Aisha Mbeki

Joseph Wept

As his brothers confess their guilt, Joseph steps away and weeps. His emotion is not performed for their benefit - it's real, private, internal. Then he comes back and continues his plan. Emotional c

Restoring Your Neighbor's Loss - Small Kindnesses

You shall not see your neighbor's ox or sheep straying, and withhold your help from them; you shall take them back to their owner. If the owner does not reside near you or you do not know who the owne

Incense and Prayers

I'm a contemplative Christian, and the image of an angel with incense mixing prayers and offering them to God - that's become my image for prayer itself. My prayers are so clumsy. My theology is mudd

Sharing in Christ's Suffering

Paul writes: 'For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.' Suffering is participation in Jesus's suffering. I'm a cancer survivor. For mon

Scripture On Your Heart, Not Just Your Shelf

These words that I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. Not on your bookshelf. Not memorized and recited. On your heart. Internalized. Integrated. I work at a Bible software company, helpi

Love Never Fails

Paul concludes: 'Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.' Everything else is temp

Peter's Radical Leveling

The Jerusalem Council is deadlocked. Jewish believers insist gentiles must be circumcised and keep the Law. Then Peter stands and says something that silences the room: 'We believe it is through the g

Restitution and the Guilt Offering

The guilt offering dealt with a specific category of sin: unintentional wrongs that caused actual harm. If you defrauded someone, unknowingly benefited from their misfortune, or broke a sacred trust,

Christ Broke Down the Wall

I work at a hospital in a diverse neighborhood, and before COVID I barely noticed the borders people lived within. After George Floyd, I couldn't unsee it. One of my closest friends is Black, and I he

I Am Like a Pelican of the Wilderness

This is one of the most obscure images in the Psalms. The writer compares himself to a pelican of the wilderness - lonely, isolated, strange. The pelican becomes a symbol of solitude and estrangement,

The Resurrection That Founds Everything

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Everything about the Christian l

Forgiveness of Sins Through Jesus

Paul preaches to the Jews in the synagogue and offers this: 'Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believe

The Cost of Respectability

Ananias and Sapphira watched Barnabas give everything and receive only blessing. They wanted the same reputation without the same surrender. I see this impulse constantly in our social media age. We w

First Called Christians

The believers in Antioch 'were called Christians first.' That's interesting—it's almost a nickname given by outsiders. It wasn't their chosen identity. They were the followers of 'the Way.' The people

Owing Nothing but Love

Paul states: 'Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.' One perpetual obligation: love. Everything else should be

Joseph Saw His Brother Benjamin

This is the moment Joseph sees his youngest brother Benjamin - the other son of Rachel, his mother. The text doesn't specify what he feels, just that he 'made haste.' After all the testing and maneuv

I Had Heard of You by the Hearing of the Ear

After God's speech and after Job has finally stopped demanding answers, Job says: 'I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.' There's a shift from intellectual knowledge t

Belief Among Unbelief

Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, 'I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!' This might be the most honest prayer in Scripture. The father isn't claiming certainty. He's admitting contradicti

Angry But Not Sinning

Growing up, anger was basically forbidden in my house. You got angry, you were bad. So I got very good at being nice, at swallowing my frustration, at plastering on a smile when someone treated me poo

Wretched Man That I Am

Paul cries out: 'What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?' This is despair. Real, honest despair. And it's in the middle of Scripture. I spent five years