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# RachelStarrThomson.com

Fiction & Theology for Readers of Faith

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## Posts

- [Exploring the Gospel of Matthew: Index of Posts](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/07/08/gospel-of-matthew-series/) - This series is an ongoing journey through the gospel of Matthew, the kingdom gospel. Whenever possible, I post a new article every three weeks. When I began this work, I had no idea how much it would grow. Thank you for coming along with me. Part 1: Anointed One: Is This the Jesus YOU Know?
- [It’s Later Than We Think: Inaugurated Eschatology and the Coming of Elijah](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2026/04/01/its-later-than-we-think-inaugurated-eschatology-and-the-coming-of-elijah/) - As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Don’t tell anyone about the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” So the disciples questioned Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” “Elijah is coming and will restore everything,” He replied. “But I tell
- [Jesus Talking with Moses and Elijah: Reading the New Testament in Light of the Old](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2026/03/11/jesus-talking-with-moses-and-elijah-reading-the-new-testament-in-light-of-the-old/) - Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. (Matthew 17:1-3) Before we move on from the Transfiguration, I want to pause and dive further into the implication of this wondrous fact — that Moses and Elijah appeared on the mountain, talking with Jesus. There’s great mystery to this moment, and I’m not going
- [Listen to Him!: Encountering Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2026/02/18/listen-to-him-encountering-jesus-on-the-mount-of-transfiguration/) - After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. He was transformed in front of them, and His face shone like the sun. Even His clothes became as white as the light. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Then
- [It Has Already Begun: Inaugurated Eschatology and the Coming of the Kingdom of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2026/01/28/it-has-already-begun-inaugurated-eschatology-and-the-coming-of-the-kingdom-of-god/) - “For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will reward each according to what he has done. I assure you: There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” (Matthew
- [There Is a Reward: Jesus, Judgment, and the Lost Dimensions of the Gospel (Or, Your Life on Earth Actually Matters) – Pt 2](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2026/01/14/there-is-a-reward-jesus-judgment-and-the-lost-dimensions-of-the-gospel-or-your-life-on-earth-actually-matters-pt-2/) - “For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will reward each according to what he has done.” (Matthew 16:27) As we continue to look at Jesus’s promise of judgment, recall that Jesus gave the assurance of Matthew 16:27 to his disciples in
- [There Is a Reward: Jesus, Judgment, and the Lost Dimensions of the Gospel – Pt 1](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2025/04/09/there-is-a-reward-jesus-judgment-and-the-lost-dimensions-of-the-gospel-pt-1/) - “For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will reward each according to what he has done.” (Matthew 16:27) To this point in the gospel of Matthew, we have seen Jesus’s message heighten, his miracles grow more frequent, and the reactions to
- [Life Is Good: Death, Denial, and the Road Back Home to Eden](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2025/03/19/life-is-good-death-denial-and-the-road-back-home-to-eden/) - “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will find it. What will it benefit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man is going
- [Let Your Desire Lead Your Denial: Following Jesus to the End of the Road](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2025/02/28/let-your-desire-lead-your-denial-following-jesus-to-the-end-of-the-road/) - Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24) A moment before Jesus spoke these words, Peter was discomfited by his own conflicting priorities. He had given his life to follow Jesus, but now he found himself arguing
- [Get Behind Me, Satan: How the Rebuke of Jesus Sets Us Free](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2024/12/27/get-behind-me-satan-how-the-rebuke-of-jesus-sets-us-free/) - Merry Christmas, all! Thanks for your companionship on the journey this past year. May we know the truth of Emmanuel, God with us, more and more clearly with each passing day! And He gave the disciples orders to tell no one that He was the Messiah. From then on Jesus began to point out to
- [The Place Where Truth Is Found: Binding and Loosing in the Kingdom of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2024/12/04/the-place-where-truth-is-found-binding-and-loosing-in-the-kingdom-of-god/) - I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth is already bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth is already loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:19) Since the time of Moses, (the days of Yahweh’s Old Covenant ekklesia), the people of God had possessed both the
- [The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail: The Victory of Christ and the Final Defeat of Death](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2024/11/14/the-gates-of-hell-shall-not-prevail-the-victory-of-christ-and-the-final-defeat-of-death/) - Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18b (KJV) At the foot of Mount Hermon, in the face of pagan altars and a deep grotto that was thought literally to lead down to Hades, Jesus declared that he would gather a people to
- [I Will Build My Church: Jesus, Ekklesia, and the People of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2024/10/29/i-will-build-my-church-jesus-ekklesia-and-the-people-of-god/) - And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the forces of Hades will not overpower it. (Matthew 16:18) From the moment of his advent in public ministry, Jesus proclaimed the impending arrival of the kingdom of God. But it was here, in his
- [The Rock of Revelation: Why Relationship with God Is the Source of All We Know](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2024/10/02/the-rock-of-revelation-why-relationship-with-god-is-the-source-of-all-we-know/) - And Jesus responded, “Simon son of Jonah, you are blessed because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father in heaven. (Matthew 16:17) I have to wonder what Peter thought when Jesus spoke these words to him. Throughout their time together Jesus had often spoken of his Father in familiar, intimate
- [Becoming Who We Are: Identity and Transformation in Christ](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2024/09/11/becoming-who-we-are-identity-and-transformation-in-christ/) - He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
- [You Are Peter: Names, Saints, and Being Ourselves Forever](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2024/08/29/you-are-peter-names-saints-and-being-ourselves-forever/) - Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail
- [“You Are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”: The Christian Confession and the Rock of the Church](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2024/07/31/you-are-the-christ-the-son-of-the-living-god-the-christian-confession-and-the-rock-of-the-church/) - Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!” And Jesus responded, “Simon son of Jonah, you are blessed because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 16:16–17) “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” So now, Peter’s answer. From
- [“Who Do You Say That I Am?”: Jesus’s Question and the Hinge of Our Faith](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2024/07/10/why-do-you-say-that-i-am-jesuss-question-and-the-hinge-of-our-faith/) - When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But you,” He asked them, “who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:22–33)
- [Jesus in a Land of Monsters: Spiritual Warfare, the Gates of Hell, and the Cosmic Gospel of Christ](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2024/06/19/jesus-in-a-land-of-monsters-spiritual-warfare-the-gates-of-hell-and-the-cosmic-gospel-of-christ/) - When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But you,” He asked them, “who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter
- [Try Me and See: Jesus and the Test of Obedience](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2024/03/22/try-me-and-see-jesus-and-the-test-of-obedience/) - Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven … But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves … Do you not yet understand, or remember?” (Matthew 16:1, 8-9, NKJV) I think I
- [Jesus and the Conquering of Canaan: The Syro-Phoenician Woman and the Floodgates of Grace](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2023/10/06/jesus-and-the-conquering-of-canaan-the-syro-phoenician-woman-and-the-floodgates-of-grace/) - When Jesus left there, He withdrew to the area of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly tormented by a demon.” Yet He did not say a word to her. So His disciples approached
- [Signs from Heaven and the Way to Be Saved: Jesus and the Pharisees’ Demand for a Sign](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2024/03/01/signs-from-heaven-and-the-way-to-be-saved-jesus-and-the-pharisees-demand-for-a-sign/) - The Pharisees and Sadducees approached, and as a test, asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them: “When evening comes you say, ‘It will be good weather because the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘Today will be stormy because the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to
- [A World Waiting for Food: How the Feeding of the Four Thousand Foreshadows the Healing of the Nations](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2023/12/28/a-world-waiting-for-food-how-the-feeding-of-the-four-thousand-foreshadows-the-healing-of-the-nations/) - Now Jesus summoned His disciples and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with Me three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry; otherwise they might collapse on the way.” The disciples said to Him, “Where could we get enough bread in this desolate
- [What Makes Us Clean: Jesus and the Question of Purity](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2023/09/14/what-makes-us-clean-jesus-and-the-question-of-purity/) - Summoning the crowd, He told them, “Listen and understand: It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” Then the disciples came up and told Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard this statement?” He replied, “Every
- [Matters of the Heart: The Commands of God and the Traditions of Men](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2023/08/24/matters-of-the-heart-the-commands-of-god-and-the-traditions-of-men/) - Then Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to Jesus and asked, “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat!” He answered them, “And why do you break God’s commandment because of your tradition? For God said: Honor your father and your mother; and, The
- [An Eschatological Prelude: Why Healing and Judgment Come from the Same Kingdom](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2023/08/03/an-eschatological-prelude-why-healing-and-judgment-come-from-the-same-kingdom/) - Once they crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. When the men of that place recognized Him, they alerted the whole vicinity and brought to Him all who were sick. They were begging Him that they might only touch the tassel on His robe. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well.
- [The Wildness of Encounter: Will, Worship, and Walking on Water with God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2023/01/23/the-wildness-of-encounter-will-worship-and-walking-on-water-with-god/) - Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowds. After dismissing the crowds, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone. But the boat was already over a mile from land, battered
- [He Fed Them Hungry: The Wealth and Welcome of the Kingdom of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2023/01/09/he-fed-them-hungry-the-wealth-and-welcome-of-the-kingdom-of-god/) - When Jesus heard about it, He withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone. When the crowds heard this, they followed Him on foot from the towns. As He stepped ashore, He saw a huge crowd, felt compassion for them, and healed their sick. When evening came, the disciples approached Him
- [Hope, Tragedy, and Why Our Labor Does Not Need to Be in Vain](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/12/26/hope-tragedy-and-why-our-labor-does-not-need-to-be-in-vain/) - At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus. “This is John the Baptist!” he told his servants. “He has been raised from the dead, and that’s why supernatural powers are at work in him.” For Herod had arrested John, chained him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother
- [The Danger of Familiarity and Why We Need to Hear the Gospel Again](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/12/12/the-danger-of-familiarity-and-why-we-need-to-hear-the-gospel-again/) - “He went to His hometown and began to teach them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “How did this wisdom and these miracles come to Him? Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t His mother called Mary, and His brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, aren’t they all with
- [The Storehouse of the Scriptures: How the Kingdom Opens Up the Meaning of the Bible](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/11/28/the-storehouse-of-the-scriptures-how-the-kingdom-opens-up-the-meaning-of-the-bible/) - “Have you understood all these things?” “Yes,” they told Him. “Therefore,” He said to them, “every student of Scripture instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who brings out of his storeroom what is new and what is old.” When Jesus had finished these parables, He left there. (Matthew 13:51-53) Over the
- [The Treasure, the Pearl, and the Net: On Value, Judgment, and Giving All for the Kingdom](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/11/14/the-treasure-the-pearl-and-the-net-on-value-judgment-and-giving-all-for-the-kingdom-2/) - “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one priceless pearl, he went and
- [The Treasure, the Pearl, and the Net: On Value, Judgment, and Giving All for the Kingdom](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/11/14/the-treasure-the-pearl-and-the-net-on-value-judgment-and-giving-all-for-the-kingdom/) - “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one priceless pearl, he went and
- [Wheat, Weeds, and the End of the Age: What the Parable of the Tares Says About the World Today](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/09/08/wheat-weeds-and-the-end-of-the-age-what-the-parable-of-the-tares-says-about-the-world-today/) - Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables, and He would not speak anything to them without a parable, so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: I will open My mouth in parables; I will declare things kept secret from the foundation of the world. Then He dismissed the crowds
- [Now, Not-Yet, and Presently Working: How the Kingdom of God Has Entered Our World](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/08/18/now-not-yet-and-presently-working-how-the-kingdom-of-god-has-entered-our-world/) - He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left. When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. The landowner’s slaves came to
- [Seed and Soil: What Happens When the Word Comes to Our Hearts](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/07/28/seed-and-soil-what-happens-when-the-word-comes-to-our-hearts/) - You, then, listen to the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path. And the one sown on rocky ground — this is one who hears
- [The Hidden Kingdom and the Purpose of Parables (Pt 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/07/07/the-hidden-kingdom-and-the-purpose-of-parables-pt-2/) - Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: You will listen and listen, yet never understand; and you will look and look, yet never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown callous; their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their
- [The Hidden Kingdom and the Purpose of Parables (Pt 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/06/16/the-hidden-kingdom-and-the-purpose-of-parables-pt-1/) - Then the disciples came up and asked Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered them, “Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them. For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have
- [A Sower Went Out to Sow: Jesus in the Field of the World](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/05/26/a-sower-went-out-to-sow-jesus-in-the-field-of-the-world/) - On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out
- [“Who Are My Mother and Brothers?”: Jesus and the Redefining of Family](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/05/05/who-are-my-mother-and-brothers-jesus-and-the-redefining-of-family/) - He was still speaking to the crowds when suddenly His mother and brothers were standing outside wanting to speak to Him. Someone told Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to You.” But He replied to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My
- [The Unclean Spirit Returns: Jesus and the Tragedy of a Generation Lost](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/04/14/the-unclean-spirit-returns-jesus-and-the-tragedy-of-a-generation-lost/) - When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it roams through waterless places looking for rest but doesn’t find any. Then it says, “I’ll go back to my house that I came from.” And returning, it finds the house vacant, swept, and put in order. Then off it goes and brings with it seven
- [Jesus and the Sign of Jonah: The Only Sign We’ll Ever Need](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/03/24/jesus-and-the-sign-of-jonah-the-only-sign-well-ever-need/) - Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the
- [The Storeroom of Our Hearts: Receiving the Good Gifts of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/03/03/the-storeroom-of-our-hearts-receiving-the-good-gifts-of-god/) - How can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. A good man produces good things from his storeroom of good, and an evil man produces evil things from his storeroom of evil. (Matthew 12:34–35) In commenting on this passage, the Expositor’s Bible Commentary sums
- [Listen to Your Heart: Finding the Way to Goodness and Grace](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2022/02/10/listen-to-your-heart-finding-the-way-to-goodness-and-grace/) - Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. A good man produces good things
- [Make the Good Tree Good: Jesus and the Call to Integrity](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/12/16/make-the-good-tree-good-jesus-and-the-call-to-integrity/) - Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. (Matthew 12:33-34) It’s pretty rare that
- [Blaspheming God and Becoming the Devil: Jesus and the Unpardonable Sin](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/11/24/blaspheming-god-and-becoming-the-devil-jesus-and-the-unpardonable-sin/) - Anyone who is not with Me is against Me, and anyone who does not gather with Me scatters. Because of this, I tell you, people will be forgiven every sin and blasphemy, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven
- [The Great Gathering: When Jesus Brings Everyone Home](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/11/08/the-great-gathering-when-jesus-brings-everyone-home/) - Anyone who is not with Me is against Me, and anyone who does not gather with Me scatters. (Matthew 12:30) To me, one of the most interesting things about Jesus’s confrontations with the Pharisees is the light they shed on his true mission. Because the Pharisees and other leaders judged Jesus on their idea of
- [The Time for Choosing Sides: Jesus and the Clash of Kingdoms](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/10/21/the-time-for-choosing-sides-jesus-and-the-clash-of-kingdoms/) - Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and unable to speak was brought to Him. He healed him, so that the man could both speak and see. And all the crowds were astounded and said, “Perhaps this is the Son of David!” When the Pharisees heard this, they said, “The man drives out demons only
- [Eternal Horizons: How Jesus’s Mission Required Him to Trust the Father, and How We Must Do the Same (Jesus the Servant, Pt 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/10/08/eternal-horizons-how-jesuss-mission-required-him-to-trust-the-father-and-how-we-must-do-the-same-jesus-the-servant-pt-2/) - Hey everyone: My new book is out! You can pick up The Way of Restoration: Following Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount at Amazon or your favorite retailer, in ebook, paperback, and hardcover editions. And with that, I am resuming new writing on the blog. Thank you for your prayers and support, especially those
- [Coming September 30](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/09/29/coming-september-30/) - Coming to your favorite online retailer in just two more days.
