In this post we will consider the moving story of Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the ruling council of Jerusalem called the Sanhedrin. He was a man of power, prestige, and privilege, yet also, as we will see in scripture, a genuine seeker of the truth. Nicodemus is mentioned three times in the Bible and only in the gospel of John. Yet in spite of the brevity of his story we witness one man’s honest quest for truth and understanding, and his encounter with Jesus, the promised Messiah and Lord of all creation.

Along with the scriptural narrative, this post includes two scenes from The Chosen, a multi-season TV series on the life of Christ first released in 2019. This show is based on scripture and historical events, but utilizes artistic license to help us imagine what it may have been like to be near Jesus. I’ve found that this TV series opens up a way to reenter the gospel story, imagining it from the perspectives of his disciples and others, and enabling us to encounter Jesus with fresh ears and eyes. May it be so for you as well.

In the 15th chapter of the Gospel of Luke Jesus tells the following parable to the Pharisees and teachers of the law who criticized Him for welcoming tax collectors and sinners who gathered to hear Him:

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

In this post Lindsay Hollifield gives her moving testimony of the relentlessness of God's grace, seeking and finding her when she was lost. She writes: "Against all odds, Jesus sought me out and that is the most strange and glorious thing I can tell you." If you are lost and struggling this day may you know that He is seeking you, as He declared, "The Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost" (Luke 19:10).

The post concludes with a simple yet profound video titled "Come to Me" , a loving invitation of Jesus to all who are wearied and burdened and seek rest for their souls.

Last summer my wife and I were witnesses to a miracle of metamorphosis; the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies. We had accidentally discovered a small number of newly hatched swallowtail caterpillars gorging off a bunch of parsley my wife had harvested from her sister’s garden. We observed over the next couple weeks the rapid growth of these caterpillars that required them to repeatedly shed their outer skeletons and then intiate the formation of a chrysalis, from which within 2 weeks a gorgeous swallowtail butterfly would emerge.

This post includes a short video of our personal experience, an essay by Wallace Smith titled "The Butterfly: the Master of Metamorphosis", and associated scripture on how this transformation is analogous to the new life God promises to those who place their trust in Jesus Christ. The post concludes with a remarkable video on the great monarch migration, another wonder and mystery of God’s creation.

"How amazing are the deeds of the Lord! All who delight in him should ponder them. Everything he does reveals his glory and majesty" (Psalm 111:2-3). Or as my father says, “How can anyone see this amazing creation and not believe in God?”

In the gospel of John there is mentioned a man named Malchus, the servant of the high priest, Caiaphas, who accompanies the soldiers and officials sent by the chief priests and Pharisees to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. In a brief skirmish, the disciple, Peter, cuts off the ear of Malchus and Jesus then heals him. All four gospels mention this incident but only John records the name of this servant. This is the only mention of Malchus in the Bible, but even with this sparse information there is much that we might learn.

This post includes John’s gospel account of this incident and a meditation by Dr. Ralph Wilson who imagines how this event may have ultimately shaped the life of Malchus. May each of us be likewise blessed by a personal encounter with Jesus.

On February 14, 1990 as Voyager I was departing our planetary neighborhood for the outer fringes of the solar system, it turned it around to take a final portrait of our home planet nearly 4 billion miles away. Carl Sagan’s book “Pale Blue Dot” was inspired by this iconic image of Earth and his incredibly moving speech about this photograph begins “From this distant vantage point, the earth might not seem to be of any particular interest, but for us it’s different. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.”

This post includes an illuminating video with Sagan’s complete speech, Scripture that testifies to the hope that he did not see, and an engaging essay by Carolyn Porco that reveals the backstory of how this image came to be.

The scriptures say that Jesus — as God made man — experienced everything we have or will, yet was without sin. This means that He felt the full range of emotions we exhibit: anger, sadness, joy, grief, dread, confusion, loneliness, unfulfilled desires, disappointment, and more. There is great comfort in this as Jesus fully understands all that we will experience in this life.

Yet a mistake we often make is allowing our feelings to define what is true. This is our default tendancy. Alternatively, when we exercise faith we are declaring that we will continue to trust God and His Word when what we see, hear, or feel contradicts what God has said.

In 1875 Hannah Whitall Smith wrote: “The chief temptation that meets the soul and assaults us at every step of the pathway is feelings. Because we do not feel God has taken us in hand, we cannot believe He has. We put feelings first, faith second and fact last although God’s invariable rule in everything is fact first, faith second and feelings last of all.”

This post includes a thoughtful essay from truthimmutable.com that explores the conflict between our feelings and faith. It concludes with a powerful video by David Gibbs Jr. that further illustrates the importance of listening for and trusting in God’s voice when our feelings tell us otherwise.

In the book of Job, Elihu asks a profound question, “Should God reward you on your terms, when you refuse to repent?” Elihu is raising the question as to whether God will accept man’s terms for receiving salvation apart from the means God has provided?

