year in review: 2019 favorites (yours & mine)

As the year (and the decade!) come to a close, I thought it would be fun to look back on the top five posts of the year—your favorites (the ones with the most reads) and mine (the ones that I most enjoyed writing).

March of 2020 will be the ten-year anniversary of when I began blogging. I was sixteen and getting more into photography, and I started a free Blogger site to share my photos. I had no idea that over the next ten years, I would go to Bible school, begin sharing more words than images, process so much of God’s work in my life in this very public way, visit the Holy Land twice, share countless Bible study resources I created, write a devotional, read through the Bible with hundreds of people each year, create the Bible180 Challenge Journal, or stand on the cusp of releasing an entire interactive textbook on how to study each of the seven types of Biblical literature.

God works in mysterious ways.

Here’s to another decade of following His lead.

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Your Favorite Essays to Read in 2019

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1. John Crist, Jesus Christ, and Me, Too

This article was by far the most-read, most-shared post of 2019—which tells me that this is a conversation we need to have, and a topic many of us are thinking about. For generations the Church’s general response to sin has been shame, which has never eradicated sin—it has only driven it deeper into darkness and hiding. I am so excited to watch the Church turn toward the example of Jesus in this area.

2. Scenes from the Holy Land

The response to the photography I did on my recent tour of the the Holy Land was so positive that I decided to make a book out of it. A friend who spent much of her childhood in Israel said the pictures “captured her home”—and I will treasure that feedback until the day comes when I get to go back to the Land again!

3. Half the Church

Book reviews are a rarity on this blog, but I was so impacted by this book that I felt I had to share what I learned. I am still meditating on the principles Carolyn Custis James shared and how they should revolutionize the way churches do God’s work in the world.

4. How to Study the Bible: Discover the Story

That the last two items on this list are both extremely recent and extremely well-received shows me just how much my readers desire to learn how to study the Bible for themselves, which is so exciting to me! In just a few weeks, this post gained enough of a viewership to make the top 5 of 2019. This, the independent and in-depth study of the Bible, is where my heart lies (and is the topic of my next book).

5. How to Study the Bible: Ask Good Questions

The three questions I shared in this article are the foundation of all my own study of the Bible. They have changed my study from superficial and self-focused to deep and God-centered. My upcoming text on how to study the Bible and my recent release, the Bible180 Challenge Journal, both depend heavily on these questions and teach exactly how to use them.

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My Favorite Essays to Write in 2019

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1. Of Math, Millennials, and the Mission Field

You all probably know that one of the driving forces behind what I write is what I, myself, need to learn or understand. This was one of those articles: I had been mulling over the state of Christianity in my generations for weeks, and I wrote this post to make sense of all those thoughts, ideas, and questions.

2. John Crist, Jesus Christ, and Me, Too

I was sitting on my couch staring at the depressing comments on John Crist’s Instagram when the Holy Spirit prodded me to get up and write this post. It’s one of those essays that just exploded out of my brain, through my fingertips, and onto the screen. It inspired me, rebuked me, and healed me, all at the same time.

3. Background Noise

Like the above, this was a processing post—processing both my own feelings and the larger social and cultural patterns they seemed to reflect. It was a pep talk to myself as much as anyone. (I’m noticing a theme here.)

4. Starving, Yet Satisfied

I loved writing this post because I didn’t write a single word of it for anyone but myself, and that’s often when I do the most self-shaping and self-discovery. I wrote it as if I was writing my own journal, and I learned so much. This was the moment when I saw my two selves clearly: The Self I had built according to the perceived expectations of the people around me, and the Self that God made me. The two still blur into one another and split away again regularly, but with this glimpse of both side-by-side, my whole definition of success changed. I no longer see success as continuing to build the first Self according to the blueprint of this world, with all its achievements and plans and accolades, but as living my life as the Self that God created—humble and insignificant as she may be.

5. The Story of the Bible

Before this was ever a blog post, I wrote it for the introduction to my book, Bedrock: A Foundation for Independent Biblical Study. It was one of the most difficult things I have ever written. Summing up a Book with 1,189 chapters in less than 1,500 words demanded that I pull out only the most significant threads of what is a massive and complex tapestry—but I enjoyed the challenge, and I think I like the end result.

What was your favorite post of 2019? Did it make the list?

Let me know in the comments!

the story of the Bible

Once upon timelessness, there was a mutiny.