- [The Tragedy of the Pharisees: How Good People Become Enemies of God (Repost)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/08/12/the-tragedy-of-the-pharisees-how-good-people-become-enemies-of-god-repost/) - (Hey everyone! I am working hard getting the Sermon on the Mount book out. It is titled “The Way of Restoration: Following Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount”. In the meantime, I am reposting one of the posts in the series for you. Enjoy the sneak peak of the book to come!) When the
- [Living in the Public Eye: How Jesus Related to the Masses and Why We Can’t Remain in the Crowd (Repost)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/07/29/living-in-the-public-eye-how-jesus-related-to-the-masses-and-why-we-cant-remain-in-the-crowd-repost/) - (Hey everyone! I am working hard getting the Sermon on the Mount book out. It is titled "The Way of Restoration: Following Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount". In the meantime, I am reposting one of the posts in the series for you. Enjoy the sneak peak of the book to come!) When Jesus
- [Blessed Are the Spiritually Impoverished, for the Kingdom of Heaven Is Theirs (Repost)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/07/01/blessed-are-the-spiritually-impoverished-for-the-kingdom-of-heaven-is-theirs-repost/) - Note from Rachel: This is a repost from my series on the Sermon on the Mount, soon to be included in my upcoming book. The first blessing Jesus gives in the Beatitudes makes no sense at all. Poverty is not a “happy” state (makarios, the Greek word for “blessed,” is also translated “happy”). To be
- [The Shadow Life of Moses and How We Know We Can Trust the Storyteller (Repost)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/06/17/the-shadow-life-of-moses-and-how-we-know-we-can-trust-the-storyteller-repost/) - Note from Rachel: This is a repost from my series on the Sermon on the Mount, soon to be included in my upcoming book. We are living in some crazy days, but this post reminded me that God's got it — it's all part of the Story. When Moses declared some fourteen hundred years before
- [The Waste of Worry, and What to Do Instead (Repost)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/06/04/the-waste-of-worry-and-what-to-do-instead-repost/) - Note from Rachel: This is a repost from my series on the Sermon on the Mount, soon to be included in my upcoming (and still untitled) book about the same. As I worked my way through revisions, I was struck by how pertinent Jesus's message about worry is during our present moment in history. I
- [The Surprising Humility of the Hidden God (Jesus the Servant, Pt 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/05/07/the-surprising-humility-of-the-hidden-god-jesus-the-servant-pt-1/) - But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. He warned them not to tell others about him. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “Here is my
- [The Dawn of the New Creation: Jesus, the Sabbath, and the Creative Work of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/04/22/the-dawn-of-the-new-creation-jesus-the-sabbath-and-the-creative-work-of-god/) - Moving on from there, He entered their synagogue. There He saw a man who had a paralyzed hand. And in order to accuse Him they asked Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” … Then He told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and it was restored, as
- [Human Value, Need, and What Really Offends God: Jesus on Legalism and the Sabbath](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/04/09/human-value-need-and-what-really-offends-god-jesus-on-legalism-and-the-sabbath/) - Moving on from there, He entered their synagogue. There He saw a man who had a paralyzed hand. And in order to accuse Him they asked Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” But He said to them, “What man among you, if he had a sheep that fell into a pit on
- [Lord of the Sabbath: Jesus and the One Necessary Conversation (Lord of the Sabbath Pt 5)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/03/25/lord-of-the-sabbath-jesus-and-the-one-necessary-conversation-lord-of-the-sabbath-pt-5/) - Or haven’t you read in the Law that on Sabbath days the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and are innocent? But I tell you that something greater than the temple is here! If you had known what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. For
- [Restoring the Heart of Religion (Lord of the Sabbath Pt 4)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/03/12/restoring-the-heart-of-religion-lord-of-the-sabbath-pt-4/) - At that time Jesus passed through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick and eat some heads of grain. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!” He said to them … “If
- [Greater than the Temple: How Jesus Challenges Our Pride and Reorders Our Expectations (Lord of the Sabbath Pt 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/02/25/greater-than-the-temple-how-jesus-challenges-our-pride-and-reorders-our-expectations-lord-of-the-sabbath-pt-3/) - At that time Jesus passed through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick and eat some heads of grain. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!” He said to them, “Haven’t you
- [Judging David: Lord of the Sabbath, Part 2](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/02/18/judging-david-lord-of-the-sabbath-part-2/) - At that time Jesus passed through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick and eat some heads of grain. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!” He said to them, “Haven’t you
- [Lord of the Sabbath: The Law, the Sabbath, and the Messianic Mission (Pt 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/02/11/lord-of-the-sabbath-the-law-the-sabbath-and-the-messianic-mission-pt-1/) - At that time Jesus passed through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick and eat some heads of grain. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!” He said to them, “Haven’t you
- [Come Unto Me, All You Who Are Weary: Jesus Christ and the Great Invitation to Work and to Rest](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/02/04/come-unto-me-all-you-who-are-weary-jesus-christ-and-the-great-invitation-to-work-and-to-rest/) - “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
- [An Invitation to Mystery: Jesus and the Revelation of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/01/28/an-invitation-to-mystery-jesus-and-the-revelation-of-god/) - At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, because this was Your good pleasure. All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the
- [The Father’s Good Pleasure: Delighting with God in the Secrets of Heaven](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/01/14/the-fathers-good-pleasure-delighting-with-god-in-the-secrets-of-heaven/) - At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, because this was Your good pleasure.” (Matthew 11:25-26) In this spontaneous prayer, we glimpse a rare public moment between Jesus and the Father.
- [A Life that Lasts: Stewarding the Kingdom Now (Part 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/01/07/a-life-that-lasts-stewarding-the-kingdom-now-part-2/) - Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But
- [Don’t Miss This: Stewarding the Kingdom Now (Part 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2021/01/01/dont-miss-this-stewarding-the-kingdom-now-part-1/) - Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But
- [New Release: Seeds 2: The Growing Time](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/12/29/new-release-seeds-2-the-growing-time/) - Available now in digital and paperback. Get it from Amazon or your favorite online retailer.
- [Embracing the Day of Visitation: Our Lives in the Context of the King](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/12/24/embracing-the-day-of-visitation-our-lives-in-the-context-of-the-king/) - Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But
- [Dancing to a Different Tune: The Necessity of Using Our Ears](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/12/17/dancing-to-a-different-tune-the-necessity-of-using-our-ears/) - NOTE: And we’re back! This has been quite a year, and my hiatus from weekly posting on the gospel of Matthew was much longer than I anticipated. I’m more pleased than I can say to be back at it. My deepest gratitude to all who continued to support my work during this time. You directly
- [Lights (Letters to a Samuel Generation)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/12/10/lights-letters-to-a-samuel-generation/) - “And a light shined in the cell” And there was not any wall, And there was no dark at all, Only Thou, Immanuel. Light of Love shined in the cell, Turned to gold the iron bars Opened windows to the stars Peace stood there as sentinel. Dearest Lord, how can it be That Thou art
- [New Private Release: Redemption Poems](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/12/04/new-private-release-redemption-poems/) - Out now for direct download, just for my readers — free or pay what you want for a limited time. Get it here. # Hovering. Hovering over an ocean of dark. Still—over the drowning of dreams. Darkness, the face of the deep. Something stirs on the water; ripples, faint. Someone is breathing. White caps; wind
- [Allegiance: A Story (Letters to a Samuel Generation)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/11/12/allegiance-a-story-letters-to-a-samuel-generation/) - Once there was an army, a mighty band of joyful warriors who had come together under the banner of a Captain they loved. By His side they toiled and fought; through days of rain and times when the sun beat down mercilessly on their heads. But the Captain’s smile and the Captain’s love burned brighter
- [The Face of Love (Letters to a Samuel Generation)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/11/26/the-face-of-love-letters-to-a-samuel-generation/) - There once lived a man whose name, earthly speaking, was Jesus. Spiritually speaking, His name was Love. Long ago, in the darkness of a distant age, Love looked far into the future. He went to His Father and said, “There is no other way. I will go to them. I will become one of them,
- [THIS Is the Will of God (Letters to a Samuel Generation)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/11/19/this-is-the-will-of-god-letters-to-a-samuel-generation/) - “One act of thanksgiving made when things go wrong is worth a thousand when things go well.” - St. John of the Cross At one time or another, we all find ourselves in circumstances beyond our control. Jobs are lost and once-stable finances reach a crisis point. Illness strikes. Churches lose sight of their vision
- [Daughters of Zion (Letters to a Samuel Generation)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/10/29/daughters-of-zion-letters-to-a-samuel-generation/) - This is dedicated to all my little sisters, natural and spiritual, and to those older sisters who are little to Someone. Dear ones, hear these words. This is my burden for every little sister in the family of God, for all who are struggling to gain their footing in a world of shifting sands; who
- [A Question of Security (Letters to a Samuel Generation)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/11/05/a-question-of-security-letters-to-a-samuel-generation/) - I can remember it very clearly. Laying in bed in the dark, cool hours of the morning, listening to a clock tick away the minutes and wishing that my wide eyes would go to sleep already. I remember staring up at the planks of the high, wooden ceiling and watching the desert breeze rustle the
- [What It Means to Be Bold (Letters to a Samuel Generation)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/10/22/what-it-means-to-be-bold-letters-to-a-samuel-generation/) - This morning I sat in an adult Sunday School class where we watched a video about the death of Jesus, and then began to talk about the impact of His life. It was, said the teacher, a life that was like a stone dropped in the middle of history, creating a ripple effect that spread
- [We Still Need Amazing Grace (Letters to a Samuel Generation)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/10/01/we-still-need-amazing-grace-letters-to-a-samuel-generation/) - “Oh foolish Christians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun
- [You Have a Place in the Body (Letters to a Samuel Generation)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/10/08/you-have-a-place-in-the-body-letters-to-a-samuel-generation/) - Imagine, for a moment, the following scenario. A hand and a mouth have gotten together over lunch to “fellowship.” Somewhere in the conversation, talk turns to a common acquaintance—a foot, to be exact. “Did you see Foot last week?” Hand asks. “He was down in the mud, trudging alongside the rest of the world.” “Hmm,”
- [Not in Vain (Letters to a Samuel Generation)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/09/24/not-in-vain-letters-to-a-samuel-generation/) - It is the ultimate question of life. The one question we find ourselves asking again and again, no matter who we are or where we come from. The heart of our nation asked it as we watched the Twin Towers fall on our television screens. We ask it when the job we wanted so badly
- [Unity May Be Simpler Than We Think (Letters to a Samuel Generation)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/09/17/unity-may-be-simpler-than-we-think-letters-to-a-samuel-generation/) - Very few of the prayers of Jesus are recorded in the Bible. The longest of them is found in John 17, and takes up all twenty-six verses of that chapter. It seems to me that this address from Son to Father ought to be of immense importance to us. As it was important enough for
- [We Are the Miracles (Letters to a Samuel Generation)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/09/10/we-are-the-miracles-letters-to-a-samuel-generation/) - I was born into a Christian home, and so many of the words of Jesus are familiar to me. They're so familiar, in fact, that I often forget to listen to them. There's a great temptation to take for granted that which is most precious, only because God has blessed us with an abundance of
- [Letters to a Samuel Generation: An Introduction](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/09/05/letters-to-a-samuel-generation-an-introduction/) - While I work hard to finish Seeds 2, I've hit "pause" on new Matthew commentary for this blog. Until I'm able to resume, I wanted to share from an older-but-still-oh-so-relevant work with you. For the next six weeks I'll be posting from Letters to a Samuel Generation, a book about knowing the mind and heart of God. When I
- [New Matthew posts will return! (an update on the blog)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/08/31/new-matthew-posts-will-return-an-update-on-the-blog/) - Hey friends! Now that the Refiner's Fire series-within-a-series is finished, you may have noticed a lull in my weekly Matthew posts. I am currently head-down working on my new novel, Seeds 2, but rest assured that new, regular Matthew posts will resume soon! Lord willing, I will be able to write and post new commentary later
- [We Are in the World, But Not Of It](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/08/17/we-are-in-the-world-but-not-of-it/) - “To the temporary residents of the dispersion,” Peter writes. What is, in my Bible, translated “dispersed” is more properly a noun: the dispersion, or the diaspora. The English Standard Version renders it “those who are elect exiles.” In this first-century world Peter was writing to Jewish communities planted throughout the Greek-speaking and Greek-encultured Roman Empire.
- [Finally: Keys to Navigating Our Doubts (Refiner's Fire, Pt 37)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/08/08/finally-keys-to-navigating-our-doubts-refiners-fire-pt-37/) - NOTE: This post concludes the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book from Amazon and other retailers. To read the whole thing on this blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section. When circumstances go sideways or long-submerged questions suddenly break the surface of our hearts, many of us will
- [The Answer to Doubt Is Love (Refiner's Fire, Pt 36)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/07/31/the-answer-to-doubt-is-love-refiners-fire-pt-36/) - NOTE: This is part 36 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book from Amazon and other retailers. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. Although it’s not a popular subject in this day and age, judgment is a theme
- [Wisdom Is Vindicated by Her Children (Refiner's Fire, Pt 35)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/07/17/wisdom-is-vindicated-by-her-children-refiners-fire-pt-35/) - NOTE: This is part 35 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book from Amazon and other retailers. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. So now, after journeying through the history of Israel and the prophetic Scriptures, getting to
- [It's the End of the World Again (Refiner's Fire, Pt 34)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/07/11/its-the-end-of-the-world-again-refiners-fire-pt-34/) - NOTE: This is part 34 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book from Amazon and other retailers. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. When I was sixteen, the world had somehow convinced itself that at midnight on December
- [The Value and Limits of Spiritual Experience (Refiner's Fire, Pt 33)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/07/04/the-value-and-limits-of-spiritual-experience-refiners-fire-pt-33/) - NOTE: This is part 33 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book from Amazon and other retailers. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. As I said earlier, testimony is vital to growing and strengthening our faith. But it’s
- [The Apologetics of Experience (Refiner's Fire, Pt 32)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/06/27/the-apologetics-of-experience-refiners-fire-pt-32/) - NOTE: This is part 32 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book from Amazon and other retailers. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. My paternal grandmother, Lois Thomson, was the kind of woman who won arguments. She had
- [The Self-Revelation of the Messiah (Refiner's Fire, Pt 31)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/06/21/the-self-revelation-of-the-messiah-refiners-fire-pt-31/) - NOTE: This is part 31 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book from Amazon and other retailers. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. In the saga of Jesus’s self-revelation as the Messiah, there are four distinct
- [Seeing the Story from the Other Side (Refiner's Fire, Pt 30)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/06/14/seeing-the-story-from-the-other-side-refiners-fire-pt-30/) - NOTE: This is part 30 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book from Amazon and other retailers. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. We’ve spent a lot of time in this book unpacking the expectations of
- [Wrestling in the Dark (Refiner's Fire, Pt 29)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/06/05/wrestling-in-the-dark-refiners-fire-pt-29/) - NOTE: This is part 29 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book from Amazon and other retailers. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. I was a strange child, given to deep thoughts and existential insomnia. I
- [From Creation to Cross (Refiner's Fire, Pt 28)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/05/29/from-creation-to-cross-refiners-fire-pt-28/) - NOTE: This is part 28 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book from Amazon and other retailers. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. Years ago Francis Schaeffer wrote a book and called it The God Who
- [The Meaning of It All (Refiner's Fire, Pt 27)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/05/25/the-meaning-of-it-all-refiners-fire-pt-27/) - NOTE: This is part 27 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book from Amazon and other retailers. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. Behind every argument over facts or science or philosophy or comparative religion is
- [Reasons for Belief and Reasons for Doubt (Refiner's Fire, Pt 26)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/05/16/reasons-for-belief-and-reasons-for-doubt-refiners-fire-pt-26/) - NOTE: This is part 26 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book from Amazon and other retailers. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. The God of the Bible never asked anyone to engage in trust that
- [The Summons to Seek (Refiner's Fire, Pt 25)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/05/09/the-summons-to-seek-refiners-fire-pt-25/) - NOTE: This is part 25 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book from Amazon and other retailers. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. I hope by now it is clear that I am not advocating we
- [I Am Not Enough (And That's Just Fine)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/05/06/i-am-not-enough-and-thats-just-fine/) - Recently I heard someone talking about this incredible truth he had discovered, that “I am enough.” It’s a popular idea right now, especially among the quasi-Eastern mindfulness crowd. The idea is that we are enough, in ourselves; we have everything we need; we are all we need. On the surface, this seems like clear nonsense.
