The goal in all of Moses’ dealings with Pharaoh was for Pharaoh to release God’s people and send them away, letting them go for good. In Exodus 9:7 Pharaoh finally does some sending, but it is not the kind of sending he was supposed to be doing. The sending in this verse is not of God’s people out of Egypt, but rather it is the sending of a team of investigators to see if it is indeed true that Is...  Read More

Having just finished an audiobook of Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities, the opening paragraph struck me as very apropos to the year we’ve just experienced. I’m sure all of us can find a phrase or more to relate to.It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season o...  Read More

For centuries scholars have noted that the first nine plagues are presented in a pattern of three sets of three. This can be seen primarily in the way that each plague is initiated. The first plague of each set (plagues 1, 4, 7) is initiated after an early morning conversation between Moses and Pharaoh. The second plague of each set (2, 5, 8) is initiated after a direct warning from Moses to Phara...  Read More

We often use the word “career” to refer to a long season of life devoted to a wage-earning job. There is a point when we enter the workforce, and then a point when we leave it, often referred to as our “career.” A career, then, is something for those who are “old enough” and yet also not “too old.” Sometimes, if we’re not careful, we can view our life with God in the same way. For those who are yo...  Read More

Here at Grace, and in many other local congregations, these words are uttered often by those on stage. Who controls those mics? That’s where myself and a few others in our congregation come in. We are the AV Crew officially but I’d like to give you a look into what the “Sound Guys” do and what serving in this role has taught me.I started serving on the sound team in 2013 as a young 15-year-old boy...  Read More

In most modern translations of the Bible there is some sort of note after Mark 16:8 which explains that the verses coming after v.8 were not part of the earliest manuscripts used to preserve the God-inspired words of the original authors of the New Testament (a similar passage like this is also found in John 7:53-8:11). So, what is going on with these kinds of passages and should they be a concern...  Read More