A little boy asked his father a question that sounds simple until it reaches the place in you that still hurts. He looked up and asked, “How big is God?” Children do that sometimes. They ask something so pure and so direct that it slips past every defense adults have built and touches the deeper…

There are chapters in Scripture that seem simple until life teaches you how much they really contain. 1 Timothy 5 is one of those chapters. On the surface, it can look like Paul is giving Timothy practical instructions about church order, different age groups, widows, elders, accusations, honor, purity, and responsibility. To someone reading quickly,…

There are seasons in life when the hardest part is not only what you are going through. The hardest part is what you are not hearing while you are going through it. The pain is already enough to wear you down. The fear is already enough to drain your energy. The grief is already enough…

There is something piercing about 1 Timothy 4 because it speaks into one of the hardest realities in the spiritual life. Not everything that sounds spiritual is from God. Not everything that looks intense is holy. Not everything that wears the language of faith carries the life of faith inside it. That truth is sobering…

Most people assume that if Jesus ever invited an atheist to dinner, the night would turn into a fight before the food even got warm. They imagine a table full of tension. They imagine every sentence coming with an edge. They imagine Jesus sitting there like a prosecutor and the atheist sitting there like a…

There is something almost startling about 1 Timothy 3 when you slow down enough to really sit inside it. It does not speak like a chapter trying to charm you. It does not rush to comfort your emotions before confronting your assumptions. It does not flatter the modern obsession with visibility, talent, charisma, or spiritual…

There are moments in life when the pain is not only the event itself. Sometimes the deeper pain begins afterward, when people start adjusting their view of your future as if what happened to you now has the authority to decide what the rest of your life should become. That second wound can be hard…

There are some chapters in the Bible that people do not come to with open hands. They come guarded. They come tense. They come already expecting a fight. First Timothy 2 is one of those chapters. Many people hear its name and think of arguments before they think of prayer. They think of controversy before…

There is something deeply troubling about the human race, and most of us know it even if we do not say it out loud very often. We are capable of tenderness, beauty, invention, sacrifice, poetry, and compassion, yet we are also capable of turning on each other with frightening ease. In all of God’s creation,…

There are some chapters in the Bible that do not feel like distant instruction at all. They feel personal. They feel close enough to touch. They feel like they know exactly what kind of world we live in and exactly what kind of battles happen inside a human being. First Timothy 1 is one of…