Notes from the journey
Scripture I keep coming back to, and real-life stories from the middle of it all. Pour a cup of coffee and stay a while.
Straight from My Bible Reading
Sometimes I hit record instead of writing. Same Bible, same lessons—just out loud.
Highlighted
Scripture Reflections · 77 postsI read the entire Bible in January. Now I'm revisiting my highlights and blogging about why each verse stood out.
Psalm 2:12
You bow to Him and find joy. Or you do not, and you get consumed by your own life.
Read post →Job 42:17
Full does not mean happy every day. It does not mean easy. It means whole. Complete. Rounded out with everything a real life includes.
Read post →Job 42:3
He was not being sarcastic. He is not defeated. He is humbled. He is finally in the right place.
Read post →Job 33:10
We go through a hard season and we start to make it about us in a way that is not even true.
Read post →Job 28:28
We talk a lot about wisdom. We rarely talk about where it actually comes from.
Read post →If Only There Was a Mediator…
He could not have pictured a manger or a cross. But he felt the gap so deeply that he cried out for someone who could bring God and man together.
Read post →How Can a Good God…?
Sitting in ashes, having lost everything, Job answers the most-asked question in the world in one sentence.
Read post →While He Was Still Speaking
One messenger has not even finished before another shows up with worse news. And then another. The first thing Job did was fall on his face in worship.
Read post →Job's Regular Practice
Long before Job lost everything, he was just a dad who got up early to intercede for his kids. Not panic prayer. A rhythm.
Read post →Mercy Received
The Jews had just been rescued by God. And then the way they handled their new power scared everyone around them. Mercy received did not always become mercy given.
Read post →Why I Highlighted This One
There is a part of me that reads this verse and thinks good. That is the honest answer. And I am not sure what to do with that.
Read post →The Verse Without the Coffee Mug
Esther was not picking out a coffee mug. She was about to walk in to a king's throne room uninvited, knowing the law said she could be killed for it.
Read post →They Read It and Went and Did It
They studied the Word, saw something they had been missing, and went and did it. No committee. No five-year plan. They just went.
Read post →When Fear Wears a Friendly Face
It is one thing when the bad guys are clearly the bad guys. It is harder when someone you trusted leans on your fear to push you out of obedience.
Read post →Remember Me
We all want to be seen. We all want our quiet faithfulness to count for something. Nehemiah just asked it of the only One who actually sees.
Read post →The Gracious Hand of God
Nehemiah could have walked out of that throne room patting himself on the back. Instead he walked out with his eyes on the One who had been moving in the background.
Read post →Pray Before You Speak
Before he was the man who rebuilt a city, Nehemiah was a cupbearer who knew how to pause and pray in the middle of a sentence.
Read post →Do We Still Blush?
Ezra blushed in front of God. Most of us have gotten so good at managing the appearance of being okay that we forget what conviction even feels like.
Read post →Marry Someone Who Loves Jesus
On the surface this verse sounds harsh. But it was never about race. It was always about faith. And it is still relevant today.
Read post →Highlighted: 2 Chronicles 33:13
Manasseh was as far from God as a person could get. And then he prayed. And God heard him. If God could hear Manasseh in a Babylonian prison, He can hear your person too.
Read post →Highlighted: 2 Chronicles 32:31
God withdrew from Hezekiah in order to test him and to see what was really in his heart. Sometimes the test is not in the storm. Sometimes the test is in the spotlight.
Read post →Highlighted: 2 Chronicles 32:25
The same king I just held up as an example became proud. The same king who pursued God with his whole heart did not respond appropriately to the kindness God had shown him.
Read post →Highlighted: 2 Chronicles 31:21
He sought his God wholeheartedly. Not partially. Not when it was convenient. Not when it lined up with his plans. Wholeheartedly. Every part of his heart was in it.
Read post →Highlighted: 2 Chronicles 31:1
They did not just go home and get back to their normal life. They left the festival and went to every town they could reach, and they tore down idols.
Read post →Highlighted: 2 Chronicles 28:23
He looked at the army that just destroyed him and thought their gods must be working. So he sacrificed to the gods of his enemies. And it led to his ruin.
Read post →Careful
Jotham was the son of a king who fell in pride. He took the good of his father's life and left the bad. We can too.
Read post →What Rises in Pride
What we see playing out in our culture today is not new. King Uzziah was the same story. Power. Pride. A line crossed. A public collapse.
