere in between, pull up a chair. There’s no pressure to arrive—just an invitation to think, pray, and keep going.
You can listen to the full unabridged audio here: Mandate of Mishpat - Call to Empathy
In August of 1997, my wife Amy and I flew to Jamaica for our honeymoon. It was one of those perfect, all-inclusive deals where everything is paid for upfront. We spent our days floating in the pool, kayaking in the ocean, and eating incredible food. It was a week of total relaxation—a great way to start a marriage.
For the unabridged audio listen here: Mandate of Mishpat
“Life is interesting. Life is hard. We are born with nothing, we chase everything, and we leave with nothing. So hopefully our soul gains more than our hands.”
That quote showed up in my Instagram feed the morning I was preparing this sermon, and it stopped me cold. It felt like a gift — a one-sentence summary of what Amos 5 is driving at. Because Amos 5 is deeply, urgently concerned with exactly that: that our souls win out over what we chase with our hands.
To listen to the full unabridged audio listen here: Chosen: On Empty Worship and the God Who Loves Too Much to Let Us Stay A reflection on Amos 3–4
There’s something unsettling about hearing God say, “I have something against you.”
That’s exactly where Amos 3 begins. “Hear this word, people of Israel, the word the Lord has spoken against you — against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt” (Amos 3:1). If the Creator God of the universe looks at you and says those words, you should be trembling. And as we continue working our way through Amos, it is going to stay uncomfortable — because Israel and the American Church have so many parallels that we might feel like some of this hits awfully close to home.
But before the accusation lands, something beautiful appears in verse 2: “You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth.”
A reflection on Revelation 14:1–20
To listen to the unabridged audio subscribe to the podcast: Following the Lamb: Hope, Harvest, and the Gospel in Revelation 14
One of the easiest traps to fall into when reading Revelation is forgetting that we are reading symbols. It happens subtly — we encounter a passage that seems straightforward, one that aligns neatly with our expectations, and we quietly decide that this part must be literal. But Revelation doesn’t give us that option. John is telling us throughout: these are images. These are symbols. A principled reading of the text means we stay consistent, even when a passage seems to confirm what we already believe.
With that in mind, let’s walk through Revelation 14.
An Introduction to Amos A sermon series on the Prophet Amos — Week 1
To listen to the full unabridged audio of this message: Mandate of Mishpat - When God Turns the Mirror Around
Let me be honest with you: the minor prophets get a bad rap.
It’s right there in the name — minor — as if Amos and Hosea and Micah were somehow second-tier voices. But the only reason they’re called minor is because they were concise. They didn’t ramble on like Isaiah or Jeremiah. My seminary professors taught me that to be concise is to be skilled. So maybe we have it backwards. Maybe the minor prophets are the real majors.
And if that’s true, Amos deserves to be at the top of the list.
You can listen to the full unabridged audio here: Dragons, Monsters, and the Powers Behind the Curtain
We’re deep in dragon-and-monster territory now. If you’ve been following along in Revelation, you know we’re not exactly in cheerful, Hallmark-card Christianity. And that’s precisely the point.
Before we dive into the text itself, a quick note on Bible navigation: all those chapter and verse numbers? They weren’t in the original. They were added later to help people find their place — and the running joke among Bible scholars is that the divisions were made by a monk on horseback, because the breaks don’t always make sense. Case in point: N.T. Wright ends chapter 12 where the NIV begins chapter 13. If you want to experience Scripture fresh, try copying a passage into a plain document, stripping out the chapter and verse numbers, and reading it without those interpretive interruptions.
Now, on to the monsters.
If you would like to listen to the unabridged message listen here: The Stories Are True
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb.
She wasn’t expecting a miracle. She was expecting a body.
That detail matters more than we usually let it.
You can listen to the full unabridged audio here: Revelation 8 - Behind the Cosmic Curtain
We are moving further up and further into the book of Revelation, specifically entering the “third cycle” of the vision in chapter 12. If you were making a TV show about the apocalypse but wanted to keep the source material a secret, this is where you would start. It’s mysterious, cosmic, and feels like a “behind the curtain” look at the universe.