- [The Identity of Holiness: You Are Set Apart for Such a Time as This](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/04/28/the-identity-of-holiness-you-are-set-apart-for-such-a-time-as-this/) - Peter wrote to the early Christians: As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance. But as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy. (1 Peter 1:14-16, HCSB) Holiness is
- [Your Doubts, in the Story of God (Refiner's Fire, Pt 24)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/05/01/your-doubts-in-the-story-of-god-refiners-fire-pt-24/) - NOTE: This is part 24 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book from Amazon and other retailers. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. Not long after John’s disciples brought Jesus’s riddling answer from Isaiah 61 back
- [The Forerunner of Our Doubts (Refiner's Fire, Pt 23)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/04/24/the-forerunner-of-our-doubts-refiners-fire-pt-23/) - NOTE: This is part 22 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book from Amazon and other retailers. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. Earlier, we looked at one of the passages where Yahweh declared his intention
- [The Lord's Prayer in a Time of Coronavirus](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/04/20/the-lords-prayer-in-a-time-of-coronavirus/) - Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven! (Let there be healing, deliverance, and rescue. Let your presence be palpable in our midst. May you be exalted and lifted high. May we surrender to your working in every part of our
- [What Are YOU Looking For? (Refiner's Fire, Pt 22)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/04/17/what-are-you-looking-for-refiners-fire-pt-22/) - NOTE: This is part 22 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book here. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. Having answered John’s question, Jesus turned to the crowds and challenged them too. Essentially he asked them,
- [Sitting with a World in Grief](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/04/11/sitting-with-a-world-in-grief/) - When all of this began last month, I had about a week where I found it really hard to get my emotional equilibrium. I just didn’t know how to FEEL about what was happening. Maybe you can relate. One morning in prayer, I came to this: It’s like sitting with someone in grief. Or with
- [Too Late, But Not Too Late](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/04/18/too-late-but-not-too-late/) - Right now, in this strange time, we have an invitation before us that will never be before us again. It is the invitation to meet God NOW, in this moment in history. It’s our choice: we can seek God or not. We can ask for his perspective … or not. We can worship. Or not.
- [The Mystery Revealed (Refiner's Fire, Pt 21)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/04/10/the-mystery-revealed-refiners-fire-pt-21/) - NOTE: This is part 20 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book here. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the “Refiner’s Fire” section at the bottom. Two thousand years after Jesus, we read Isaiah 53 and see no mystery at all. We immediately
- [The Mystery of the Servant Songs (Refiner's Fire, Part 20)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/04/03/mystery-of-the-servant-songs-refiners-fire-part-20/) - NOTE: This is part 20 of the “Refiner’s Fire” series, now available as a book here. To read it on the blog, go to the Matthew series and scroll down for the "Refiner’s Fire" section at the bottom. More than thirty years after John’s conversation with Jesus—thirty years after John’s death, when the crucifixion and
- [The Refiner’s Fire: The Struggle and Triumph of John the Baptist (Introduction)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/08/13/the-refiners-fire-the-struggle-and-triumph-of-john-the-baptist-introduction/) - REFINER’S FIRE: AN INTRODUCTION Sometimes life, and writing, takes an unexpected turn. As I wound down the end of my study of Matthew 10, I looked ahead to chapter 11 with the intention of skipping fairly quickly over the interaction between Jesus and John the Baptist. That would allow me to get back to the
- [The Question from Prison (Refiner’s Fire Pt 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/08/20/the-question-from-prison-refiners-fire-pt-2/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. It deals with the story of John the Baptist as a vehicle for navigating our own struggles with doubt, disappointment, and crisis of faith. I’m working on it daily and will release the whole thing as a book once it’s
- [Finding Our Questions and Questioning Our Doubts (Refiner’s Fire Pt 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/08/27/finding-our-questions-and-questioning-our-doubts-refiners-fire-pt-3/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. It deals with the story of John the Baptist as a vehicle for navigating our own struggles with doubt, disappointment, and crisis of faith. I’m working on it daily and will release the whole thing as a book once it’s
- [Doubt and the Nature of Faith (Refiner’s Fire Pt 4)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/09/03/doubt-and-the-nature-of-faith-refiners-fire-pt-4/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. It deals with the story of John the Baptist as a vehicle for navigating our own struggles with doubt, disappointment, and crisis of faith. I’m working on it daily and will release the whole thing as a book once it’s
- [What John Believed: Old Testament Prophecies and Messianic Expectations (Refiner’s Fire Pt 5)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/09/10/what-john-believed-old-testament-prophecies-and-messianic-expectations-refiners-fire-pt-5/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. It deals with the story of John the Baptist as a vehicle for navigating our own struggles with doubt, disappointment, and crisis of faith. I’m working on it daily and will release the whole thing as a book once it’s
- [What John Believed: The Bible’s Great, Sweeping Story of Life and Death, Blessings and Curses (Refiner’s Fire Pt 6)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/09/25/what-john-believed-the-bibles-great-sweeping-story-of-life-and-death-blessings-and-curses-refiners-fire-pt-6/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. It deals with the story of John the Baptist as a vehicle for navigating our own struggles with doubt, disappointment, and crisis of faith. I’m working on it daily and will release the whole thing as a book once it’s
- [What John Believed: The Golden Age and the Promises to Abraham (Refiner’s Fire Pt 7)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/10/11/what-john-believed-the-golden-age-and-the-promises-to-abraham-refiners-fire-pt-7/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. It deals with the story of John the Baptist as a vehicle for navigating our own struggles with doubt, disappointment, and crisis of faith. I’m working on it daily and will release the whole thing as a book once it’s
- [What John Believed: The Return of the King (Refiner's Fire Pt 8)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/01/03/what-john-believed-the-return-of-the-king-refiners-fire-pt-8/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. It deals with the story of John the Baptist as a vehicle for navigating our own struggles with doubt, disappointment, and crisis of faith. I’m working on it daily and will release the whole thing as a book once it’s
- [What John Believed: Messiah, Son of David (Refiner's Fire Pt 9)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/01/09/what-john-believed-messiah-son-of-david-refiners-fire-pt-9/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. It deals with the story of John the Baptist as a vehicle for navigating our own struggles with doubt, disappointment, and crisis of faith. I’m working on it daily and will release the whole thing as a book once it’s
- [What John Believed: The Apocalypse of Daniel (Refiner's Fire, Pt 10)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/01/17/what-john-believed-the-apocalypse-of-daniel-refiners-fire-pt-10/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. It deals with the story of John the Baptist as a vehicle for navigating our own struggles with doubt, disappointment, and crisis of faith. I’m working on it daily and will release the whole thing as a book once it’s
- [What John Believed: Jubilee, Suffering, and Seventy Weeks (Refiner's Fire, Pt 11)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/01/25/what-john-believed-jubilee-suffering-and-seventy-weeks-refiners-fire-pt-11/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. It deals with the story of John the Baptist as a vehicle for navigating our own struggles with doubt, disappointment, and crisis of faith. I’m working on it daily and will release the whole thing as a book once it’s
- [Looking to the Future Again (Refiner's Fire, Pt 12)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/02/01/looking-to-the-future-again-refiners-fire-pt-12/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. It deals with the story of John the Baptist as a vehicle for navigating our own struggles with doubt, disappointment, and crisis of faith. I’m working on it daily and will release the whole thing as a book once it’s
- [A Voice in the Wilderness (Refiner's Fire, Pt 13)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/02/08/a-voice-in-the-wilderness-refiners-fire-pt-13/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. To start from the beginning, go here and look for the Refiner's Fire section at the bottom. # In our Bibles, the Old and New Testaments are separated only by a blank and a title page. We can go directly
- [The Slow Becoming of John the Baptist (Refiner's Fire, Pt 14)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/02/14/the-slow-becoming-of-john-the-baptist-refiners-fire-pt-14/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. To start from the beginning, go here and look for the Refiner’s Fire section at the bottom. # Luke, who tells John’s story with the most detail, does not specify at what age John left normal society and went into
- [The Prophecies Made About You (Refiner's Fire, Pt 15)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/02/22/the-prophecies-made-about-you-refiners-fire-pt-15/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. To start from the beginning, go here and look for the Refiner’s Fire section at the bottom. # Several decades in the future, the apostle Paul wrote to his protégé Timothy: Timothy, my son, I am giving you this instruction
- [The Messenger of Malachi (Refiner's Fire, Pt 16)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/02/28/the-messenger-of-malachi-refiners-fire-pt-16/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. To start from the beginning, go here and look for the Refiner’s Fire section at the bottom. # Maybe even more than his connection with Elijah, John understood himself to be the messenger of Malachi and Isaiah. In the same
- [In the Shadow of the Christ (Refiner's Fire, Pt 17)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/03/05/in-the-shadow-of-the-christ-refiners-fire-pt-17/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. To start from the beginning, go here and look for the Refiner’s Fire section at the bottom. # The post-wilderness John was a recognized type in his own time and an almost incomprehensible one in ours. Even in his own
- [When Everything Goes Sideways (Refiner's Fire, Pt 18)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/03/12/when-everything-goes-sideways-refiners-fire-pt-18/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. To start from the beginning, go here and look for the Refiner’s Fire section at the bottom. # We’ve journeyed together now through John the Baptist’s understanding of the Scriptures. We’ve come to an understanding, as best as we are
- [Getting the Story Wrong (Refiner's Fire, Pt 19)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/03/21/getting-the-story-wrong-refiners-fire-pt-19/) - NOTE: “Refiner’s Fire” is a mini-series within my overall series on the gospel of Matthew. To start from the beginning, go here and look for the Refiner’s Fire section at the bottom. # By now it should be clear that two years into his ministry, Jesus was failing to live up to John’s expectations of
- [Refiner's Fire: Out Now!](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2020/03/23/coming-wednesday/) - "I hope this book will do several things. I hope it will give us freedom to ask questions and to express our fears and doubts. I don’t think we are served by stuffing these things away. More than that, I hope it will give the shaking, the rocked, and the devastated tools to process their
- [24-HOUR SALE: Load up your e-reader with fiction at half-off or more TODAY](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/12/26/24-hour-sale-load-up-your-e-reader-with-fiction-at-half-off-or-more-today/) - Hey friends! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I had the privilege of being with family, including my nine tiny nieces and nephews (nine kids ages five and under, if you can imagine that). Good times, made even better by the underlying message of Christmas — that God has chosen to become our
- [A Christmas Letter](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/12/25/a-christmas-letter/) - Almighty God, I don't understand. What are You doing in a child's body? Why are You putting Yourself in a dirty stable on a cold night? Why are You entrusting Your beautiful Son to the care of two confused and vulnerable human beings? The angels are singing tonight: the King has come! The Mighty God,
- [I Remember Christmas](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/12/18/i-remember-christmas/) - Note: Refiner’s Fire will return in January 2020. In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy this reflection from my book Now for the Not-Yet: And Other Essays on Everyday Discipleship When I was small we lived in a northern part of Ontario, in Canada, and up there the snow falls early and thick on cold, clear nights
- [My New Book Is Out: Read the First 3+ Chapters for Free](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/12/13/my-new-book-is-out-read-the-first-3-chapters-for-free/) - It's been a privilege and a joy for me to release my new book this week. (A HUGE thank you to everyone who has grabbed a copy thus far!) As the first in a series of "narrative commentaries" on the gospel of Matthew, this book has been more than four years in the making. It
- [WDJD?: How Jesus Walked His Talk, and Why What He DID Matters](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/12/04/wdjd-how-jesus-walked-his-talk-and-why-what-he-did-matters/) - Note: Refiner’s Fire will return in January 2020. In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy this reflection from my book Still Praying in the Wilderness and Other Essays for the Spiritually Thirsty. My old journals line my top shelf, crammed in next to each other, a mishmash of colours and styles. Hardbound books, cheap scratch pads, date
- [The Other Christian Faith: On Trust, Works, and Putting Our Faith Where It Counts](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/11/28/the-other-christian-faith-on-trust-works-and-putting-our-faith-where-it-counts/) - Note: Refiner’s Fire is set to return in January 2020. In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy this reflection from my book Still Praying in the Wilderness and Other Essays for the Spiritually Thirsty. When I first fell in love with God, I thought the initial starry glow would never wear off. I cared so much about
- [Weak: Reflections on the Spirit and the Flesh](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/11/19/weak-reflections-on-the-spirit-and-the-flesh/) - Note: Refiner’s Fire truly will be back soon! In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy this deeply honest reflection from my book Still Praying in the Wilderness and Other Essays for the Spiritually Thirsty. # I’m so tired. It’s two o’clock in the morning. I’m staring bleary-eyed at my computer, praying that this huge file will finish
- [Fear and Trembling: Reflections on Reality](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/11/13/fear-and-trembling-reflections-on-reality/) - Note: Refiner’s Fire truly will be back soon! Life and research have conspired to create a pause, but it should not last much longer. In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy this reflection on what really matters, taken from my book Still Praying in the Wilderness and Other Essays for the Spiritually Thirsty. Life can be worrisome
- [The God Backstage: On the Presence of God in the Mundane](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/11/05/the-god-backstage-on-the-presence-of-god-in-the-mundane/) - Note: Refiner’s Fire will be back soon. I’m still wrapping up a particularly tricky bit in the middle, but it will be posted here soon. In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy this essay on God in the mundane and the high moments of our lives. (This essay is taken from my book Still Praying in the Wilderness
- [I Surrender All: Reflections on Surrender to Jesus](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/10/29/i-surrender-all-reflections-on-surrender-to-jesus/) - Note: Refiner’s Fire will be back soon. I’m currently hunkered down researching some of the history pieces for it; the next section will be posted here soon. In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy this reflection on surrender to God, especially in times when we don't understand. All to Jesus, I surrender All to him I
- [A Very Special Request](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/10/23/a-very-special-request/) - Note: Refiner's Fire will be back soon. I'm currently hunkered down researching some of the history pieces for it; the next section will be posted here soon. In the meantime, I have a special request ... If you're reading this, chances are you know me primarily as an author or blogger. But since 2007, I
- [Receiving One Another: How the Act of Welcome Changes the World](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/07/16/receiving-one-another-how-the-act-of-welcome-changes-the-world/) - The one who welcomes you welcomes Me, and the one who welcomes Me welcomes Him who sent Me. (Matthew 10:40) This statement comes at the very end of Matthew 10 and its long discussion of the costs and communion of following Jesus. It’s a promise of Jesus’s presence and identity with us, and it gives
- [Who Is Jesus to You? (Guest Post)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/08/06/who-is-jesus-to-you-guest-post/) - WHO IS JESUS TO YOU? by Mercy Hope Excerpt from Sacred Space: Cultivating Your Personal Eden in a Fallen World Thirteen years ago, I was at a conference where Judy Jacobs was ministering. I have a special place in my heart for that woman of God! Through a prophetic word and personal prayer, she imparted something
- [We Are the Little Ones: Persecution, Promise, and the Tender Affection of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/07/30/we-are-the-little-ones-persecution-promise-and-the-tender-affection-of-god/) - And whoever gives just a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple — I assure you: He will never lose his reward! (Matthew 10:42) Here at the very end of Matthew 10, we step back and survey how far we have come. This has been a chapter
- [It Matters Who Your Friends Are: Alignment, Allegiance, and Welcoming the Kingdom of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/07/23/it-matters-who-your-friends-are-alignment-allegiance-and-welcoming-the-kingdom-of-god/) - The one who welcomes you welcomes Me, and the one who welcomes Me welcomes Him who sent Me. Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. And anyone who welcomes a righteous person because he’s righteous will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives just a cup
- [Radical Identification and the Kingdom of God: Finding God in One Other](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/07/02/radical-identification-and-the-kingdom-of-god-finding-god-in-one-other/) - The one who welcomes you welcomes Me, and the one who welcomes Me welcomes Him who sent Me. (Matthew 10:40) Up until this point in Matthew 10, we’ve seen Jesus call over and over for radical identification with himself and his mission. But the tables are turned here — this is where Jesus promises to
- [A Place Where You Belong: Accessing Heaven through Allegiance to Jesus](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/05/22/a-place-where-you-belong-accessing-heaven-through-allegiance-to-jesus/) - Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33) With these words, Jesus begins to wrap up the discourse of chapter 10 with a final “therefore.” “Because all
- [Losing to Find: How Surrender to Jesus Helps Us Discover Ourselves](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/06/25/losing-to-find-how-surrender-to-jesus-helps-us-discover-ourselves/) - Anyone finding his life will lose it, and anyone losing his life because of Me will find it. (Matthew 10:39) Like Jesus’s prior statement that he is to be loved above anyone or anything else, including our own lives, this is not the statement of an ordinary human being or teacher. It’s an extraordinary claim.