A beautiful creature called Lucifer, right-hand to the King of the Universe who had created him, rose up with a third of the kingdom in a wild attempt to thrust their Sovereign off His throne and take the highest place for themselves. But they had grossly overestimated their own strength, and in response to their treason, the King justly expelled them from the kingdom.

The remaining two-thirds of the King’s angelic subjects watched anxiously to see what would happen next. Would the King end them all, His created beings, and choose to exist alone in His splendor? Would His beautiful character - the goodness and justice and mercy they all revered - shatter in the wake of this betrayal? Would He grieve and mourn and lament, or would He vengefully call up His armies to chase down Lucifer and destroy him utterly?

But He did none of those things. To His kingdom’s surprise, He instead selected a dark and unformed corner of His universe, and began to create again.

They watched while He divided the light from the darkness, the waters from the atmosphere, the land from the oceans, the day from the night. Then they saw Him place living creatures on the land, in the oceans, and in the air, painstakingly divided into hundreds of kinds and categories. Finally, hushed with anticipation, they watched Him plant a beautiful garden and create a magnificent being that was almost like them - but his name wasn’t Angel, it was Man.

Then they drew in a collective gasp: Instead of protecting this pristine new world at all costs, as the angels had expected, the King opened up His brand new creation to the access of His enemy, Lucifer.

In no time at all, Lucifer sowed death and destruction into all that was good and perfect in what the King had made. Man betrayed his Creator faster than even the Enemy had before him, and the whole new world was stolen by the darkness. The angels held their breaths once again, waiting to see what the King would do.

And again - He didn’t attack. He didn’t defend. He didn’t conquer. Instead, He chose from the multiplying nations of mankind one - named Israel - to be His bride. And He spoke to her something profound that puzzled them all: “Through you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”

The King loved Israel - how He loved her! The angels watched while He wrote love letters and spoke poetry over His wife, inviting her ever deeper into intimacy with Himself, inviting her to choose faithfulness to Him over every other temptation in the dark, stolen world.

But her heart was fickle, and the angels watched in horror while she dared to cheat on their King - and then cheat again - and again. She made a humiliation of herself with countless suitors, all of them mere pawns of Lucifer, who delighted in the King’s heartbreak.

The King wept. He pleaded. He sent messengers to call Israel back to her home, back to her place by His side. Defiant, she refused, and at last the King divorced her for her infidelity - released her into the harsh, dark world she seemed to long for, so that perhaps she might realize the truth out there, and come home.

The angels waited. Hope seemed lost; Lucifer had corrupted all of the King’s beautiful work, and had even stolen His beloved wife. Maybe it was over; maybe the Enemy had won.

But they didn’t know that the estranged bride of their King was with child.

Israel labored alone in the dark on a cold night. She had no idea that the King had sent a throng of His angels to guard her and her child from Lucifer’s grasp. That night, she gave birth to a Son - a Son of her own nation, but also of the King’s royal, heavenly blood. This Son grew up to love His mother and grieve over her separation from His Father. He knew that the price for her treason could justly be her life.

But the King had a plan.

He told the Prince to take a wife for Himself - not of a nation, as His Father had done, but of a people. This people, called the Church, would be defined solely by her love and devotion to Him, and not by her ethnicity. By their example, the King hoped that the heart of His own beloved Israel would sear with the reality of her loneliness, and she would desire to return to His arms.

The angels watched while the Son wooed His chosen bride and offered her the bread and the cup of engagement. Perhaps it really could end happily, somehow - at least for the Prince and His bride.

Israel’s heart grew cold and bitter toward her Son, in whom she saw only reminders of her own humiliation and disgrace, shame and despair. His obedience to the King’s work enraged her, and the Church’s wide-eyed wonder and innocence disgusted her. The angels exclaimed in horror: In a single stroke, Israel thrust the blade of all her hatred and shame into her own Son’s side, and slew Him.

The Church struggled to support the weight of His slumped body. His precious blood spilled out onto her garments and splattered Israel’s tainted robes. In the distance, Lucifer gloried in this, the ultimate victory. Surely, this couldn’t be part of the plan.

The King cried out in agony while He watched His Son die: “It is finished.”

Darkness fell like a curtain across the stage of a tragedy.

The angels didn’t dare to breathe.

Silence - deafening silence.

Until the King spoke again.

And in an instant, with the thundering of His voice, light like the dawn cut across the black, and against that brilliant and blinding light stood the silhouette of the Son Himself - alive.

Celebration erupted among the angels above, and between the Son and His Fiancee below. The Church exulted over her restored Beloved, and when that powerful resurrection light hit the scarlet bloodstains on her robes, her garments became white as snow - the regalia of a bride.

