wrestling with God
Often, on Saturdays in the 1980s, my brother and I watched professional wrestling on TV. We were mesmerized by the acrobatics and the seemingly super-human body slams that shook the wrestling ring. We rooted for the good guys and pointed at the screen exclaiming things like “Did you see that?” and “Ooooh, that had to hurt!” Fortunately, we did not try (many of) those moves at home.
you choose Q: did the Gentiles become Jews?
Q: Did the Gentiles become Jews? —Cassandra
A: Israel is the name God gave Jacob on the night he wrestled with the angel (Genesis 32:28). His sons, along with the 12 tribes that descended from them, inherited the name. Although Israel always accepted proselytes, it was at first largely made up of people physically descended from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob.…
runaway garden
Last summer, I tried to grow tomatoes (yet again). I bought heirloom starter vines and a wooden trough planter. I talked to farmer friends about best practices and even concocted an organic fertilizer mixture that was supposed to make my plants flourish. The growing season ended, however, and I had plucked a grand total of one tomato—a scraggly, little fellow, slightly larger than a golf ball.
God's visit
If you take a trip to Israel, will you plan to visit Nain? Probably not. This ancient village (now known as Nein) isn't located on any major roads running through the Jezreel Plain. It's not likely that many tourists visited this off-the-beaten-path destination during the time of Jesus either. But it was in this small, obscure village that the Savior…