- [Rise Up and Follow: Loving Jesus for All He Is Worth](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/06/13/rise-up-and-follow-loving-jesus-for-all-he-is-worth/) - The person who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; the person who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. (Matthew 10:37-38) With these words, the commissioning of Matthew 10
- [Peace, Betrayal, and the Faithful Love of a Loyal God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/05/27/peace-betrayal-and-the-faithful-love-of-a-loyal-god/) - Don’t assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. (Matthew 10:34-36) This
- [The Presence of God and the Value of Sparrows: Why We Don’t Need to Be Afraid](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/05/15/the-presence-of-god-and-the-value-of-sparrows-why-we-dont-need-to-be-afraid/) - From Rachel: I apologize for the lack of a new blog post last week. Health reasons prevented me from writing, but I’m glad to be back this week! Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body
- [Hidden Things: Apocalyptic Living and the Revelatory Kingdom of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/04/30/hidden-things-apocalyptic-living-and-the-revelatory-kingdom-of-god/) - Therefore, don’t be afraid of them, since there is nothing covered that won’t be uncovered, and nothing hidden that won’t be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the light. What you hear in a whisper [lit: in the ear], proclaim on the housetops. (Matthew 10:26-27) As a teacher, there are
- [It Is Enough: Why Being Like Jesus Is All We Need](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/04/23/it-is-enough-why-being-like-jesus-is-all-we-need/) - When they persecute you in one town, escape to another. For I assure you: You will not have covered the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher, or a slave above his master. It is enough for a disciple to become like his teacher and a
- [Changing Loyalties and the New Family of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/04/17/changing-loyalties-and-the-new-family-of-god/) - Note from Rachel: I’m back! My 3-month blog sabbatical stretched into 3 ½ due mostly to travel, but I’m glad to be home and writing again. Without further ado … Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will even rise up against their parents and have them put to death.
- [You Can Make Me Clean: How Jesus Reverses the Curse](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/04/09/you-can-make-me-clean-how-jesus-reverses-the-curse/) - From Rachel: I am kicking off 2019 with three months of rest and seeking God, so I am reposting favorites from the blog. I'll be back with new posts in mid-April. Enjoy! When He came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. Right away a man with a serious skin disease came up and
- [“Your Father Knows”: Why It Matters Who You Pray To](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/04/03/your-father-knows-why-it-matters-who-you-pray-to-2/) - From Rachel: I am kicking off 2019 with three months of rest and seeking God, so I am reposting favorites from the blog. I'll be back with new posts in mid-April. Enjoy! When you pray, don’t babble like the idolators, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. Don’t be like them, because your
- [Name Him Jesus; Call Him Immanuel: The Names of Jesus and the Point of Religion](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/01/08/name-him-jesus-call-him-immanuel-the-names-of-jesus-and-the-point-of-religion/) - From Rachel: I am kicking off 2019 with three months of rest and seeking God ... so I am reposting favorites from the blog. Enjoy! The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After Mary his mother had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant
- [The Will of God and the War for Life: How Praying “Your Will Be Done” Is an Act of Warfare](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/03/26/the-will-of-god-and-the-war-for-life-how-praying-your-will-be-done-is-an-act-of-warfare-2/) - “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) The second half of Matthew 6:10 parallels or fleshes out the first half. First we ask for the kingdom of God to come, then we pray more deeply into what that means. On the surface this is a pretty simple request. Yet,
- [“Pray Like This”: How to Pray the Pattern in the Lord’s Prayer](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/03/19/pray-like-this-how-to-pray-the-pattern-in-the-lords-prayer-2/) - Therefore, you should pray like this . . . (Matthew 6:9) In last week’s post we talked about “vain repetition” or empty babbling: praying like the prophets of Baal, in a desperate show of works meant to get the attention of an indifferent God. Jesus is clearly against that kind of praying. What sometimes gets
- [The Way of Reconciliation: How Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/03/12/the-way-of-reconciliation-how-mercy-triumphs-over-judgment-2/) - Jesus is relentless in his examination of anger: its roots, its ugliness, the damage it does, and the guilt we incur because of it. Along the way he continually underlines the fact of judgment. We might be tempted to see “the judgment of God” as something arbitrary or cruel, but the truth is that because
- [God Is Not a Legalist (And Righteousness Isn’t What You Thought It Was) – Part 2](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/03/05/god-is-not-a-legalist-and-righteousness-isnt-what-you-thought-it-was-part-2-2/) - From Rachel: I am kicking off 2019 with three months of rest and seeking God ... so I am reposting favorites from the blog. Enjoy! Righteousness is not what you think it is. When it comes to righteousness, most of us think like Pharisees. We see it as a position we must earn or else
- [God Is Not a Legalist (And Righteousness Isn’t What You Thought It Was) – Part 1](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/02/26/god-is-not-a-legalist-and-righteousness-isnt-what-you-thought-it-was-part-1-2/) - From Rachel: I am kicking off 2019 with three months of rest and seeking God ... so I am reposting favorites from the blog. Enjoy! We don’t say it, but most of us understand the Sermon on the Mount as one giant losing proposition. We cannot possibly be as righteous as it calls us to
- [The Gospel According to Jesus](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/02/19/the-gospel-according-to-jesus-2/) - From Rachel: I am kicking off 2019 with three months of rest and seeking God ... so I am reposting favorites from the blog. Enjoy! The Beatitudes, so familiar and easy to gloss over, are breathtaking when we see them clearly. Far from just a disjointed list of niceties, these kingdom blessings encompass the gospel
- [The Hidden Gospel in the Heart of the Beatitudes](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/02/12/the-hidden-gospel-in-the-heart-of-the-beatitudes-2/) - Several years ago I was supposed to speak at a women’s conference here in Ontario on the Beatitudes and the kingdom of God. The idea was “seeing yourself through a kingdom lens.” I’d suggested that topic in part because it was specific but still broad enough for me to develop my talk over time, as
- [Blessed Are the Spiritually Impoverished, for the Kingdom of Heaven Is Theirs](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/02/05/blessed-are-the-spiritually-impoverished-for-the-kingdom-of-heaven-is-theirs-2/) - The first blessing Jesus gives in the Beatitudes makes no sense at all. Poverty is not a “happy” state (makarios, the Greek word for “blessed,” is also translated “happy”). To be poor is devastating, not blessed. It is not a virtue to be poor in spirit: to be poor in spirit means we have no
- [Purpose, Identity, and Why We Don’t Start with the Great Commission](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/01/29/purpose-identity-and-why-we-dont-start-with-the-great-commission-2/) - Matthew 4:18-22 tells the story of the day Jesus called his first disciples: While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you
- [“If You Are”: What the Temptation of Jesus Reveals About Our Deadliest Trap](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/01/22/if-you-are-what-the-temptation-of-jesus-reveals-about-our-deadliest-trap/) - “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. After He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. Then the tempter approached Him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.'” (Matthew 4:1-3, HCSB) For years I
- [To “Repent” Is to Hope: The Real Meaning of Jesus’ Call to Repentance](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/01/15/to-repent-is-to-hope-the-real-meaning-of-jesus-call-to-repentance/) - In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:1-2, ESV) To many of us I think the word “repent” conjures up visions of angry Baptists picketing funerals or rock concerts, or maybe of old-school preachers raining down fire and brimstone
- ["I Am": How We Make God in Our Image ... and How to Know Who He Really Is](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/09/08/i-am-gospel-of-matthew-series-pt-2/) - When the children of Israel came out of the desert and God made a covenant with them, his very first two commands were these: You shall have no other gods before me, and you shall make for yourself no graven image -- no idols. The interesting thing is that they weren’t in all that much
- ["I Am": How We Make God in Our Image ... and How to Know Who He Really Is](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2019/01/01/i-am-how-we-make-god-in-our-image-and-how-to-know-who-he-really-is/) - From Rachel: I am kicking off 2019 with three months of rest and seeking God ... so I am reposting favorites from the blog. Enjoy! When the children of Israel came out of the desert and God made a covenant with them, his very first two commands were these: You shall have no other gods
- [The Spirit of Your Father Will Speak: The Revolutionary Promise of the Spirit](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/12/13/the-spirit-of-your-father-will-speak-the-revolutionary-promise-of-the-spirit/) - You will even be brought before governors and kings because of Me, to bear witness to them and to the nations. But when they hand you over, don’t worry about how or what you should speak. For you will be given what to say at that hour, because you are not speaking, but the Spirit
- [Sheep, Wolves, Serpents, and Doves: How to Be Shrewd and Innocent in a Hostile World](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/12/05/sheep-wolves-serpents-and-doves-how-to-be-shrewd-and-innocent-in-a-hostile-world/) - “Look, I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as serpents and as harmless as doves. Because people will hand you over to sanhedrins and flog you in their synagogues, beware of them. (Matthew 10:16-17) Countless saints and missionaries and martyrs can testify to this truth: the gospel is risky. The
- [The Time of Visitation: Dusty Feet, Judgment, and Peace in the Mission of Jesus (Part 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/11/27/the-time-of-visitation-dusty-feet-judgment-and-peace-in-the-mission-of-jesus-part-2/) - Greet a household when you enter it, and if the household is worthy, let your peace be on it. But if it is unworthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that house or town. I
- [The Time of Visitation: Dusty Feet, Judgment, and Peace in the Mission of Jesus (Part 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/11/20/the-time-of-visitation-dusty-feet-judgment-and-peace-in-the-mission-of-jesus-part-1/) - When you enter any town or village, find out who is worthy, and stay there until you leave. Greet a household when you enter it, and if the household is worthy, let your peace be on it. But if it is unworthy, let your peace return to you. (Matthew 10:11-15) Thus far we’ve been examining
- [The Things We Get for Free: Looking Again at the Gospel of Grace](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/11/14/the-things-we-get-for-free-looking-again-at-the-gospel-of-grace/) - You have received free of charge; give free of charge. (Matthew 10:8) Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about consumerism and commodification, and as I work my way through Matthew 10, I find I can’t let go of Jesus’s words here in verse 8. To be clear, I’m not against buying and selling (and neither,
- [Freely You Have Received, Freely Give: Grace, Love, and Following Jesus Beyond Transactional Thinking](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/11/07/freely-you-have-received-freely-give-grace-love-and-following-jesus-beyond-transactional-thinking/) - “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8, NKJV) Back in 2017 I was in the throes of a three-pronged crisis. My finances and health were simultaneously collapsing; codependent as they were, neither was willing to go on without the other. At the same time I was trying to keep my online business afloat. In
- [Invisible, Spiritual, Actual, Real: The Kingdom of Heaven Has Come Near](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/10/30/invisible-spiritual-actual-real-the-kingdom-of-heaven-has-come-near/) - Jesus sent out these 12 after giving them instructions: “Don’t take the road leading to other nations, and don’t enter any Samaritan town. Instead, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, announce this: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with
- [Called, Commissioned, and Turned Upside Down: Jesus' Mission and the Redefinition of Power](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/10/24/called-commissioned-and-turned-upside-down-jesus-mission-and-the-reversal-of-power/) - Jesus sent out these 12 after giving them instructions: “Don’t take the road leading to other nations, and don’t enter any Samaritan town. Instead, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, announce this: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with
- [A Man in a Tent: Abraham and the Simplicity of Knowing God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/10/17/a-man-in-a-tent-abraham-and-the-simplicity-of-knowing-god/) - NOTE FROM RACHEL: I am on hiatus this week while I attend a conference and study for the next stage in our journey through Matthew. This week's post comes from the newly released bestselling book Winning God's Heart: A Biblical Path to Intimate Friendship with God, by my dear friend Carolyn Currey. The record of those who
- [Incredible Christian Fantasy Giveaway: Meet the Authors and Their Books](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/10/11/incredible-christian-fantasy-giveaway-meet-the-authors-and-their-books/) - It’s my privilege to host a giveaway of 11 fabulous books in the Christian fantasy genre … and paperback books, the kind you can curl up with when the weather turns chilly and enjoy with a hot cup of cider. The giveaway is open now and will run until October 14 at 11:45 PM, EST. In
- [Foundation Stones: The 12 Apostles and the Mission of the Church](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/10/10/foundation-stones-the-12-apostles-and-the-mission-of-the-church/) - Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness … These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As
- [Pray the Lord of the Harvest: The Harvest, the Need, and the Need to Be Sent](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/10/02/pray-the-lord-of-the-harvest-the-harvest-the-need-and-the-need-to-be-sent/) - When He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were weary and worn out, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:36-38) Ever
- [Sheep Without a Shepherd: Jesus’s Mission and the Rescue of Israel, Part 2](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/09/27/sheep-without-a-shepherd-jesuss-mission-and-the-rescue-of-israel-part-2/) - Then Jesus went to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness. When He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were weary and worn out, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:35-36) “I am the Good
- [Sheep Without a Shepherd: Jesus’s Mission and the Rescue of Israel, Part 1](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/09/19/sheep-without-a-shepherd-jesuss-mission-and-the-rescue-of-israel-part-1/) - Then Jesus went to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness. When He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were weary and worn out, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:35-36) This passage is the
- [The Tragedy of the Pharisees: How Good People Become Enemies of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/09/11/the-tragedy-of-the-pharisees-how-good-people-become-enemies-of-god/) - When the demon had been driven out, the man spoke. And the crowds were amazed, saying, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel!” But the Pharisees said, “He drives out demons by the ruler of the demons!” (Matthew 9:33-34) The plot of Matthew’s gospel involves two parallel tracks, rising up alongside one another
- [Too Many Demons and the Bigger Story of the Bible: Understanding Deliverance in Jesus’ Ministry](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/09/05/too-many-demons-and-the-bigger-story-of-the-bible-understanding-deliverance-in-jesus-ministry/) - Just as they were going out, a demon-possessed man who was unable to speak was brought to Him. When the demon had been driven out, the man spoke. (Matthew 9:32-33) Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about our need to stop and notice what’s weird in Scripture, especially in the gospels. When we don’t, our
- [A Strange Note in the Symphony: Jesus’ Secrets and the Summons to Seek](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/08/29/a-strange-note-in-the-symphony-jesus-secrets-and-the-summons-to-seek/) - Then He touched their eyes, saying, “Let it be done for you according to your faith!” And their eyes were opened. Then Jesus warned them sternly, “Be sure that no one finds out!” But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout that whole area. (Matthew 9:29-31) Having challenged the blind men to
- [“Do You Believe That I Can Do This?”: Faith, Love, and the Endless Possibilities of Knowing God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/08/21/do-you-believe-that-i-can-do-this-faith-love-and-the-endless-possibilities-of-knowing-god/) - When He entered the house, the blind men approached Him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I can do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they answered Him. Then He touched their eyes, saying, “Let it be done for you according to your faith!” And their eyes were opened. (Matthew 9:28-30) When the blind men
- [The God Who Cares: Appealing to the Rule and the Mercy of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/08/14/the-god-who-cares-appealing-to-the-rule-and-the-mercy-of-god/) - As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, shouting, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” (Matthew 9:27) For several weeks we’ve been looking at Jesus’ encounters with different individuals and groups after launching his ministry. He has taught, healed, delivered, and challenged. Now, he is simply “going on”—traveling, literally walking the
- [Living in the Public Eye: How Jesus Related to the Masses and Why We Can’t Remain in the Crowd](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/08/08/living-in-the-public-eye-how-jesus-related-to-the-masses-and-why-we-cant-remain-in-the-crowd/) - When Jesus came to the leader’s house, He saw the flute players and a crowd lamenting loudly. “Leave,” He said, “because the girl isn’t dead, but sleeping.” And they started laughing at Him. But when the crowd had been put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.
