Bucket Full of Grace

Elizabeth is one of the most quietly remarkable women in all of Scripture. She waited decades for a child that never came, carried a label — barren — that defined her in her culture's eyes, and remained faithful to God through all of it. And then, at the very hinge of human history, God gave her a front-row seat to the greatest miracle the world had ever seen. There is a word in Luke 1 that deserves more attention than it usually gets. When the angel Gabriel appears to Zechariah in the temple and announces that his wife Elizabeth will bear a son, he says something that stops me every time: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard" (Luke 1:13). Your prayer has been heard. Not "your prayer is being answered now for the first time." Not "God just decided to do something new." Your prayer — the one you have prayed, perhaps for years, perhaps for decades — has been heard. The implication is that Zechariah and Elizabeth had prayed for a c...

Judges is raw, violent, morally complex, and relentlessly honest. It is also one of the most important books in the Old Testament — a mirror held up to a people who had everything they needed to walk with God and kept choosing everything else instead. Sound familiar? The book of Judges ends with one of the most chilling lines in all of Scripture: "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." — Judges 21:25 It appears twice, in almost identical form — once in Judges 17:6 and again at the very end. The repetition is intentional. The author wants you to sit with it. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Not what was right in God's eyes. Not what the covenant demanded. What felt right to them. In the moment. Without accountability to anyone above themselves. The result is a book full of stories that make you wince: assassinations, sexual violence, civil war, child sacrifice, and a chain of leaders who are brave and broken in ...