Read post →The Gospel Hiding in the Law
Tucked into a chapter about a king and his enemies is one of the clearest pictures of the gospel I have ever seen.
Read post →2 Chronicles 22:12
Athaliah ruled for six years thinking she had wiped out the royal line. She had not. There was a boy in the temple. And he was the rightful king.
Read post →2 Chronicles 20:15
We default to fighting. Strategizing. Hustling. But sometimes God says sit down, watch, and let Me handle this one. Those might be the hardest seasons to obey.
Read post →He Did Not Even Pray
Same Asa who once cried out to God against an army of a million. Now he is sick and does not even pray. The progression is sobering.
Read post →2 Chronicles 32:31
God withdrew from Hezekiah in order to test him and to see what was really in his heart. Sometimes the test is not in the storm. Sometimes the test is in the spotlight.
Read post →2 Chronicles 32:25
The same king I just held up as an example became proud. The same king who pursued God with his whole heart did not respond appropriately to the kindness God had shown him.
Read post →2 Chronicles 31:21
He sought his God wholeheartedly. Not partially. Not when it was convenient. Not when it lined up with his plans. Wholeheartedly. Every part of his heart was in it.
Read post →2 Chronicles 31:1
They did not just go home and get back to their normal life. They left the festival and went to every town they could reach, and they tore down idols.
Read post →2 Chronicles 28:23
He looked at the army that just destroyed him and thought their gods must be working. So he sacrificed to the gods of his enemies. And it led to his ruin.
Read post →Careful
Jotham was the son of a king who fell in pride. He took the good of his father's life and left the bad. We can too.
Read post →What Rises in Pride
What we see playing out in our culture today is not new. King Uzziah was the same story. Power. Pride. A line crossed. A public collapse.
Read post →The Gospel Hiding in the Law
Tucked into a chapter about a king and his enemies is one of the clearest pictures of the gospel I have ever seen.
Read post →2 Chronicles 22:12
Athaliah ruled for six years thinking she had wiped out the royal line. She had not. There was a boy in the temple. And he was the rightful king.
Read post →2 Chronicles 20:15
We default to fighting. Strategizing. Hustling. But sometimes God says sit down, watch, and let Me handle this one. Those might be the hardest seasons to obey.
Read post →He Did Not Even Pray
Same Asa who once cried out to God against an army of a million. Now he is sick and does not even pray. The progression is sobering.
Read post →Firmly Established and Drifting
Rehoboam followed God when he was desperate. The moment he was firmly established, he walked away. And he brought a whole nation with him.
Read post →I Have No Idea Why I Highlighted This
I almost skipped blogging this one because I cannot remember why I highlighted it. But that is part of what makes the Bible alive.
Read post →Solomon Decided
If you only had 2 Chronicles, you might think Solomon woke up one day and decided to build a temple. But we know better.
Read post →Be Strong and Do the Work
David did almost everything but the building. Then he handed Solomon the plans, the vision, and the God he had walked with personally.
Read post →A Man of Unusual Wisdom
Tucked into a list of gate assignments, one man got a little extra next to his name. A man of unusual wisdom. What would your line say?
Read post →It Has to Cost You Something
David had a free altar, free oxen, free land. He said no. Because an offering that costs you nothing is not really an offering at all.
Read post →Fall Into His Hands
David had three brutal options. And he picked the one that put him in God's hands. Not because it would hurt less. Because of mercy.
Read post →1 Chronicles 20:5 & 7
Two giants, one verse each, no fanfare. David's courage against Goliath cracked something open for generations. One act of obedience can echo for years.
Read post →1 Chronicles 17:16
David sat before God and asked, who am I that you would bring me this far? He knew what he was really like, and God used him anyway. So it is with us.
Read post →1 Chronicles 15:13
The first time, they moved the Ark however they wanted. David learned to stop and ask God how. Comfort is not the same as reverence. What are we carrying without asking?
Read post →1 Chronicles 14:10
Saul went to a medium. David went to God, won, gave God the credit, and then burned the idols. Do we celebrate the win but leave the idols sitting on the field?
Read post →1 Chronicles 10:13
Saul ran to everything except God, and we do the same in different clothes. Google, AI, three friends, a poll. A reflection on asking God first, not last.
Read post →1 Chronicles 1:19
I do not usually stop in the genealogies. But this one name, Peleg, meaning division, sits right on top of the Tower of Babel. God leaves threads to pull on.
Read post →2 Kings 20:6
Hezekiah's tears were heard. But the rescue was also for God's own honor and a promise made generations before. God moves for reasons bigger than just us.
