nickel for my thoughts

  A couple weeks ago at the Institute, we studied the book of Hebrews. Then, a group of us got the chance to visit the land of the Hebrews. For twelve days, we explored Israel –  the land promised to Abraham and Moses about 4000 years ago, the land Joshua conquered not long after, the land David ruled about 3000 years ago, the land Jesus walked 2000 years ago, and the land to which Jesus will one day return. Israel was a nation formed by God (Genesis 16) to be a display of God's power to all other nations that He might be worshiped by all for His majesty. One of the ways God showed His power was through his dwelling place among the people. He instructed Moses and a  creative  artist named Bezalel to erect a place in which He could live with His people.  The tabernacle stood for about   480 years  before King Solomon built a grand temple as a place of worship and house for the Ark of the Covenant, which was where the Spirit of the Lord dwelt. Thousands ...

A couple weeks ago my phone went missing. I was without a phone for nine days, and the original one has still not been found. (Luckily, my parents had a spare that I am now using.) It was strange to be without it, but really, really nice, too. Keep track of your things, but remember that your phone was not created to be an extension of you. Nevertheless, over that week I had a lot of free time that would have otherwise been occupied by some mindless scrolling. So, I read a book. I walked down to the dock, started The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and sat there without distraction until Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy tumbled back out of the wardrobe. And I met a character in a new way. I've read this book numerous times and seen the movie probably the same amount. Like many, I've always been partial to Lucy (and not just because we share a name). She is the original explorer of Narnia and a beautiful picture of childlike faith. She is fun, kind, and diligently loyal to the...

  This week at KI, Chad walked us through the book of Romans. It was so interesting, but doing it in one week (read: three days) was rather intimidating. Romans is perhaps the most comprehensive yet concise picture of the Gospel and theology in Scripture. If you want to dig in more, John Piper has a sermon series on Romans that consists of 200+ sermons (I mean...) and my college church, Austin Ridge, studied it for the entirety of 2021. Both are great series from great expositors' of the church. Today, I want to hone in on something specific, though. I love the mountains. Every time I go hiking, I feel the presence of God profoundly and am blown away by His creativity. How small are we in light of His great creation, but how great that He allows us to be part of it and caretakers of it! Paul opens Romans by greeting the church and encouraging them. Paul really wanted to go to Rome, but it took him a long time to get there. He tells the church that he is proud of them, and that he i...

  Heyo, welcome back! Over the last few weeks, we've done an overview of the whole Bible. We have walked through the overarching story and how it all points to Jesus. The next part of our semester focuses on doing different deep dives into the sections of the Bible. Last week, we started with the prophets.  The prophets were a group of men who relayed messages from God to certain people groups during different centuries. They spoke on behalf of God to reveal His character and inform the people what was to come. The story of Jesus is all throughout these books as they prophesy about his first coming and his second coming. He has already fulfilled hundreds of prophesies, and will fulfill the rest when He comes back. But, I digress...  The Old Testament has seventeen prophetical books: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, & Malachi. Some prophesy to the Northern Kingdom o...