Abraham was the hero of Israel, so his inclusion in the Hebrews 11 chapter on faith was vital to the original Hebrew readers. By the time of Christ, many thought God chose Abraham because he was a righteous man in a godless world. But the Bible affirms time and time again that Abraham was justified by faith (Romans 4:1-3). He evidenced this justification by living by faith, and it was this walk of faith the author of Hebrews sought to hone in on in two distinct episodes of Abraham's life. The first episode had to do with Abraham's calling, while the second happened years later on Mount Moriah.

My old Christian rap tape rings in my mind: I walked with a limp and carried a brew. You know why? Cause that was cool.

Well, I don't know about that. But Jacob was a man who ended up walking with a limp. For most of his life, he connived and schemed to get his way. He manipulated the people around him to obtain his heart's desires.

To win the spiritual war, we must put on Christ's war-clothes. Paul lists six pieces of the spiritual armor. Paul was, remember, imprisoned as he wrote. He had seen Romans soldiers and their armor up close. The Spirit showed him a parallel, for God has given spiritual armor to his people. This list is life, for with these elements we can stand against the attacks of the enemy. When we are losing in the battle, we can look to this list to see if we have set down any part of our armor, take it back up, and stand again.

Once again, John takes us back to a main theme of his: let us love one another (7). He's not like Paul, who was more linear in his arguments. Instead, John is systematically spiraling in his logic. He's introduced love, talked about it a fair bit, but is now ready to do a deep dive.

In Israel's heyday, to call someone 'dog' was an insult, not a stage name in the rap game. Some say the name ‘Caleb’ meant ‘dog.’ Well, not anymore. The Caleb of Israel changed all that.

I went through the typical motions while filling out the form. First name. Last name. Address. Our family was about to head down the Truckee River, and I was tasked with renting the rafts. Phone number. Email. Age. Age? For the first time I wrote, “40.” I smiled and thanked God. So far, so good.

No one would dare write an organized checklist of steps a woman must execute when giving birth. You can't guarantee a woman how long she will be in active labor. Themes repeat (e.g. "it hurts"), but no two labor stories are identical.