Read post →2 Kings 8:13
Some passages are meant to make us uncomfortable. Elisha wept over the prophecy and Hazael called it great things. Sometimes the right response is to just sit with it.
Read post →2 Kings 2:17
Elisha had the cloak and had walked through a parted river. Then they pressured him until he caved. Being chosen by God does not make you immune to people-pleasing.
Read post →1 Kings 22:5
Jehoshaphat stopped to ask what the Lord said. Then they heard the truth, got angry, and did what they wanted anyway. How often do we do the same thing?
Read post →1 Kings 18:46
God gives special strength. Most of the time it does not look like outrunning a chariot. It looks like getting up when you have nothing left and showing up anyway.
Read post →1 Kings 17:9 & 12
God told the widow before He ever sent Elijah. She had to start cooking with nothing, and the provision showed up in the middle of the obeying.
Read post →1 Kings 13:23
"After the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him." Stay in the Word. Know His voice.
Read post →2 Samuel 14:14
"All of us must die eventually. Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God does not just sweep life away..."
Read post →2 Samuel 7:18
"Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and prayed, 'Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?'"
Read post →2 Samuel 6:9
"David was now afraid of the Lord, and he asked, 'How can I ever bring the Ark of the Lord back into my care?'"
Read post →2 Samuel 5:19 & 5:23
"So David asked the Lord, 'Should I go out to fight the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?'"
Read post →2 Samuel 2:26-27
"Must we go on killing each other? Don't you realize that bitterness is the only result? How long before you call off your men from chasing their Israelite brothers?"
Read post →1 Samuel 30:24
"Who will listen to you when you talk like this? We share and share alike, those who go to battle and those who guard the equipment."
Read post →1 Samuel 22:1-2
"So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. Then others began coming to him, men who were in trouble or in debt or who were just discontented."
Read post →1 Samuel 16:18
"He is a brave warrior, a man of war, and has good judgment. He is also a fine looking young man, and the Lord is with him."
Read post →1 Samuel 15:17
"Although you may think little of yourself, are you not the leader of the tribes of Israel? The Lord has anointed you king of Israel."
Read post →1 Samuel 14:8
"All right then," Jonathan told his armor bearer. "We will cross over and let them see us."
Read post →Judges 2:10
"After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel."
Read post →Deuteronomy 21:23
"The body must not remain hanging from the pole overnight. You must bury the body that same day, for anyone who is hung on a pole is cursed in the sight of God."
Read post →Exodus 24:11
"And though these nobles of Israel gazed upon God, he did not destroy them. In fact, they ate a covenant meal, eating and drinking in his presence."
Read post →Exodus 20:20
"Don't be afraid," Moses answered them, "for God has come in this way to test you, and so that your fear of him will keep you from sinning."
Read post →Exodus 14:15
"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!'"
Read post →Christian Living
Essays · 8 postsMaybe I Have Had a Hard-Fought Hallelujah
Standing in church singing about a hard-fought hallelujah, I realized I actually have had a few. I just don't reach for them first when I think about my life.
Read post →5 Signs You're Consuming Christian Content Instead of Actually Growing
A lot of us are consuming more than we ever have and growing less than we ever have. And the scary part is we do not always know the difference.
Read post →Love Is
Love is tying a shoe for the 30th time. Love is making dinner, just sitting down and needing to get up to get someone seconds. Love is action.
Read post →The Two Hardest Words in the English Language
Hand me a dictionary. I know there are some words in there that would be challenging for me to say. But the two hardest words for me to learn to say were, "I'm sorry."
Read post →Teach Your Children Generosity
One of my earliest, most impactful lessons in generosity happened one Christmas when my parents gave us the opportunity to donate a portion of our Christmas money to a family in need.
Read post →Grace
I have been hurt. By Christians. By the people that are called the church. I have my fair share of stories of unfair, unloving, and downright mean ways the church has treated my family and me.
Read post →Shhh He's Sleeping
Acts 12. Peter is in prison, about to be tried and most likely executed the next day, and guess what? He was soundly sleeping.
Read post →The Stupid Elevator
Sometimes the smallest moments teach us the biggest lessons about patience, surrender, and trusting God's timing.
Read post →Reading the Bible in a Month
I read the entire Bible in a month and it changed the way I read Scripture. This free guide has the lessons I learned, the tips that helped me finish, and the reading plan I used. Subscribe and I will send it straight to your inbox.