Chris's Musings

Genesis 42: Hidden Perspectives The sons of Israel find themselves in a predicament. They are standing in front of the Governor of the land of Egypt, starving, with money to buy grain, and getting harassed by this man. He questions their sincerity, demands that their brother Benjamin be sent down, puts them in prison for three days, and then holds their brother Simeon as collateral for them to come back. They say: "God is punishing us for what we did to our brother Joseph!" Reuben quips "I told you not to do what you did!" (Genesis 42:21-22) Meanwhile, the Governor, unbeknownst to them, is Joseph. They go back home to Canaan, less one of them, and find that the money they allocated for the grain purchase was still in their sack. They freak out. I'm sure they are thinking "OH NO! When he finds out, we are hosed!" What they didn't know was Joseph put the money back in the sacks. Jacob, upon hearing the news, is heartbroken and believes he&#

  Devotional thoughts for today. "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." - Romans 12:18 A little about my morning methodology. I typically choose a section of the Bible to meditate on during each year, and this year I'm reading through the "Torah" (or the first five books of the Bible, which are foundational not only to Jews but also to our Christian faith). Today, I was reading in Genesis 26. Genesis 26 mostly covers the life details of the life of Isaac. Isaac doesn't get much press, being sandwiched in between Abraham and Jacob in the Patriarch line, but he is significant nonetheless. More is written about what is done TO Isaac vs. what Isaac himself has done. However, Genesis 26 gives a glimpse into it. Perhaps the reason for the lack of press (if I can speculate) is that Isaac's life was pretty non-dramatic. Other than the circumstances of his birth, the fateful trip to Mount Moriah, and Jacob's act of deceptio

  Back in 2020 (Yes, THAT 2020), with all of the negative that came out of that year (and we lived in Colorado and experienced much of it), one seemingly bright light that came into our lives was this crowdsource-funded streaming digital series about the life of Jesus that was starting to gain attention on social media.  It was (and still is) called "The Chosen."   I'm not sure if it was out of curiosity, boredom, or out of the hope that something good would come out of the year we were living in, but we started to watch the first season that streamed on YouTube.  This program, which is the brainchild of Dallas Jenkins (whose dad Jerry Jenkins was the author of the Left Behind series books), was a creative project aimed at expressing the stories of Jesus in the Bible (and we find that much was made up... more on that later) in a modern format mimicking a "bingeable" Netflix series.  The production value was excellent.  The Chosen, especially given the limited bu

If you've been living under a rock for the last 3 weeks, you may not know this... but there's a lot of people talking about something that's been happening at a very extended chapel service at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky over the past month.   For those living under said rock, essentially a regular chapel service just didn't stop... for like two weeks.  The service started like any other chapel service, with a message from a member of the faculty , and didn't end.  Students just stayed... continued singing, reading scripture, and confession.  At least this is how I understand.  It has been hyped up as the "Asbury Revival" now, by the likes of folks like Louis Giglio (which is how I first heard about it).  Him and many other influential megachurch pastors have been talking a lot about revival and hyping it up.  Nothing wrong with that, IMO.  I won't lie.  I have been leaning in a little to what's going on.  I spent a little time listening to

Ever wonder what Jesus was taking about in John 2 at the wedding at Cana when He told his mother "Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come." (John 2:4)?   To be honest, I hadn't given it much thought until this year, and specifically as I have started my 2023 devotional reading in John.... reading this year not chapter-by-chapter but thought-by-thought (which has taken me a little longer to get through this time).   I always thought, and probably because it's in line with what I've been taught, that Jesus was talking about His time to make His public ministry known, when He's referring to "my hour."  Also, there is a tradition that this act Jesus did in this narrative of turning water into wine was His first miracle... John says in John 2:11 that "This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him."  It could have been Jesus' first miracle,