286+ articles · Verse by verse
Articles.
Long-form study. Plain English.
Every article does the hard work — what the words meant to the first readers, the historical context, the first-century background — then hands it to you in words you already know.
286 articles · page 4 of 12
How to Have a Bad Day Step 17: Stay Bitter
Step seventeen: stay bitter. It never knocks and introduces itself. It just moves in quietly and starts answering for you in a sarcastic tone.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 16: Be Defensive
Step sixteen: be defensive. Spend an evening reasoning with someone whose primary source was a guy on YouTube, and arrive home spiritually irritated.
Mark 1:21–28 — When the Kingdom Broke the Silence
A demon speaks first and names Him correctly, which is more than the congregation managed. The kingdom arrives in Capernaum and the room never recovers.
Mark 1:29–31 — Synagogue to Sickroom
Straight from the synagogue to a sickroom. Jesus takes Peter's mother-in-law by the hand, and what she does next is the quietest sermon in the chapter.
Mark 1:32–39 — When the Sun Went Down
The Sabbath ends at sundown, and the whole town shows up at the door. Then, well before dawn, Jesus gets up and leaves to pray alone.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 15: Hold on to Stuff
Step fifteen: hold on to stuff. I walked through my cluttered house this morning thinking I needed more room for my things. That is not the answer.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 14: Procrastinate
Step fourteen: procrastinate. Make a to-do list, spend forty-five minutes making it pretty, then alphabetise the spice rack instead.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 13: Isolate Yourself
Step thirteen: isolate yourself. Decline every invitation with “maybe next time,” ghost the group chat, and call the whole thing self-care.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 12: Don't Rest
Step twelve: do not rest. We have been trained to believe rest must be earned, so we schedule it for roughly never.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 11: Never Be Content
Step eleven: never be content. Happiness is always one season away — after graduation, after marriage, after the kids sleep. It keeps ghosting you.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 10: Gossip
Step ten: gossip. The only person this post is aimed at is me. It was hard to write, and it did not come together until I repented of a few things.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 9: Complain
Step nine: complain. It feels good for a moment, and it quietly rewires your brain to find more things wrong. Israel tried this for forty years.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 8: Pretend You're Fine
Step eight: say “I'm fine.” You have said “just tired” eighty-seven times this week and it is only Wednesday. A gentle look at the mask most of us wear.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 7: Assume Rejection
Step seven: assume rejection. Silence means they hate you. A thumbs-up emoji means you are dead to them. Never consider that they were just in Costco.
Mark 1:21–22 — When Truth Walked Into the Synagogue
Jesus did not start at the Temple or with Caesar. He walked into a small-town synagogue and taught in a way that left everyone there shaken.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 6: Listen to Everyone's Opinions
Step six: open every app and let the opinions pour in. Especially from the prophet charging ninety-seven dollars for a word.
Mark 1:16–20 — Jesus Didn't Start With a Stage
Most of us met the flannelgraph Jesus first: clean robe, soft eyes, always holding a lamb. Then you open Mark and find someone who interrupts men at work.
Was John the Baptist Real? — And Why It Changes Everything
A stranger once told me to stop reading “that nonsense.” It is easy to dismiss what you have never read, so here is what the evidence outside the Bible says about John.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 5: Stay Busy
Step five: stay busy. Not productive, not purposeful, just gloriously booked. This one was a big ouch for me.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 4: Follow Your Heart
Step four: follow your heart, where feelings are facts, truth is optional, and consequences are Future You's problem.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 3: Compare. Everything.
Step three: compare your blooper reel to everybody else's highlight reel. Their toddler reads Latin. Yours flushed a banana down the toilet. Twice.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 2: Worry About the Future
Step two: nothing says inner peace like rehearsing disasters that have not happened yet. Add a few apocalyptic extras, just in case.
How to Have a Bad Day Step 1: Dwell on the Past
Step one: start the morning with a full highlight reel of every mistake you have ever made. Bonus points for that awkward thing you said in 2012.
I Stopped Looking for the Antichrist — and Found Something
Russian, Muslim, billionaire, shadowy financier. The Antichrist changed identity every few years depending on who we disliked. Then I noticed a word I had skipped.