- [Not Dead But Sleeping: The Creative Power of God’s Word](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/07/31/not-dead-but-sleeping-the-creative-power-of-gods-word/) - When Jesus came to the leader’s house, He saw the flute players and a crowd lamenting loudly. “Leave,” He said, “because the girl isn’t dead, but sleeping.” And they started laughing at Him. But when the crowd had been put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.
- [The End of Separation: The Deeper Meaning of Faith and Healing](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/07/24/the-end-of-separation-the-deeper-meaning-of-faith-and-healing/) - Note: This blog is a labor of love, but it costs money and time to produce each week. If it’s a blessing to you, would you consider becoming a monthly sponsor? You can donate an amount of your choosing, in Canadian or US dollars. Visit Support to learn more! As He was telling them these
- [Contents, Containers, and Covenants: How the Coming of Jesus Changed Everything and Why We Should Care](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/07/18/contents-containers-and-covenants-how-the-coming-of-jesus-changed-everything-and-why-we-should-care/) - Note: Did you know that you can become a supporter of this blog for any amount per month, in Canadian or US dollars? If you do, you will make it possible for me to keep writing month after month (and you’ll get access to some exclusive content as well). You’ll also win my undying thanks.
- [The Groom Will Be Taken Away from Them: The Gospel Twist Nobody Saw Coming](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/07/11/the-groom-will-be-taken-away-from-them-the-gospel-twist-nobody-saw-coming/) - Then John’s disciples came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?” Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
- [The Bridegroom Is with Them: The Dynamism of Walking with God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/07/04/the-bridegroom-is-with-them-the-dynamism-of-walking-with-god/) - Then John’s disciples came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?” Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
- [Trembling on Holy Ground: Jesus, Forgiveness, and the Fear of the Lord](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/04/17/trembling-holy-ground-jesus-forgiveness-fear-lord/) - But perceiving their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why are you thinking evil things in your hearts? For which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He told the paralytic, “Get up,
- [Responsible to God: Trading Masters with Matthew the Tax-Collector](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/04/24/responsible-god-trading-masters-with-matthew-the-tax-collector/) - As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” So he got up and followed Him. (Matthew 9:9) In Matthew 9:9, Matthew — the author of this book we’ve been studying — shares the story of his own call in
- [The Hardest Choice: The Freedom and Fear of Following Christ](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/05/01/hardest-choice-freedom-fear-following-christ/) - As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” So he got up and followed Him. (Matthew 9:9) I overheard the conversation between two women. The tone was incensed, the content clearly juicy. One woman spoke of her nephew and
- [Ordinary Radicals: Following Jesus When the Call Is to Stay](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/05/08/ordinary-radicals-following-jesus-call-stay/) - As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” So he got up and followed Him. (Matthew 9:9) The last several weeks we’ve been addressing the call of Matthew and all it cost him, but any honest talk of calling
- [Jesus at the Table: Why Jesus Ate with Sinners and What It Means for Us](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/05/15/jesus-table-jesus-ate-sinners-means-us/) - While He was reclining at the table in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came as guests to eat with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Matthew 9:10-11) For the last several weeks we’ve looked at the
- [“Go and Learn What This Means,” Part 1: Roots, Pharisees, and Why the Old Testament Matters](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/05/22/go-learn-means-part-1-roots-pharisees-old-testament-matters/) - While He was reclining at the table in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came as guests to eat with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when He heard this, He said, “Those who are well don’t need a
- [“Go and Learn What This Means,” Part 2: Mercy, Devotion, and the Great Romance](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/05/29/go-learn-means-part-2-mercy-devotion-great-romance/) - While He was reclining at the table in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came as guests to eat with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when He heard this, He said, “Those who are well don’t need a
- [What God Desires: Understanding the Heart of God in the Life of Jesus](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/06/05/god-desires-understanding-heart-god-life-jesus/) - But when He heard this, He said, “Those who are well don’t need a doctor, but the sick do. Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12-13) It’s curious that when we speak of the “will of God,” we
- [Feeding the Hungry in Your Life: How to Become a Place of Encounter with Jesus](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/06/12/feeding-hungry-life-become-place-encounter-jesus/) - As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” So he got up and followed Him. While He was reclining at the table in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came as guests to eat with Jesus and His
- [Weak and Wounded, Sick and Sore: Why Jesus Says Sinners Are Sick, and What That Means for the Gospel and for Us](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/06/19/weak-wounded-sick-sore-jesus-says-sinners-sick-means-gospel-us/) - When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when He heard this, He said, “Those who are well don’t need a doctor, but the sick do. Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn’t come to
- [It’s Time to Go Home: The Power of Forgiveness in the Ministry of Jesus](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/04/11/time-go-home-power-forgiveness-ministry-jesus/) - So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own town. Just then some men brought to Him a paralytic lying on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, “Have courage, son, your sins are forgiven.” At this, some of the scribes said among themselves, “He’s blaspheming!” But perceiving their
- [“Whole and His”: What Forgiveness Says about Jesus, the Temple, and the Self-Revelation of Yahweh Incarnate](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/04/03/whole-forgiveness-says-jesus-temple-self-revelation-yahweh-incarnate/) - So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own town. Just then some men brought to Him a paralytic lying on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, “Have courage, son, your sins are forgiven.” At this, some of the scribes said among themselves, “He’s blaspheming!” But perceiving their
- [When Jesus Costs Us Our Comfort: Reevaluating Our Priorities in the Light of His Holiness](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/03/27/jesus-costs-us-comfort-reevaluating-priorities-light-holiness/) - Now a long way off from them, a large herd of pigs was feeding. “If You drive us out,” the demons begged Him, “send us into the herd of pigs.” “Go!” He told them. So when they had come out, they entered the pigs. And suddenly the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into
- [Seeing the Other Side: How the Gadarene Demoniacs Pull Back the Curtain on the Spirit World and Summon Us to Worship Jesus](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/03/20/seeing-side-gadarene-demoniacs-pull-back-curtain-spirit-world-summon-us-worship-jesus/) - Note from Rachel: This is a long one. It’s also written from the perspective of a Westerner who lives in North America, so all the references to “our culture” are to that culture. My apologies to everyone reading who doesn’t share that “we” and “our” … I’m glad you’re reading, and may you find much
- [The Storm-Stiller: Jesus in Cosmic Perspective (and in the Ordinary Stuff in Our Lives)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/03/13/the-storm-stiller-jesus-cosmic-perspective/) - But He said to them, "Why are you fearful, you of little faith?" Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm. The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this?-even the winds and the sea obey Him!" (Matthew 8:26-27) Roughly 3,000 years ago,
- [Asleep in the Boat: Why We Can't Take Our Cues from Circumstances](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/03/06/asleep-boat-cant-take-cues-circumstances/) - As He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. Suddenly, a violent storm arose on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves. But He was sleeping. So the disciples came and woke Him up, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to die!" But He said to them, "Why are
- [The Call to Follow: What We Give Up to Follow Jesus—And What We Gain](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/02/27/call-follow-give-follow-jesus-gain/) - When Jesus saw large crowds around Him, He gave the order to go to the other side of the sea. A scribe approached Him and said, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go!" Jesus told him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place
- [Jesus in the Trenches: The Empathic Healer and the Mystery of Suffering](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/02/20/jesus-trenches-empathic-healer-mystery-suffering/) - When evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick, so that what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: He Himself took our weaknesses and carried our diseases. (Matthew 8:14-15) In Matthew's account of Jesus' life, healing
- [She Got Up to Serve: A Story of Healing, Service, and the Family of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/02/13/got-serve-story-healing-service-family-god/) - When Jesus went into Peter's house, He saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. Then she got up and began to serve Him. (Matthew 8:14-15) This third encounter with Jesus in Matthew 8, just after the ending of the Sermon on the Mount,
- [Great Faith in a Great God: What Makes Our Faith Great Is the "Who" Behind It](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/02/06/great-faith-great-god-makes-faith-great-behind/) - Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following Him, "I assure you: I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith!" … Then Jesus told the centurion, "Go. As you have believed, let it be done for you." And his servant was cured that very moment. (Matthew 8:10, 13) Reading
- [Sons of the Kingdom: Why Faith, Not Ethnicity, Is the Door to the Kingdom of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/01/30/sons-kingdom-faith-ethnicity-door-kingdom-god/) - Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following Him, "I assure you: I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith! I tell you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons
- [Jesus in Authority: What It Means to Say "Jesus Is Lord"](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/01/23/jesus-authority-means-say-jesus-lord/) - When He entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible agony!" "I will come and heal him," He told him. "Lord," the centurion replied, "I am not worthy to have You come under my roof. But only say the word, and my servant
- [Coming January 21 ...](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/01/18/coming-january-21/) - Words grow ... Releasing January 21 on Amazon and everywhere else ebooks are sold.
