SOAP Reading: John 11 "Jesus said, 'I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.'" – John 11:25 Trigger Warning: explicit description of death and violence from WWII The 1940’s saw some of the worst death and loss in the history of Israel and the [...]

SOAP Reading: Mark 9-10 “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. - Mark 10:52 Blind Bartimaeus is the last story in the center section of Mark’s Gospel, and the second such healing, mirrored by the blind man in Mark 8:21-26. The first [...]

SOAP Reading: Luke 8 "Then he got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm." – Luke 8:24 When Jesus calmed the storm by speaking to it, he not only demonstrated his authority over creation, but also made a not-so-subtle claim as to his identity. His actions [...]

SOAP Reading: Mark 2 "When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.'" – Mark 2:5 In 2013, a small group of believers prayed fervently for a 25 year-old man, Luke Bernard, in a coma after a severe car accident. Despite grim medical reports, he regained consciousness and [...]

SOAP Reading: Matthew 14:1-21; Isaiah 55 "Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves." – Matthew 14:19 In a world dominated by scarcity and drowning in lack, we find it difficult to believe that God is limitless. Perhaps more accurately, we find it [...]

SOAP Reading: 1 Kings 17 "The jar of flour was not used up, and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord." – 1 Kings 17:16 In 1923, George Müller, a Christian evangelist caring for orphans in England, faced an empty pantry. Immediately after George prayed, a [...]

SOAP Reading: John 2 "This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory." – John 2:11 At a wedding in Cana, Jesus turned water into wine, demonstrating His power and care for life’s small joys. He transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary, just as He can transform our [...]

SOAP Reading: Genesis 1:1-2:3 "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. - Genesis 1:1-2 The Bible opens with an awe-inspiring act: [...]

Sometimes we are unimaginative when it comes to prayer. As C.S. Lewis puts it, “Those who have not learned to ask God for childish things will have less readiness to ask Him for great ones.” Our problem is often not that we ask too much of God but that we ask too little. We are [...]