However, for many readers, this is the point where the “brain on drugs” effect kicks in. The imagery is wild: a woman clothed in the sun, a seven-headed red dragon, and a cosmic war. But John is actually incredibly helpful here. He gives us a specific clue right at the start: “A great sign.”
You can listen to the unabridged post here: Glory Upside Down
Today is Palm Sunday—our annual reminder that the Kingdom of God doesn’t break into the world through tanks, armies, or military might. It doesn’t arrive with a show of force. Instead, it shows up on the back of a donkey, carried by a King who knows He is going to die.
Palm Sunday is a day of deep irony. We call it “Palm Sunday” because the crowds waved branches and shouted “Hosanna!” as Jesus entered Jerusalem. They treated Him like a conquering hero, but He wasn’t the kind of hero they wanted. In just a few days, those same crowds would turn on Him because He didn’t overthrow Rome. He didn’t play their game.
Because that’s not how the Kingdom comes. The Kingdom of God comes through a crucified Savior who reconciles all things by giving Himself away.
A Rule of Life isn’t about rigid structure or spiritual perfection—it’s about creating a simple, sustainable way of life that keeps you rooted in grace.
In this episode, we bring together everything from Season 1—attention, strength, flexibility, and recovery—and shape it into a rhythm you can actually live. Not an ideal life. Your real one.
To listen to the full unabridged episode: Revelation 7 - Sweet as Honey, Bitter in the Stomach
One of the most important habits we can develop when reading Revelation is remembering what kind of text we’re reading. It’s easy to open a Bible and forget that the various books represent different genres — you wouldn’t read the Psalms the same way you’d read 1 Kings, and you wouldn’t read 1 Kings the same way you’d read Philippians. Revelation is its own thing entirely.
This is a text of apocalypse — a revealing, a peeling back of spiritual realities. It’s written primarily in metaphor and symbol, giving us word pictures of things that are real but not literal. Not history. Not a timeline. A vision.
To listen to the full unabridged message listen here: Beyond the Catchphrase
We are currently journeying through the parables of Luke, leading up to Lent. Last week, we looked at the Prodigal Son—or perhaps more accurately, the parable of the Loving Father and the Angry Brother. This week, we turn to one of the most famous stories ever told: The Parable of the Good Samaritan.
The term “Good Samaritan” has become a cultural fixture. We have Good Samaritan laws, hospitals, and charities. It’s become shorthand for “a nice person who helps out.” But if we look closely at Luke 10, we see that Jesus wasn’t just giving a lesson on being “nice.” He was issuing a radical, scandalous challenge to our tendency to categorize who is—and isn’t—worthy of our love.
In this episode of The Pastor Next Door, we shift our focus from the pressure of “growth” to the necessity of recovery. Spiritual fatigue is real, and often, what we mistake for a lack of faith is simply a soul in need of rest.
You can listen to the unabridged audio here: Revelation 6 - Navigating the Storm
In our latest study of Revelation, we dove into chapters 8 and 9—a section of Scripture that is as intense as it is misunderstood. We’ve transitioned from the opening of the seven seals into a new cycle: the seven trumpets.
To understand where we are, we have to use a “fancy $10 word”: recapitulation. Revelation isn’t necessarily a straight line from A to Z; it’s a series of cycles that go back to the beginning to cover the same ground with different symbols, taking us “further up and further in” to the spiritual reality of God’s work in the world.
To hear the full unabridged message listen here: Parables for the Long Way Home - The Loving Father’s Wide Grace
As we continue our journey through Lent, wandering toward the resurrection, there is one story I haven’t been able to escape. It’s a parable that seems to creep into almost every sermon I preach, regardless of the text. It’s the story many of us know as the “Parable of the Prodigal Son,” but the more I sit with it, the more I’ve fallen in love with a different title: The Parable of the Loving Father.
Found in Luke 15:11-32, this story is a cornerstone of our cultural consciousness. We use the word “prodigal” to describe anyone who wanders away and eventually returns with their tail between their legs. But if we look closer at the cultural context and the second half of the story, we find that Jesus wasn’t just talking about reckless rebels—He was talking to the “good people” standing in the room.