- [When You Really Need to Change: Jesus and the Way to Personal Transformation](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/01/16/really-need-change-jesus-way-personal-transformation/) - Then Jesus told him, “See that you don’t tell anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses prescribed, as a testimony to them.” (Matthew 8:4) At one time or another we all have this in common with the leper: We need to change. Through circumstances, introspection, or shame, we
- [What God Really Wants: Encountering the Person of God in the Will of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/01/09/god-really-wants-encountering-person-god-will-god/) - When He came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. Right away a man with a serious skin disease came up and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Reaching out His hand He touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” (Matthew 8:1-3) The encounter
- [You Can Make Me Clean: How Jesus Reverses the Curse](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2018/01/02/can-make-clean-jesus-reverses-curse/) - When He came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. Right away a man with a serious skin disease came up and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Reaching out His hand He touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” Immediately his disease was
- [Proximity vs Purpose: How to Step Out of the Crowd and Truly Follow Jesus](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/12/26/following-vs-following-step-crowd-truly-follow-jesus/) - When Jesus had finished this sermon, the crowds were astonished at His teaching, because He was teaching them like one who had authority, and not like their scribes. When He came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. (Matthew 7:28-29—8:1) The Crowd Conundrum (or, The Popularity Problem) Jesus’ ministry had an interesting problem: he
- [We Learn to Love By Looking: How Seeing Jesus Helps Us Love God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/12/19/learn-love-looking-seeing-jesus-helps-us-love-god/) - Note from Rachel: With Christmas around the corner, I’ve just come off a tour with 1:11 Ministries and find myself mulling some of the themes of that tour. This week’s post is a brief break from the Gospel of Matthew in order to focus on the “reason for the season.” For God who said, “Let
- [The Unexpected Way: How We Lost the Gift of Discipleship—And Why We Need to Recover It](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/12/12/unexpected-way-lost-grace-discipleship-need-recover/) - When Jesus had finished this sermon, the crowds were astonished at His teaching, because He was teaching them like one who had authority, and not like their scribes. (Matthew 7:28-29) As we reach the end of the Sermon the Mount, we find the crowds responding to Jesus with astonishment. They recognized something in him that
- [Building on Rock: The Law of Christ and the Role of Works in the Christian Life (Part 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/12/05/building-rock-law-christ-role-works-christian-life-part-2/) - Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these
- [Building on Rock: The Law of Christ and the Role of Works in the Christian Life (Part 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/11/28/building-rock-law-christ-role-works-christian-life-part-1/) - Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these
- [Beyond Success and Power: Walking by the Spirit and Doing God’s Will](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/11/21/beyond-success-power-walking-spirit-gods-will/) - On that day many will say to Me, “Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?” Then I will announce to them, “I never knew you! Depart from Me, you who work lawlessness*.” (Matthew 7:21-23) It’s clear from Jesus’ words that people
- [Beyond “Lord, Lord”: Where Reformations Go Wrong and How We Can Enter the Kingdom](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/11/14/beyond-lord-lord-reformations-go-wrong-can-enter-kingdom/) - Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord!” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, “Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your
- [Fruit, Sheep, and False Prophets: A Primer on Learning to Discern](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/11/07/fruit-sheep-false-prophets-primer-learning-discern/) - Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad
- [Enter Through the Narrow Gate: The Hidden Way into the Kingdom](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/10/31/enter-narrow-gate-hidden-way-kingdom/) - Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14) In 1678, an English Puritan named John Bunyan wrote
- [The Golden Rule and the Glory of Being Good](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/10/24/golden-rule-glory-good/) - Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them—this is the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12) Next to “Do not judge” I’m sure this is the most famous verse in the Bible. It’s been incorporated so fully into our culture as the “Golden Rule” that I don’t think
- [Is God Good?: The Challenge of Faith in a World at War](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/10/17/god-good-challenge-faith-world-war/) - What man among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to
- ["Hope Is What Allows Me to Be Here": Suffering with Christ in Mosul, Iraq](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/09/26/hope-allows-suffering-christ-mosul-iraq/) - We live in an era when many are suffering. Suffering raises questions, demands interpretation, whether it's the suffering of war, of natural disaster, of hatred, of personal tragedy. Of every possible interpretation of human suffering, I cling to this truth: that Christ promises to share in it, to be with us in it. This is
- [[Still] Weeping with Those Who Weep: A Response to Charlottesville](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/09/14/still-weeping-weep-response-charlottesville/) - I know, I know. Charlottesville isn't the headline anymore. There's been a hurricane. There have been more reasons to weep. More things to heal from. But open displays of hate mean something different from what hurricanes mean. I worry that we will try to sweep it all under the carpet (again) too quickly. Charlottesville happened
- [Seeking and Finding: The Reason to Look, Ask, and Knock Is to Find](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/09/12/seeking-finding-reason-look-ask-knock-find/) - For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:8) In Buddhist philosophy, desire is the cause of all pain. Since all is ultimately illusion, desire is futile. It is a meaningless yearning after nothing, and so it hurts us. To
- [What If We Are Not Entitled? Asking, Seeking, and Knocking in Community](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/09/05/entitled-asking-seeking-knocking-community/) - Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7) What if we are not entitled? What if we don’t assume that anyone owes us anything, but in everything, we recognize that we have tremendous power through the
- [How to Read the Bible (The Ask, Seek, Knock Approach)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/08/29/read-bible-ask-seek-knock-approach/) - Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7) Asking, seeking, and knocking is a posture of the heart. It is an approach to all of life, especially spiritual life. It is characterized not just by openness
- [You Can Hear from God: Listening Prayer and the Choice to Believe](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/08/22/can-hear-god-listening-prayer-choice-believe/) - Last week I wrote about coming to God in prayer with an ask-seek-knock kind of approach—with an expectation that God will speak, so we should listen. When you try to do this, you will be challenged. By distractibility. By frailty. Mostly by doubt. Don’t Doubt In James 1:5-7, we are told: Now if any of
- [The Prayer that Listens: How to Practice a Lifestyle of Ask, Seek, Knock](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/08/15/prayer-listens-practice-lifestyle-ask-seek-knock/) - Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7) If I had to sum up my spirituality—the way I do life, the way I commune with God and the way I approach him—in three words, those three
- [To Seek and Keep on Seeking: Jesus’ Call to Continual Exploration](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/08/08/seek-keep-seeking-jesus-call-continual-exploration/) - Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7) Matthew 7:7 describes a fundamental way of life. It is an approach to all of life that changes who we become. It’s also one of “my” verses, one
- [Pearls Before Swine: Jesus the Riddler and What He Might Have Meant](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/08/01/pearls-swine-jesus-riddler-might-meant/) - The Greeks and Romans didn’t use paragraphs. So when my Bible lumps Matthew 7:6 in with the discussion on judgment right before it, I take it on faith that they’ve got the flow right. In this case, though, I’m not sure they do. It’s curious either way that Jesus would follow up a long teaching
- [How to Be a Judgment-Free Zone: Jesus on Judgment, Part 4](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/07/25/judgment-free-zone-jesus-judgment-part-4/) - In an earlier post I wrote that seeing, understanding, and discerning are intuitive, things we do automatically and instinctively, but judgment is a choice. I believe that to be true, but it isn’t obvious. For most of us, judging itself FEELS instinctive. We do it so fast we aren’t aware we’re doing it. So Jesus’s
- [The Comparison Trap: Jesus on Judgment, Part 3](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/07/18/comparison-trap-jesus-judgment-part-3/) - Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a log in your eye? Hypocrite! First take the log out of your eye, and
- [It's a World Full of Real Danger. Here's Why That's Irrelevant.](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/07/15/world-full-real-danger-heres-thats-irrelevant/) - Excerpt from Fearless: Free in Christ in an Age of Anxiety by Rachel Starr Thomson, Carolyn Currey, and Mercy Hope. Read another excerpt here. When Moses chose twelve spies to go and scout out the land, they came back with an "evil report": There were giants in the land. Evil is an appropriate word. In English, the
- [Choosing a Higher Fear: How You Can Live Free from Fear's Control](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/07/13/choosing-higher-fear-can-live-free-fears-control/) - Excerpt from Fearless: Free in Christ in an Age of Anxiety by Rachel Starr Thomson, Carolyn Currey, and Mercy Hope When we say that you can live fearless, what comes to mind? There’s a good chance you picture a daredevil, an adrenaline junkie scaling cliffs or jumping off skyscrapers with the slogan “YOLO” emblazoned on his back.
- [What We Do When We Judge: Jesus on Judgment, Part 2](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/07/11/what-we-do-when-we-judge/) - “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. For with the judgment you use, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Matthew 7:1-2) Last week, looking at the phrase “Do not judge,” we said that judgment is a fact. It will come, and it will
- [Jesus on Judgment: What “Do Not Judge” Does and Does Not Mean](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/07/04/jesus-judgment-judge-mean/) - Photo by Christopher Sardegna on Unsplash Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. For with the judgment you use, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Matthew 7:1) Of everything Jesus taught, I wrestle with this passage maybe the most. It’s just so darn
- [Seeing, Seeking, & Asking Questions: How to Find the Kingdom of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/06/27/seeing-seeking-asking-questions-find-kingdom-god/) - So don’t worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” (Matthew
- [Trust at the Core: Why Jesus Lived in a Different World than We Do](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/06/20/trust-core-jesus-lived-different-world/) - So don’t worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.”
- [“Won’t God Do More for You?” How Jesus Confronts Our Low Expectations of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/06/13/wont-god-jesus-confronts-low-expectations-god/) - And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and
- [Provision, Responsibility, and The Waste of Worry](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/06/06/provision-responsibility-waste-worry/) - Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying? Jesus begins teaching about money by telling us not to collect stuff: lay up treasure in heaven instead. It lasts and it’s better, and you never have to worry that someone’s going to break in and carry it off. That’s the
- [Right Places, Right Times: What Looking at the Birds Teaches Us about Provision](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/05/30/right-places-right-times-looking-birds-teaches-us-provision/) - My friend Sheila watched a nature documentary about penguins. This is a bad idea for anyone who wants to retain magical, fuzzy feelings about the natural world. I saw one recently too: there were all these penguins living on an island near Antarctica or somewhere, and every day they would go plunging off these sheer,
- [Money [Can Be] a Good Thing—But It’s a Always Terrible Master](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/05/23/money-can-good-thing-always-terrible-master/) - No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money. (Matthew 6:24) We know the story: a rich young man came to Jesus and asked what he should
- [Free and Full of Light: What Jesus Taught about Scarcity, Generosity, & Abundance](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/05/16/free-full-light-jesus-taught-scarcity-generosity-abundance/) - “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness—how deep is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23) Not many Scriptures are preached out
- [Laying Up Treasure in Invisible Places: How to Live Life Jesus's Way](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/05/02/laying-treasure-invisible-places-live-life-jesuss-way/) - “Don’t collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21) In September
- [Secret Sorrow and Private Fasting: How Jesus Meets Us in Our Brokenness](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/04/25/secret-sorrow-private-fasting-jesus-meets-us-brokenness/) - “Whenever you fast, don’t be sad-faced like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so their fasting is obvious to people. I assure you: They’ve got their reward! But when you fast, put oil on your head, and wash your face, so that you don’t show your fasting to people but to your Father
- [Praising the King of Heaven: The Controversial Doxology](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/04/18/praising-king-heaven-controversial-doxology/) - “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:13) This powerful doxology finishes off the Lord’s Prayer with a shout of praise—a triumphant declaration that God is King forever and ever. At the end of a prayer that is all about human agents establishing the kingdom on earth through
- [“Deliver Us from the Evil One”: What the Devil Has to Do With It](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/04/11/deliver-us-evil-one-devil/) - “… but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:13) This is the second part of the surprising request we saw in last week’s post. There, the emphasis was on being let out of trials—it was an acknowledgment that although troubles are a part of life and will come against us, if possible, we would
- [“Lead Us Not Into Temptation”: The Prayer You Didn’t Know God Wanted You to Pray](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/04/04/lead-us-temptation-prayer-didnt-know-god-wanted-pray/) - “And do not bring us into temptation …” (Matthew 6:13) Most of the Lord’s Prayer makes good sense to me. Sure, sometimes I choke a little bit on “give us this day our daily bread” … (Isn’t it selfish to pray that God will meet my needs? Shouldn’t I just trust him and not have
- [The Centerpiece Prayer: Why "Forgive Us Our Debts" Is the Central Step in the Lord's Prayer](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/03/21/centerpiece-prayer-forgive-us-debts-central-step-lords-prayer/) - “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12) Right on the heels of asking for provision—that God will meet our needs—Jesus teaches us to ask that our debts may be forgiven, and he adds the only note of “bargaining” in the Lord’s Prayer: if God will answer this prayer
- [The Power of Embracing Our Need: Meeting God in the Prayer of Daily Dependence](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/03/14/the-power-of-embracing-our-need-meeting-god-in-the-prayer-of-daily-dependence/) - “Give us today our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11) At this point in Jesus’s model prayer, our focus seems to take an abrupt shift. Everything thus far has been high-minded, downright celestial in scope: Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is
- [The Will of God and the War for Life: How Praying “Your Will Be Done” Is an Act of Warfare](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/03/07/the-will-of-god-and-the-war-for-life-how-praying-your-will-be-done-is-an-act-of-warfare/) - “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) The second half of Matthew 6:10 parallels or fleshes out the first half. First we ask for the kingdom of God to come, then we pray more deeply into what that means. On the surface this is a pretty simple request. Yet,
- [Kingdom Come, Part 2: Why Do We Pray “Your Kingdom Come”?](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/02/28/kingdom-come-part-2-why-do-we-pray-your-kingdom-come/) - “Your kingdom come.” (Matthew 6:10) Last week we traced the history of the kingdom of God (the rule or reign of God) on earth, as it existed originally in Eden and then as it took shape in ancient Israel, only to be lost through the period of the exile. Finally, as prophesied, the heir to
- [Kingdom Come, Part 1: A Brief History of the Kingdom of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/02/21/kingdom-come-part-1-a-brief-history-of-the-kingdom-of-god/) - “Your kingdom come.” (Matthew 6:10) As a writer and speaker I frequently hear from Christians who express frustration with Christianity as they know it. We are grateful for forgiveness and the promise of “heaven” (what most of us understand as the “gospel”), yet we sense there’s something more. There is. Something much more. If you
- [Honoring the Other: What Holiness Means](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/02/14/honoring-the-other-what-holiness-means/) - “Your name be honored as holy.” (Matthew 6:9) “Holy” is a slippery word, hard to grasp but possessing an unmistakable power. In Jesus’s prayer we turn it into a request: Let your Name, God, be honored as holy—let it be “hallowed,” as older English has it, in the world and in our lives. What does
- [How to Find Yourself in the Words “Our Father”](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/02/07/how-to-find-yourself-in-the-words-our-father/) - “Our Father in heaven . . .” (Matthew 6:9) In our culture we’re a bit flippant about names. We tend to use first names for almost everyone, without a lot of regard to relationship or age or role. But even we haven’t managed to erase the importance of names. What you call someone is deeply
- [“Pray Like This”: How to Pray the Pattern in the Lord’s Prayer](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/01/31/pray-like-this-how-to-pray-the-pattern-in-the-lords-prayer/) - Therefore, you should pray like this . . . (Matthew 6:9) In last week’s post we talked about “vain repetition” or empty babbling: praying like the prophets of Baal, in a desperate show of works meant to get the attention of an indifferent God. Jesus is clearly against that kind of praying. What sometimes gets
- [“Your Father Knows”: Why It Matters Who You Pray To](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/01/24/your-father-knows-why-it-matters-who-you-pray-to/) - When you pray, don’t babble like the idolators, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him. (Matthew 6:8) I grew up on the KJV, so I knew “babble” as “vain repetition”: empty parroting, just saying words to
- [Religion and Relationship: The Call of Jesus to Authentic Faith](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/01/17/religion-and-relationship-the-call-of-jesus-to-authentic-faith/) - Characteristic of Jesus’s teaching on spiritual disciplines is his constant calling out of a crowd he calls “the hypocrites.” So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do … Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites … Whenever you fast, don’t be sad-faced like
- [The Spiritual Discipline of Giving to the Poor](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/01/10/the-spiritual-discipline-of-giving-to-the-poor/) - Jesus doesn’t start his discussion of spiritual disciplines by trying to convince people to do them. He treats them as a given: these are things his listeners are already doing. We can see this clearly in the first discipline: So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites
- [Keeping Secrets and Finding Right Rewards: Jesus on Spiritual Disciplines](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2017/01/03/keeping-secrets-and-finding-right-rewards-jesus-on-spiritual-disciplines/) - I remember years ago realizing that disciple and discipline share the same root. This sheds light on just what it MEANS to be a disciple. A disciple is a learner in a specific arena, a “discipline.” And a disciple is one who practices certain behaviors and habits, “disciplines,” in order to achieve a set result.