This is just one of hundreds of penetrating questions appearing in the Bible that God invites us to ponder. “Come now, let us reason together” says the Lord in Isaiah 1:18. Through the “living and active” nature of Scripture which “judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart”, people are often led to repentance; in which they change their minds about both their view of themselves (that it is impossible to save themselves) and God (who freely offers us a remedy to our condition to all who place their trust in the finished work of Jesus).

To help us wrestle with the question, I’ve included relevant scripture and two short excerpts from sermons of Charles Spurgeon. May this post bless you with a greater understanding of the amazing grace of God for you.

Last month as I celebrated Father’s Day with my two sons who are fathers I was filled with gratitude for God’s gift of children. This morning I was reflecting on the thousands of prayers I’ve prayed for them through the last four decades - that God would protect them, that they would know the love of Christ, that they would discover happiness and contentment in life, that they would have a faith in God that would sustain them through tumultuous seasons, that they would be grateful each morning for their blessings, that they would have compassion for others, that they might live a full life and and be blessed with children and perhaps grandchildren, and on and on and on.

In this post I’ve attached another poignant essay from Brian Doyle in which he recounts his personal life of prayers for his children both unborn and born. The picture above was taken shortly before Brian died at age 60 of a brain tumor. May this reading be a blessing to you.

In 1972 Seals and Crofts released the album Summer Breeze which my wife to be and I both owned and listened to throughout our college years. The album contains the achingly beautiful and timeless song “Hummingbird” that ends with the lyrics:

“Hummingbird don’t fly away,
alas here comes the gardener,
He’s come to till the flowers,
the draught of understanding,
wisdom, peace and love is ours.”

This post includes a video of photographs I took of hummingbirds in my back yard during Covid along with this beautiful song. The post closes with a soul-stirring Mary Oliver poem titled “The Messenger” and associated scripture that speaks to the last words of Mary’s poem. Like Job, may our hearts yearn within us for that day when we shall see God face to face.

I received an email recently from a friend who in his closing wrote, “And the greatest of these is love.” Some of you may recognize this as the very last words from 1st Corinthians 13, the great chapter on love. What does this chapter say about love? That it’s patient and kind, not jealous or boastful. It’s not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It’s not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice in the wrong but rejoices in the right. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. And several verses later the chapter closes with “So faith, hope, love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”

The day after I received my friend’s email, I came across a thoughtful essay by Brian Doyle titled “The Final Frontier”, in which he describes his life long journey of transformation from arrogance to humility and love. Brian died at age 60 of a brain tumor just 16 months after writing this essay. A friend in a eulogy wrote, “He was a man of uncommon faith—uncommon in this era, and just plain uncommon. His stories—and everything was a story to Brian—his stories about wrestling with/thanking the "Great Omniscient Narrator" are unique and yet stunningly universal. May you find and experience this love as you journey through this life.

Around 1940 Edward Hughson, my great grandfather, wrote to my mother, Mary, and aunt, Helen, a series of poems about his observations of nature in the backyard of his home called “Hilltop Farm” in the Oakland Hills. Edward, known as Poppie to his granddaughters, was born in 1882 in Kansas and died in Oakland in 1945 at age 63. My mother saved these poems and I reproduced them in a small booklet shown above.

This post includes a poem titled, “Wonders of Nature” and the final poem in the book is dedicated to his granddaughters. Although I never knew Poppie, his faith in God revealed in his poems, inspired me growing up, so much so that today I am called “Poppie” by my grandchildren. Is there anyone in your life who encouraged you in your faith journey? If so, you might consider thanking them if they are still alive.

Clearly what we believe matters, as our beliefs shape who we are and the decisions we make in life. Sometimes, however, it is difficult for people to articulate what they believe. The early church recognized this and developed concise summaries of the essential doctrines of the Christian faith that were used in personal and public confession. Although not divinely inspired, these ancient statements of faith were intended to help unite believers with the fundamental truths revealed in Scripture.

Although the authorship is unknown, one of the most well known creeds is “The Apostles’ Creed”. It was based on a 2nd century creed called the “Old Roman Creed” which was enlarged over the next few centuries to the version used today.

This post includes the Apostles’ Creed, an essay on the importance of the creed by Dr. Albert Mohler, and a poignant live performance of the song “Creed” by Rich Mullins who died just 5 months after this recording in a tragic car accident on the way to a benefit concert.

Last December my father and I were watching Christmas hymns on YouTube. We happened to stumble on a trio of college age siblings who had posted several hymns on a YouTube channel called “Life in 3D”. The simplicity of their videos reveals a beauty and authenticity that is often lost with overproduced music. What shines through in their music is the God given gift of their voices which He has multiplied to bring joy and blessing to millions of people.

This post includes relevant scripture, their video of “The Prayer” sung by two of the siblings, and an article about how they came to starting this channel along with two other videos, “O, Holy Night” and “Amazing Grace”.