Israel backed away from the scene in shame.

Lucifer cowered away from the light.

At last the King’s plan was fulfilled, His victory sealed. His Son’s blood had purchased costly robes of purity for Israel so that when she finally returned to the Kingdom, it would be as one of the royal family, not as a traitor.

“I must go to my Father’s house and prepare a place for us,” the Prince murmured to The Church. “Wait for me - be ready for my return. I’ll leave you my own Guardian from the palace to guide you and encourage you until then. And go to my mother,” he added in a tone of urgency. “Be kind to her, tell her that my Father longs for her return, and that she has been acquitted of her treason. I paid the debt myself.”

He kissed her and turned away. “I’ll be back for you.”

As the angels watched the Son journey back toward His heavenly Kingdom, they couldn’t help but notice that the dead and broken world was not quite so dark anymore. In fact, small, flickering, resurrection lights seemed to multiply wherever The Church went.

Maybe Lucifer had not quite won after all.

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The angels still wait for the completion of the story, when all of the King’s family is reunited - including a forgiven and reborn Israel, and a newly-wed Church - and all of Creation is made new, untouchable by Lucifer’s treachery. But in watching this incredible drama unfold, the King’s loyal angels have learned one thing for certain: This is who He is.

Good. Patient. Faithful. Loving. Holy. Just. Selfless. Eternal. Victorious. Compassionate. Gracious.

King.

And one day, we will all live joyfully forever and ever after in His presence.

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Note

This is the dramatized version of a story that my Bible professor told on the very first day of class, before we had even cracked open Genesis. It is, in a sweepingly general sense and with immense liberties taken, the story of the Bible. This is the narrative arc that undergirds and sews together all sixty-six books in the canon we call Scripture. At its core, the Word of God not a handbook on how to please Him; it’s a revelation of His love for His people, and the relationship He desires to have with us.

Below, I’ve included a list of Scripture references that informed this rendition of the story, although since every single verse of the Bible contributes its piece to the narrative, this list is by no means exhaustive. It simply contains some of the passages that most closely correlate. If you were to read just one, I would suggest the book of Hosea, which is really the original edition of this tragic and yet victorious romance.

Or, if you would like to join us in reading through the Bible in 180 days in 2020, you can get the full picture of God’s incredible story for yourself. To learn more, sign up, and get your own Bible180 Challenge Journal, click here.

For further reading, in approximate order:

• Isaiah 14

• Ezekiel 28

• Genesis 1-3

• Genesis 12:1-3

• Deuteronomy 6

• Song of Songs

• Hosea

• Ezekiel 16

• Jeremiah 30-33

• Revelation 12

• John 13-21

• Acts 1-2

• Acts 10:34-48

• Romans 11

• Isaiah 61-62

• Daniel 12

• Revelation 19-22

Merry Christmas, and a happy new year.

these are the days: december

December always feels to me like an airplane coming in for a landing—only instead of slowing down and preparing safely for the touchdown onto the runway, the plane just keeps accelerating as it drops. The tarmac is getting closer and closer at an alarming rate and everyone on board has a glint of panic in their eyes until finally, at the last possible second, the landing gear come down and the plane all but crash-lands, careening wildly into the start of another new year.

Anyone else? Or is this just me?

On top of the normal December rush, we are closing out another decade. It seems quite impossible that we stand on the cusp of the year 2020. I still remember coloring my printer-paper-taped-together “2000” sign with red and yellow markers while the world held its breath for the new millennium. How is it that one-fifth of that “new” millennium is already behind us?

Sorry, I don’t mean to freak anyone out. But I do wonder—can you sense the ongoing crescendo of time, as I do? It always seems to be getting louder and faster to me, like some terrifying amusement park ride with a whirlpool effect: the longer we spin, the faster we go and the harder it is to slow down.

I’ll be honest that it scares me a little. But there is a delight of anticipation, too. Just as I imagine Israel was waiting with both uncertainty and excitement for the Messiah to come, the Church waits in the discomfort of impatience for Him to come again.

For two thousand years the expectation has been building, the music has been rising, the years have been turning. Every day His return draws nearer. He came once as the Bright Morning Star, the low-hanging planet on the horizon that is first to predict the dawn; next time, He comes as the Sun itself, whose Kingdom will illumine even the ends of the earth.

Suggested Thinking

Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.

And he said to me, “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place.

“And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.”

Revelation 22:1-7