- [How to Be Perfect: Loving Our Enemies and Becoming Like God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/12/27/how-to-be-perfect-loving-our-enemies-and-becoming-like-god/) - Jesus gives up the game with this one. “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For He causes His sun to rise on
- [Justice According to Jesus, Part 2](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/12/20/justice-according-to-jesus-part-2/) - You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, don’t resist an evildoer. On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. As for the one who wants to sue you and take away
- [Justice According to Jesus, Part 1](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/12/13/justice-according-to-jesus-part-1/) - Jesus spends 3/5 of his moral teachings on three of the great commands in the ten commandments: Thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not bear false witness. He brings in the streams of oath-taking and divorce law to drive home the true nature of these three commands: oath-taking and divorce
- [Righteousness Redux: What Is the Point?](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/12/06/righteousness-redux-what-is-the-point/) - Since diving into the “moral teaching” section of the Sermon on the Mount we’ve spent several months detailing out Jesus’s teaching on personal responsibility, on anger and contempt, on lust and fidelity and the sacredness of marriage, on honesty and oath-taking and seeing everything as sacred. Every one of these reorientations toward the law of
- [Everything Sacred: Jesus on Telling the Truth](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/11/29/everything-sacred-jesus-on-telling-the-truth/) - Again, you have heard that it was said to our ancestors, You must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord. But I tell you, don’t take an oath at all: either by heaven, because it is God’s throne; or by the earth, because it is His footstool; or by
- [Recalibrating Our Religion: Jesus on Divorce](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/11/22/recalibrating-our-religion-jesus-on-divorce/) - “It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce. But I tell you, everyone who divorces his wife, except in a case of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” (Matthew 5:31-32) Divorce is a huge and painful issue; I’m
- [Talking Slant: Jesus on Lust, Love, and Fidelity](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/11/15/talking-slant-jesus-on-lust-love-and-fidelity/) - Note from Rachel: This week's post is a roundabout examination of some of Jesus’s most challenging teachings. It's a long one but I felt it needed to stay in one piece. Here we go … Jesus can be slippery, so that when his words seem most stark, most black-and-white, perhaps they are not stark but
- [hi from my lake "office" (learning how to do video)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/11/12/hi-from-my-lake-office-learning-how-to-do-video/) - I'm getting ready to do an event using video, so I thought I should learn how to shoot it. I only have a terrible phone, and I clearly don't know how to use it. But here's my first attempt anyhow :). I thought I'd give you all a view of my lake "office" (I do
- [The Power of “Neither” and Keeping Our Posts—After the Election 2016](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/11/11/the-power-of-neither-and-keeping-our-posts-after-the-election-2016/) - On Tuesday during the US election I went to the zoo. It seemed appropriate. Also, it was a good way to not spend the day glued to my phone to see the results, as though obsessing all day long could hurry them up. Like many Canadians, I cared about the results of this particular election.
- [Still Praying in the Wilderness](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/11/08/still-praying-in-the-wilderness-2/) - It was the hardest season of my life, and I had not yet figured out the reason for it. One thing I was absolutely sure of: it was not—it could not be—God’s will. My spiritual life had followed a powerful trajectory. My faith was born in a Christian home, and though I was very young,
- [Fire Words](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/11/01/fire-words/) - Fire Words The 19th-century poet Thomas Gray defined literature as “Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.” A more prosaic definition might say that literature is a work of letters that explores the human condition, that endures because it puts form to something we all feel. Thomas Gray’s definition made me think of a poem
- [Now For the Not-Yet](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/10/25/now-for-the-not-yet/) - I read a profound thing the other night—in a Charlie Brown cartoon, which is no surprise since I’m always reading profound things in the comics. Charlie Brown comes to Lucy’s psychiatric booth to declare that he is depressed. Lucy takes him up on a hill, shows him the vast horizon, and begins to ply him
- [Our Father](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/10/18/our-father/) - Once, a very long time ago, there was a garden. Six days of uproarious joy created it. Out of darkness came a Voice, and then light, galaxies spinning, earth and water, wings and running feet—life. There was nothing, and then there was colour: green trees, blue seas, shimmering grey mists. And a garden. Then the
- [What I've Been Up To (with PICTURES!)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/10/05/what-ive-been-up-to-with-pictures/) - Hey friends! This blog is still on hiatus (officially), but I wanted to check in with you and share some exciting things in my personal life. With pictures. I know, I know, it's like a miracle. I took these pictures myself, on my grainy, cheap camera phone. Which partially explains why I don't often do
- [A Foolproof Guide to How Every Christian Ought to Think About Wealth](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/09/27/a-foolproof-guide-to-how-every-christian-ought-to-think-about-wealth/) - A Guest Post by Roy Goble Did I grab your attention with that title? Great. Now I can be honest and tell you that it’s utter nonsense. When it comes to wealth and following Jesus, there are no easy answers. No one-size-fits-all solutions. But that doesn’t stop certain people from trumpeting supposed answers anyway. Your
- [A Brief Hiatus](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/08/30/a-brief-hiatus/) - Those of you who check will have noticed there was no new Matthew blog today ... or last week ... sorry about that. Both weeks, a heavy schedule beat out my best intentions to get posts written. This is likely to happen for several more weeks as well. So I've decided to declare a brief
- [The Way of Reconciliation: How Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/08/16/the-way-of-reconciliation-how-mercy-triumphs-over-judgment/) - Jesus is relentless in his examination of anger: its roots, its ugliness, the damage it does, and the guilt we incur because of it. Along the way he continually underlines the fact of judgment. We might be tempted to see "the judgment of God" as something arbitrary or cruel, but the truth is that because
- [Rooted in the Word](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/08/09/rooted-in-the-word/) - Taking a small break from the Matthew series today to post a message I shared at my church two weeks ago. Possibly THE most important thing we can do as disciples of Jesus is learn to root ourselves in the Word through study and meditation. In this message, I talk about meditation and practical ways
- [Raca, Respect, and the Agape Love of God, Part 3](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/08/02/raca-respect-and-the-agape-love-of-god-part-3/) - Jesus says those who treat others with contempt are subject to hellfire. It’s easy to think we know exactly what that means, but we may miss a lot if we just skim over this. Let’s take a closer look. When Jesus talks about anger, he takes it in levels, and he gives levels of judgment
- [Raca, Respect, and the Agape Love of God - Part 2](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/07/26/raca-respect-and-the-agape-love-of-god-part-2/) - This should not be shocking to any Christian, but to me it was when I discovered it: God respects, values, and esteems people. All people, simply because they are human beings, created in his image and created with worth. For the last several weeks we’ve been exploring Jesus’s moral teaching on anger, which he equates
- [Raca, Respect, and the Agape Love of God - Part 1](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/07/19/raca-respect-and-the-agape-love-of-god-part-1/) - Anger is not a victimless crime. Anger is aggressive. To have someone’s anger turned on you—especially when it’s “without cause,” not your fault or out of proportion to your fault—is emotionally and physically traumatizing. At first glance, Jesus’s moral teachings in Matthew 5 can look almost trite or arbitrary. Given a chance to address
- [Why Sin Is Serious](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/07/12/why-sin-is-serious/) - Most of us can justify anger pretty easily. It’s bad, but not that bad. Anger isn’t murder. Except that it is. In Jesus’s first moral teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes the outrageous equivocation of anger with murder. You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and
- [What's So Bad About Anger and How Jesus Calls Us to Freedom](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/07/05/whats-so-bad-about-anger-and-how-jesus-calls-us-to-freedom/) - According to Jesus, people don’t make you angry. You do. And if you want to be free, you have to take responsibility for it. Last post, I talked about the three principles of morality as Jesus teaches it: it’s transcendent and therefore absolute; it’s internal; and it’s individual. As such, it’s demanding. Jesus doesn’t pull
- [No Matthew post this week because ...](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/06/28/no-matthew-post-this-week-because/) - ... I unexpectedly spent the weekend in the hospital, and my assistant (who is also my cousin/best friend/house mate), who usually puts the posts up for me, pretty much spent every minute of the weekend there with me. She took that picture ^^. And also braided my hair so it wouldn't get in my face
- [Higher Vision: Why Jesus's Morality Is Better Than Ours](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/06/21/higher-vision-why-jesuss-morality-is-better-than-ours/) - “Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual,” Friedrich Nietzche wrote. Einstein said, “A man’s ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs.” Morality, in other words, is determined by our surroundings: by the needs, expectations, and ties of the people around us. MORALITY IS … Nietzche and Einstein got
- [Worlds to Wander: Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Rachel Starr Thomson, and Fantasy Escapes that Inspire](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/06/16/worlds-to-wander-anne-elisabeth-stengl-rachel-starr-thomson-and-fantasy-escapes-that-inspire/) - C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, J.R.R Tolkien ... their names are legendary because they didn't just give us stories that inspired us, they gave us worlds to wander. Those worlds still call to many of us. They haunt our dreams. They inform our thinking. And they still inspire us, somehow, to live more fully and seek
- [Good-bye, Frustration: How the Spirit Sets Us Free](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/06/14/good-bye-frustration-how-the-spirit-sets-us-free/) - Jesus came to change our lives in an actual, practical, daily sense. This doesn't happen without our participation. But it doesn't happen by our own power, either. The story so far is this: Jesus came to give us a kingdom. He didn't come to destroy the law of Moses, but to accomplish what it couldn't.
- [The Law of the Spirit and How You Can Learn to Live Like God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/06/07/the-law-of-the-spirit-and-how-you-can-learn-to-live-like-god/) - What does the law of God have to do with being a Christian? This might be one of the biggest points of confusion in Christendom today. Do we need rules? If not, why did Jesus give us rules? Was it just to teach us that we can't keep rules? Will the law free us? Judge
- [God Is Not a Legalist (And Righteousness Isn't What You Thought It Was) - Part 2](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/05/31/god-is-not-a-legalist-and-righteousness-isnt-what-you-thought-it-was-part-2/) - Righteousness is not what you think it is. When it comes to righteousness, most of us think like Pharisees. We see it as a position we must earn or else a quality we must create within ourselves through our actions. We’re wrong on both counts. (Explore this further in Part 1 of this discussion here.)
- [God Is Not a Legalist (And Righteousness Isn’t What You Thought It Was) – Part 1](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/05/24/god-is-not-a-legalist-and-righteousness-isnt-what-you-thought-it-was-part-1/) - We don’t say it, but most of us understand the Sermon on the Mount as one giant losing proposition. We cannot possibly be as righteous as it calls us to be. It’s the law squared and compounded. But that understanding only proves we’re reading it with the eyes of a Pharisee. This week, forget
- [Not to Destroy But to Fulfill: How Jesus Gets the Job Done](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/05/17/not-to-destroy-but-to-fulfill-how-jesus-gets-the-job-done/) - The Sermon on the Mount begins with a charter: the eight blessings of the kingdom. That's followed by a purpose statement: that we might be salt and light. Next comes Jesus's discourse on the law. He says: Don't assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy
- [Christians, You Weren't Saved Just for Your Own Sake](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/05/10/christians-you-werent-saved-just-for-your-own-sake/) - In the progression of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus begins with the offer of the kingdom. The kingdom is a gift of grace, given to the empty-handed, the poor in spirit. It is a blessing, a gift empowered with the quality of fruitfulness and the capacity to bring forth life. This gift is transformational,
- [Christians, Our Culture Needs You (And It's Not for the Reason You Think)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/05/03/the-startling-reason-our-culture-needs-you/) - It's one of my pet peeves, and I hear Christians say it all the time, usually with an air of superiority. "We shouldn't be surprised things are getting so bad. The only thing that's going to fix it is Jesus coming back." We say it about politics. About cultural trends. About R-rated movies. About
- [What Does Art Have to Do with Being a Christian?](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/05/02/what-does-art-have-to-do-with-being-a-christian/) - This is the outline for a talk I gave yesterday with my 1:11 Ministries team at an Art-Life Workshop hosted by HillCity Church in Abbotsford, BC. I promised to post it here for the attendees and wanted to make it available to my other readers as well. Be blessed! So before I get started,
- [The Gospel According to Jesus](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/04/26/the-gospel-according-to-jesus/) - The Beatitudes, so familiar and easy to gloss over, are breathtaking when we see them clearly. Far from just a disjointed list of niceties, these kingdom blessings encompass the gospel according to Jesus. The kingdom of God is here, and so we are transformed by the grace of God--and the whole world with us.
