Topic > Relationships
An Open Letter to A Friend Gone Too Soon
Your abrupt departure from this earth caught us completely off-guard. Your mother shared with us the details of your sudden heart attack as you were preparing to leave for work that fateful morning.
Everyday Moments
I piled groceries in my car and carefully exited my parking spot. Suddenly a man darted across the pavement just in front of me, not noticing my approach. I slammed on my brakes, just missing him. Startled, he looked up and met my gaze. In that moment, I knew I had a choice: respond with rolled-eye frustration or offer a smiling forgiveness. I smiled.
Relief flickered across his face, raising the edges of his own lips in gratefulness.
Proverbs 15:13 says, “A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.” Is the writer directing us to cheery grins in…
Say No to Say Yes
It should have been a peaceful weekend. My overloaded brain and heart certainly could have used the downtime. Instead, I found myself stuck for two and a half hours in the car with three of my kids in standstill traffic
Who Would Give This Bride Away?
It was the night of our first planning meeting for our wedding. All of us involved in the preparation were all buzzing with ideas and enthusiasm, right until the pastor turned to me and asked, “Who would be walking you down the aisle?”
How did Peter influence the author of Mark
Forensic detectives might search a crime scene for fingerprints. But today on Discover the Word, when the team searches the gospel of Mark, they find a set of fingerprints that don’t belong to the author, the fingerprints belong to the apostle Peter. Find how the author of Mark was influenced by Peter when you tune […]
The messy, imperfect life of John Mark
Besides death and taxes, the only thing we can count on for sure is that life is going to get messy! Today on Discover the Word, we invite you to join the group at the table, as they dig into the imperfect life of John Mark, the author of the gospel of Mark. Find out how […]
Who would you say has been your greatest mentor in life?
Who would you say has been your greatest mentor in life? If you were the author of the gospel of Mark, you’d probably have said the apostle Peter. Today on Discover the Word, the team will examine how the special relationship between John Mark and Simon Peter gives us insight into what the writer of the gospel […]
“John Mark . . . and Company”
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We’ve heard these names so many times and it’s easy to forget that they were real people. Today on Discover the Word, we invite you to get to know John Mark, the man God used to write the second gospel. What can we learn about him from the company he kept? […]
Who are your friends?
If you want to know more about a person, it’s often a good idea to look at who their friends are. So today on Discover the Word, we will ask the questions, who wrote the gospel of Mark and what was he like? The answer to the first question is fairly obvious. To answer the […]
What To Do If You’ve Misplaced Your Identity
One of the latest buzzwords in today’s culture is “identity”. Whether it’s race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, or relationship status, there are so many ways we can identify ourselves.
I Can’t Stand Judgmental Christians
I used to think like this: Judgmental? Not me! I can’t stand people who judge others. The contradiction was right there in the statement, and somehow I was oblivious to it.
Brother to Brother
My brother and I, less than a year apart in age, were quite “competitive” growing up (translation: we fought!). Dad understood. He had brothers. Mom? Not so much.
We could have fit in the book of Genesis, which might well be subtitled A Brief History of Sibling Rivalry. Cain and Abel (Gen. 4); Isaac and Ishmael (21:8–10); Joseph and everyone not named Benjamin (ch. 37). But for brother-to-brother animosity, it’s hard to beat Jacob and Esau.
Esau’s twin brother had cheated him twice, so he wanted to kill Jacob (27:41). Decades later Jacob and Esau would reconcile (ch. 33). But the rivalry continued…
My Friend Left the Church Because of Me
“I need a break from church and from y’all to think about what happened,” a good friend wrote in a text message to me one day. And with that one message, Jasmine* never returned to my church again.
How Can I Love the Church that Hurt Me?
Seven days after I came into the world, my dad became the pastor of the church that I would grow up in. Unlike my siblings, I never knew a time when my Dad wasn’t a pastor.