The apostle Peter writes “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. (1 Peter 4:10). These three siblings are doing just that. May we likewise be inspired to use whatever gifts God has given us to bless others.

At a memorial reception in August 2013 I had a wonderful but unexpected visit with one of my late mother’s life-long friends, Kathleen Jackson. A couple months later I received an email from her which said, “I think I told you that I teach/facilitate a Christian Creative Writing class at San Quentin. The men have written some pretty powerful pieces and I am trying to get exposure for them. I would really appreciate your thoughts on this…blogging? website? publishing? Anything you think of, advice you have, I would love to hear.” This began a meaningful eight month group collaboration with Kathleen and the Men in Blue, culminating in the publishing of a book titled “Bind the Testimony”, available for purchase on Amazon.

This post contains Kathleen’s moving testimony, her introduction for the book, and a video of the Men in Blue reading excerpts of their written testimonies in the San Quentin chapel. As I reflect today on Kathleen’s and my visit over a decade ago, I am reminded of an email my cousin sent me a few months ago in which she wrote, “At this life stage, I fully believe that what we call serendipity is grace happening in every moment, calling to us, if we have ears to hear and eyes to see.” May we be blessed in recognizing and responding to these moments of God’s grace. Amen.

“What do we really know well about any creature, including most of all ourselves, and how is it that even though we know painfully little about anything, we often manage world-wrenching hubris about our wisdom?”, asks Brian Doyle in this short essay as he reflects on the mysteries of this life as he puts his children to bed. Included in this post is relevant scripture and a fascinating video about God’s amazingly complex design in His creation.

About 600 years ago, Thomas à Kempis, an Augustinian monk, wrote four booklets that became collectively known as The Imitation of Christ. This short book greatly influenced future Christian writers such as Martin Luther, Samuel Johnson, and George Eliot. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, believed it contained the best summary of the Christian life he had ever read. To this day, The Imitation of Christ remains one of the most influential devotional works in Christian history. I first read the book in college and rediscovered it just recently.

This post includes chapter 54 from this book (On the Contrary Workings of Nature and Grace) and also a poignant short clip from the movie, The Tree of Life, directed by Terrence Malick. As God in Christ has imparted grace to us may we, through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, impart this same grace to others.

Isaiah 55:10-13 . . . “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed.”

This post includes excerpts from a sermon Charles Spurgeon preached in 1887 reflecting on this beautiful and heartwarming passage from Scripture and a video link to the joyful 1st movement of Vivaldi’s spring. May you in this spring season “go out in joy and be led forth in peace” and may God’s word not return to Him empty but accomplish His purposes for you.

In the Bible God commands His people to, “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev 19:2). Later in the Sermon of the Mount Jesus declared, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt 5:48). How can we reconcile these commands to be holy and perfect with the truth that we’re unable to do so? Later, Jesus revealed a clue as to how this seemingly impossible situation would be rectified when he told His disciples, “What’s impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27).

So how did God make this reconciliation possible? Paul explained, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21). Paul further stated that, “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ.” (Romans 3:22).

This post includes biblical encounters with the holiness of God by Moses, Isaiah, Simon Peter, the disciples, Saul, and John. It also includes a video on holiness by The Bible Project titled, “Is God Dangerous?”, and a moving song by Addison Road, “What Do I Know of Holy?” May you be blessed this day with a greater understanding of the holiness of God.

For the last few years my dad and I have followed the extraordinary career of Sydney McLaughlin, the current 400 meter hurdle world record holder. Until last week we were not aware that she suffered from crippling fear and anxiety for several years as she believed her value as a person was based on how she performed and what others thought about her.

In January 2024 a memoir of her life from 2016-2022 was published titled “Far Beyond Gold: Running From Fear to Faith” in which Sydney shares her journey that leads her to realize her identity is lasting and secure only when rooted by faith in Jesus Christ, who promises His love to her whether she wins or loses.

This post includes a couple excerpts from her book and videos that bring her story to life. May Sydney’s story be an encouragement to each of us as we wrestle with understanding not so much “who we are” but “whose we are”.

When we think of Jesus one of the images that comes to mind is that of a lamb. John the Baptist, in fact, just before baptizing Jesus, declared Him to be “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” While Jesus described Himself as “gentle and humble in heart”, there is another title of Jesus in Scripture that is the complete opposite of this. That title is the Lion of Judah. In the Lion, we see the mighty power of Christ as the eternal King exalted over of all creation to whom “every knee should bow”, and in contrast, in the Lamb, we see the meekness of Jesus whose sacrificial death on the cross atoned for the sin of all humankind.

This post includes relevant scripture, an excerpt from the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis describing Aslan (the powerful yet gentle lion), a painting by Sally Breston of Aslan, and a short video and story about this painting by Sally and her mother, Dee. May this post lead you to greater awe and wonder of the incarnate Son of God, who is indeed both the mighty Lion and the meek and gentle Lamb.