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The Uncanny Valley

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Imagine you’re walking down a sidewalk in the city late at night. You come upon an area where the street light is flickering. You see someone standing by the street light with their back turned to you. You think nothing of it at first. It’s the city after all. Someone’s always around. As you get closer, you start to get a little nervous. It’s hard to see the person clearly with the flickering light. The person looks like a tall man. That’s not out of the norm, but his features don’t seem right. His arms and legs seem longer than they should be. He’s unusually thin and he’s hunched over in an unnatural way. You slow to a stop. Something about the man terrifies you, but you can’t quite explain it. Then the light flashes on long enough for you to get a good look at his face. Just like his body, it looks human, but not quite. All of his features are just wrong. His eyes are yellowish, his nose is too small, and his smile is too wide. How would you feel if you stumbled onto this man? You’d ...
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Believing' Ain't Easy

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                                Reverend Chauncey recently gave a sermon about the importance of belief ( Jesus, Believe Him or Not ). We can call ourselves Christians, but if we don’t actually believe what the Bible says, it’s just a meaningless title. We also can’t just pay lip service to our belief. We have to live lives that demonstrate that belief. Seeing a person that’s strong in his or her faith can make others feel like believing in God is easy, but most of us understand that it’s not. It’s possible for us to come to a point where believing is second nature for us, but it takes time and effort. It’s crucial that we don’t let our battles with doubt discourage us. It may help knowing that we are not alone when it comes to crises of faith. For proof of that, we need look no further than the Bible. One might expect that the people in the Bible were the paragons of belief, but that couldn’t be further fr...
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Towers and Thrones: Building Purpose on Power

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                         The ruins of the Tower of Babel still speak to us of its ancient ambitions. This history of our ambition isn't buried in sand, it's built into skyscrapers, carved into boardroom tables, and coded into our social media algorithms. From Eden's first grasp to Babel's final collapse, humanity keeps building the same tower with different blueprints. When Unity Becomes Uniformity And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” -  Genesis 11:4 (NKJV). The Tower of Babel wasn't just architecture; it was identity construction. Here was humanity's second great attempt at meaning-making through power, the sequel to Eden's reach. But notice what they sought: not God's glory, but their own name. Not divine connection, but human consolidation. Babel represents the ul...
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The Garden and the Grasp: Where the Search Begins

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                                 Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Lord Acton's famous words echo across centuries, but they pale in comparison to an older truth spoken in humanity's first garden, where the original reach for power planted seeds that still bear bitter fruit today. The Gift That Wasn't Grasped In the beginning, there was no grasping. Only receiving. Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground" - Genesis 1:26 (NIV) From the very beginning, humanity was given something sacred: dominion, not domination (Genesis 1:26–28). God placed man and woman in a garden, not a battlefield, and handed them stewardship, not sovereignty. Dominion was a gift, rooted in relationsh...
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What About the Rest of Us

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                                 In the book of Romans, Paul says the following: There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism. - Romans 2:9-11 That last sentence might be a little puzzling to some. How can it be true that God doesn’t show favoritism if He has a Chosen People? When reading the Old Testament, it might be hard to believe that He doesn’t show favoritism when He clearly sides with the Jews over all other people. He gave the Jews land that had already been claimed. He empowered and even commanded the Jews to massacre other groups of people. He didn’t even want the Jews to consort with peoples from other nations and cultures. That certainly sounds like He was partial to the Jewish people. There’s n...
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Humility and Pride

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                                   Many people, both believers and nonbelievers alike, consider humility to be an admirable virtue. It can be refreshing to encounter someone who has a down to earth personality despite having everything in the world going for them. For believers, humility isn’t just a nice personality perk. It’s something the Bible instructs us to practice. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. - Ephesians 4:2 What does it really mean to be humble? What is humility? Webster’s dictionary defines humility as the freedom from arrogance and pride . That definition is fine, but what does it look like in practice? Does it mean that we should ignore the good things about ourselves? Should we downplay our own greatness? Consider Lebron James. He’s one of the greatest players to ever touch a basketball. Some feel he is arrogant. They believe he shou...
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Seven Verses Every Christian Should Know

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                                The Bible is a big book and can be a daunting read. Most Christians go their whole lives without truly understanding all of it. Many Christians go their whole lives without reading all of it. That is unfortunate, but also somewhat understandable. Not everyone is meant to be a Bible scholar. Still, we’re all charged with sharing the Gospel. You can’t do that without knowing the Bible to some extent. You have to know enough of the Bible to be able to explain what the Gospel actually is. Additionally, as you share the Gospel, you will likely encounter common questions from unbelievers. Knowledge of God’s Word is what will empower you to answer many of those questions. No one learned the Bible overnight. Everyone has to start somewhere. This entry can serve as a good starting point. Below you’ll find seven Bible verses that every Christian should know. If you want to start your jo...
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