In the TV show Once Upon a Time, Regina Mills (aka the Evil Queen) is convinced that she will always be evil. “Always a villain, even when I’m not,” she laments. Snow White tries to change her mind, saying that she can learn to be good and earn her happy ending, but Regina is fixed…

How can you be sure when the Spirit is speaking to you? After all, he’s usually not doing so directly. It’s not terribly often that the Spirit comes down and sits next to you and has a conversation with you. He’s subtle. He’s quiet. You can be sure when what we’re hearing – however you’re…

There are people in our lives whom we would know from a mile away. We can tell it’s them the minute we hear their voice on the phone or around the corner; there’s no question in our minds. Then, there are people in our lives whom we have trouble recognizing. Maybe they have an indistinct…

Isaiah recalls in chapter 6 of his book the exact moment that God called him. He says, “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me” (verse 8). Now, this seems odd to us, because Isaiah didn’t ask…

In the story my co-workers like to call “Nic at Night,” we meet Nicodemus, a Pharisee who is curious about Jesus and his miracles. He comes to Jesus by night and says to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do…

My weekly devotions generally have four themes, based on University Lutheran’s annual focus: GIFTED. The first devotion is about what Gift of God we as a staff recognized in this week’s readings. The second devotion is about how we can Give Ourselves as Gifts based the Gift of God we recognized. The third devotion is…

Sometimes it can be tempting to belittle our gifts when we see someone with a gift we consider “bigger or better.” We’ll sigh in envy when we hear someone sing beautifully in church or speak eloquently at a conference or, say, speak in tongues while their head is on fire, as we saw in our…

The story of Pentecost is one of the strangest accounts in the Bible. “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues of fire appeared…

All of us have pet sins – sins that we just can’t seem to get away from. It’s these sins that tend to worry us the most. If we only commit a particular sin once, we feel we can be forgiven and move on. But the sins that we commit over and over are much…

In a recent episode of NCIS, Agent Gibbs and Agent Bishop go to Afghanistan to solve a murder. They figure out where the murderer is hiding, but they need someone to go undercover in order to infiltrate his camp. Bishop is picked to go undercover, and she panics. She tells Gibbs, “Don’t put me in…