- [Blessed Are the Persecuted Prophets, Part 2: The God Who Respects Our No](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/04/19/blessed-are-the-persecuted-prophets-part-2-the-god-who-respects-our-no/) - The gospel is a comedy in the classic literary sense: it ends with a wedding and turns expectations on their heads along the way. It's often said that the people of Jesus's time expected the Messiah to come in military power, overthrow Rome, and rule Israel from a literal throne in Jerusalem. That is surely
- [Blessed Are the Persecuted Prophets, Part 1: This Means You](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/04/12/blessed-are-the-persecuted-prophets-part-1-this-means-you/) - The last of the Beatitude blessings is the longest and in some ways the most perplexing. To quote it in the beautiful King James: Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all
- [Blessed Are the Makers of Reconciliation: Peacemaking and the Heart of God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/04/05/blessed-are-the-makers-of-reconciliation-peacemaking-and-the-heart-of-god/) - Discovering the gospel in the heart of the Beatitudes, made me read the whole list very differently. Rather than a disjointed list of random blessings, the Beatitudes are a journey. They take us from our starting point (impoverished, broken, grieving, afflicted), gift us outrageously, and pass through the gospel to what we become: pure, peacemakers,
- [Blessed Are the Pure in Heart: What It Takes to See God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/03/29/blessed-are-the-pure-in-heart/) - From the beginning, the Beatitudes have been full of outsized blessings. You have nothing? I'll give you a kingdom. Alone in your grief? God himself will come alongside you. Struggling against oppression and injustice? Take heart; you will inherit the earth. But perhaps none is so outsized, so outlandish as this: "Blessed are the pure
- [Blessed Are the Merciful, for They Will Obtain Mercy](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/03/22/blessed-are-the-merciful-for-they-will-obtain-mercy/) - I will never forget the awful, sick feeling that came over me the day I watched someone in my life get what she deserved. She was a bitter, judgmental, hypercritical person. She'd brought negativity and pain into so many lives. She never really had time or grace for others. That day, I watched it come
- [The Hidden Gospel in the Heart of the Beatitudes](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/03/15/the-hidden-gospel-in-the-heart-of-the-beatitudes/) - Several years ago I was supposed to speak at a women's conference here in Ontario on the Beatitudes and the kingdom of God. The idea was "seeing yourself through a kingdom lens." I'd suggested that topic in part because it was specific but still broad enough for me to develop my talk over time, as
- [Blessed Are the Starving for Things to Be Made Right](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/03/08/blessed-are-the-starving-for-things-to-be-made-right/) - "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." This last of the "negative beatitudes" once more blesses those who are in an unblessed state. Being hungry and thirsty is not good. I have often read this as, "Blessed are those who are starving, who are famished for things to
- [Blessed Are the Afflicted, for They Will Inherit the Earth](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/03/01/blessed-are-the-afflicted-for-they-will-inherit-the-earth/) - Christians often say "meekness isn't weakness; it's power under control" (a definition I think we owe to the early twentieth-century Olympic runner and missionary Eric Liddell) and take pains to point out that being meek is not the same thing as being a doormat. But the fact is there's a reason people in the world
- [Happy Are the Wrecked, for God Will Draw Near to Them](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/02/23/happy-are-the-wrecked-for-god-will-draw-near-to-them/) - Like the first blessing in the Beatitudes, the second appears at first to be nonsense. "Happy are those who mourn" is a contradiction in terms. Jesus, I'm convinced, did this on purpose: he chose terms that were meant to shock and bewilder before giving way, upon closer inspection, to hope. Like poverty of spirit,
- [Blessed Are the Spiritually Impoverished, for the Kingdom of Heaven Is Theirs](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/02/16/blessed-are-the-spiritually-impoverished-for-the-kingdom-of-heaven-is-theirs/) - The first blessing Jesus gives in the Beatitudes makes no sense at all. Poverty is not a "happy" state (makarios, the Greek word for "blessed," is also translated "happy"). To be poor is devastating, not blessed. It is not a virtue to be poor in spirit: to be poor in spirit means we have no
- [Beatitudes: Blessing and Resurrection and Why Jesus Is Better Than the Law](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/02/09/beatitudes-blessing-and-resurrection-and-why-jesus-is-better-than-the-law/) - When Moses went up into a mountain, he delivered the Law, summed up in the Ten Commandments. In biblical symbolism, ten is a number of completion: it presents a finished form, in the case of the Law a rounded righteousness. Jesus also climbed a mountain and delivered a torah--a "teaching" or "law"--but he began his
- [The Shadow Life of Moses and How We Know We Can Trust the Storyteller](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/02/02/the-shadow-life-of-moses-and-how-we-know-we-can-trust-the-storyteller/) - When Moses declared some fourteen hundred years before Jesus walked the earth that God would "raise up a prophet like unto me," it's doubtful anyone thought he was talking about a specific person to come. Moses, the deliverer of Israel and the one through whom God gave the law and instated the Sinai Covenant, was
- [Jesus Is Not "Just a Teacher." But We Should Listen to Him.](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/01/26/jesus-is-not-just-a-teacher-but-we-should-listen-to-him/) - Matthew 4:23-24 gives the shape of Jesus's early ministry: Jesus was going all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Then the news about Him spread throughout Syria. So they brought to Him all those who were afflicted, those suffering
- [The Day When Jesus Heals Everyone](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/01/19/the-day-when-jesus-heals-everyone/) - In September 2014 I had a sudden cardiac arrest in a Canadian Tire parking lot. No cause was ever found, but God provided immediate care and I lived through the experience with minimal damage, though I am told I was technically dead for twelve minutes. The hospital where I recovered, Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor,
- [Purpose, Identity, and Why We Don't Start with the Great Commission](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/01/12/purpose-identity-and-why-we-dont-start-with-the-great-commission/) - Matthew 4:18-22 tells the story of the day Jesus called his first disciples: While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you
- [Heaven Is Here: How the Kingdom of God Changes Our Questions & Our Lives](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2016/01/05/heaven-is-here-how-the-kingdom-of-god-changes-our-questions-our-lives/) - If you grew up evangelical, you know that the gospel is this: Jesus died for our sins so we can go to heaven when we die. The problem is, that's not true. Or rather, it IS true, but it's not the gospel--not the whole gospel, not even really the point of the gospel. The gospel
- [Looking Back, Looking Forward](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/12/29/looking-back-looking-forward/) - Your regularly scheduled series on the Gospel of Matthew will resume next week, but this morning, as I sit at my parents' house enjoying holiday togetherness and getting over the annual holiday cold, I'm reflecting on a full year and looking forward to one I expect will be just as full. A year ago at
- [What Faith Really Means (AKA Ordinary Trust and That Time Jesus Moved Away from Home)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/12/22/what-faith-really-means-aka-ordinary-trust-and-that-time-jesus-moved-away-from-home-gospel-of-matthew-series-part-15/) - It's easy to think of the life of Jesus as one long list of supernatural extravagances: Be born of a virgin, check. Be baptized during a heavenly visitation, check. Go toe-to-toe with Satan, check. And then it's ministry, miracles, save the whole world, check. Oh, and that time Jesus moved away from home. You know,
- [What the Riddle of the Magi Reminds Me to See](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/12/15/what-the-riddle-of-the-magi-reminds-me-to-see/) - Good morning, friends! I'm taking a short break from the Gospel of Matthew series this week, as I am: On tour with 1:11 Ministries, celebrating the birth of Jesus through our production ADORE HIM; and Releasing a novel today! Today is the day Book 3 in The Prophet Trilogy, BELOVED, enters the wider world. I'd
- ["If You Are": What the Temptation of Jesus Reveals About Our Deadliest Trap](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/12/08/if-you-are-what-the-temptation-of-jesus-reveals-about-our-deadliest-trap-gospel-of-matthew-series-part-14/) - "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. After He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. Then the tempter approached Him and said, 'If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.'" (Matthew 4:1-3, HCSB) For years I
- [Character Spotlight: Flora and Rechab](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/12/05/character-spotlight-flora-and-rechab/) - Yesterday I posted an intro to two of The Prophet Trilogy's major characters: the prophets, Kol Abaddon and Alack. But for a lot of readers, it's the women who are the stars of the series. Faithful reader and Amazon reviewer describes Flora Laurentii Infortunatia (aka "Flora the Unlucky"): Flora, a wealthy woman who befriends Rechab,
- [Character Spotlight: Kol Abaddon and Alack](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/12/04/character-spotlight-kol-abaddon-and-alack/) - What would it have been like to be an Old Testament prophet--someone who shares both God's heart for his people and a terrible message of coming judgment? That question helped kick off The Prophet Trilogy, and it also inspired the character of Kol Abaddon. His real name has been forgotten. He goes only by Kol
- [Behind the Prophet Trilogy](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/12/03/behind-the-prophet-trilogy/) - BELOVED, Book 3 in The Prophet Trilogy, releases in just two weeks. As I wrap up a series that has come to mean a lot to me, I wanted to share where it came from. Of course, no book comes from one thing alone. Stories develop when a lot of smaller streams flow together into
- [12 Fatal Flaws of Fiction Writing: "This book is like getting five self-help books in one."](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/12/02/12-fatal-flaws-of-fiction-writing-this-book-is-like-getting-five-self-help-books-in-one/) - Well, it's a banner month for book releases! 5 Editors Tackle the 12 Fatal Flaws of Fiction Writing released yesterday and is #1 in the Writing Reference category. Positive reviews are racking up as well. THANK YOU to everyone who preread the book and reviewed it. You are the best! If you're a writer, I
- [Out of the Water: How History Culminates in Jesus' Baptism](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/12/01/out-of-the-water-gospel-of-matthew-series-part-13/) - After Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on Him. And there came a voice from heaven: "This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him! (Matthew 3:14-17, HCSB) This --
- [Life Between the Holidays](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/11/27/life-between-the-holidays/) - Holidays. I think about the word as I mouth the lyrics to “O Come Emmanuel,” a nine-hundred-year-old Christmas carol I’m listening to today because I’m already scripting a Christmas program for Soli Deo Gloria Ballet. Holidays. High points. Holy days. Life swirls around them like a river around jutting pinnacles of rock. They direct the
- [Getting Real about Wrath: An Invitation from a (Justifiably) Angry God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/11/24/getting-real-gospel-of-matthew-series-part-12/) - But when [John] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I
- [The Fatal Flaws of Fiction Writing](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/11/18/the-fatal-flaws-of-fiction-writing/) - Many of you may know that I’ve written eighteen novels plus a small host of nonfiction books, articles, and blog posts; and on top of that I have edited hundreds of manuscripts and worked with hundreds of writing students. So when it comes to books, not many things are new to me. Enter coauthoring! With
- [BibleTraining.org Review](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/11/17/bt-org-review/) - Every now and again a resource comes along that is so good it begs to be shared. This is one of them. (It also begs to be SUPPORTED; if you need somewhere to send money, this is a good kingdom investment.) BiblicalTraining.org offers lectures, seminars, and entire courses on biblical topics, including theology, Greek, church
- [Preparing the Way: Why "Reconcile" Must Be the Chief Cry of Our Hearts](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/11/13/preparing-the-way-gospel-of-matthew-series-part-11/) - "For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." (Matthew 3:3, KJV) "And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come." (Luke
- [Make His Paths Straight: Getting Our Hearts Ready for the King](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/11/10/make-his-paths-straight-gospel-of-matthew-part-10/) - In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”
- [Light of the World, Salt of the Earth](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/11/06/light-of-the-world-salt-of-the-earth/) - Excerpted from LETTERS TO A SAMUEL GENERATION by Rachel Starr Thomson Available in multiple formats here. “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden underfoot of men. “Ye
- [To "Repent" Is to Hope: The Real Meaning of Jesus' Call to Repentance](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/11/03/repent-gospel-of-matthew-series-pt-9/) - In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:1-2, ESV) To many of us I think the word "repent" conjures up visions of angry Baptists picketing funerals or rock concerts, or maybe of old-school preachers raining down fire and brimstone
- [The Light](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/10/30/the-light/) - I wanted to see. Should blindness be borne with religious resignation and patience? Perhaps, but I could not bear it thus. At the very least, as I sometimes thought, it ought eventually to become natural to me—a thing as unremarkable as the night which follows day, which always has, which always will. But it could
- [Following the Nazarene: Holiness, Puns, & How to Be a Saint](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/10/27/separated-he-shall-be-called-a-nazarene/) - After Joseph and family left Egypt to return to the Promised Land, "Being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the region of Galilee. Then he went and settled in a town called Nazareth to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets, that He will be called a Nazarene." (Matthew 2:23, HCSB) It's one of
- [Seventh World Trilogy - Writing the King](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/10/23/seventh-world-trilogy-writing-the-king/) - The war is over, and the King has gone from our land. Gone with him are the faithful children of men, and now only I am left! I alone remain to sing the Song of the Burning Light over this bloodstained ground. The Earth Brethren are gone; I know not where. It seems they are
- [Out of Egypt: When God Calls You to Leave Slavery [Safety] Behind](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/10/20/out-of-egypt/) - So far in the first chapter of Matthew, Matthew has identified Jesus with Abraham, with David, with the whole levitical system of sacrifices and festivals (see "The Riddle of 13"), and with the people of Israel in exile -- and of course, he has identified him clearly as the Messiah and with Yawheh himself. Here,
- [Kyrie](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/10/16/kyrie/) - The free-form poem "Kyrie" functioned as the script for a 1:11 production of the same name. It will be included in the upcoming book PIECES OF GRACE, a compilation of poems, short stories, and devotional narratives to be released in 2016. And God said, Of every tree in the garden you may eat, but of
- [Sentinels of Andersonville](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/10/12/sentinels-of-andersonville/) - It's not often that a book can horrify and give hope at the same time; that it can make you laugh and cry on the same page; that it can take you back in history and at the same time make you feel that the future is of pressing importance. THE SENTINELS OF ANDERSONVILLE, a
- [Magi: The Riddle of Reality and the Mystery Men from the East](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/10/09/magi/) - Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the
- [Name Him Jesus; Call Him Immanuel: The Names of Jesus and the Point of Religion](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/10/06/name-him-jesus-call-him-immanuel/) - The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After Mary his mother had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit. So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly. But after
- [Allegiance](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/10/05/allegiance/) - Once there was an army, a mighty band of joyful warriors who had come together under the banner of a Captain they loved. By His side they toiled and fought; through days of rain and times when the sun beat down mercilessly on their heads. But the Captain’s smile and the Captain’s love burned brighter
- [The Riddle of 13](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/10/02/the-riddle-of-13/) - Critics of the theory of biblical inerrancy will point to "inconsistencies" in the text, seeking to debunk its reliability as the Word of God. Frankly, some of those are just cheap shots. Others deserve to be wrestled with. One significant "problem" shows up here in the first chapter of Matthew, in the genealogy itself --
- [The Kingdom at Hand: The Gospel Is Bigger Than You Think](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/09/22/the-kingdom-at-hand-gospel-of-matthew-series-pt-4/) - "Repent," John the Baptist cried in the desert, "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" In other words, it's HERE. The kingdom has arrived. It has come. It is no longer far off, but at your fingertips. Jesus, Matthew tells us, preached the same thing. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
- [Son of Blessing, Son of Kings: Why Jesus Is the Gateway to Life](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/09/15/son-of-blessing-son-of-kings-gospel-of-matthew-series-pt-2/) - The historical record of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham." (Matthew 1:1, HCSB) Two weeks ago I asked if we know who our king is. Unlike Luke (who traces Jesus all the way back to Adam), Matthew starts with Abraham. As he lays out the genealogy of Christ (following an interesting,
- [Review: Where Christ Is Present](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/09/03/review-where-christ-is-present/) - The fabulous Laura Fabiani of iRead Book Tours contacted me a while back to see if I'd be interested in reviewing a nonfiction book for the blog. It's been a little while since I reviewed anything, and this one intrigued me. So without further ado . . . WHERE CHRIST IS PRESENT: A THEOLOGY FOR
- [Anointed One: Is This the Jesus YOU Know?](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/09/01/anointed-one/) - The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. (Matthew 1:1, NASB) We are citizens in the kingdom of God. Do we know who our king is? I'm asking that question seriously, because honestly, I think this is the number-one scandal in the church today. We've gotten
- [Yes, I Am Finite](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/08/25/yes-i-am-finite/) - As a young(er) person I used to think, "Man, if I only had the money I would do this or that, go here or there, do things I can't do right now." I still think that, sometimes, but the older I get the more I realize money is not the only, or even the primary,
- [Fantastic Four: I Want a Sequel](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/08/18/fantastic-four-i-want-a-sequel/) - We-e-e-e-e-ll . . . If you've read anything about the new FANTASTIC FOUR movie at Rotten Tomatoes, or local reviews, or the blogosphere, or, well, anywhere, you probably know it's a bomb, and I don't mean "da bomb" in the sense that things used to want to be. Actually, reviewers and fanboys have trashed this
- [Accidental Books & Life on Purpose](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/08/11/accidental-books-life-on-purpose/) - When I was young I could write books almost by accident. See, I would have an idea for a scene or a place or a character, and I would play with it in my mind for a while (and usually also with toys or sticks or something -- I was a kid, and I "played"
- [Objects of Unknown Origin](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/08/04/objects-of-unknown-origin/) - In Marvel's prime time television show Agents of SHIELD, an 084 is an "object of unknown origin," which in the show's milieu usually means something alien. (Do you get why I'm posting about this today, huh? Do you? Go check the calendar ... now do you? Yes, I know, I'm a nerd.) In the first
- [Ant-Man (And What Life Is Really About)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/07/28/ant-man-and-what-the-story-is-really-about/) - Since I am doing research for the Marvel book, I happily trotted off to see ANT-MAN in theatres last week. (Yes, it is research. Shush. I have a good job.) Considered the riskiest Marvel film since GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, ANT-MAN is not a big story a la AGE OF ULTRON. Watching it put me
- [That You Should Go and Bring Forth Fruit](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/07/21/that-you-should-go-and-bring-forth-fruit/) - "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain." (John 15:16, KJV) So said Jesus to his disciples, and to us. But WHAT fruit? What is Jesus actually talking about here -- bringing other people to
- [Dear Everlasting Cocktail Party](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/07/16/dear-everlasting-cocktail-party/) - (This post was originally published at the now-defunct Women Alive blog on May 27, 2011. As I wrote just last Tuesday, it's still relevant.) Dear Friends, Family, List Buddies, Facebook Pals, E-mail Forwarders, Twitterers, Bloggers, Authors, Musicians, Guy Who Posts Interesting YouTube Videos, Journalists, Linkers, Photographers, Book Reviewers . . . Perhaps there’s a shorter
- [Tired, Bored, The Internet: How I Frequently Almost Ruin My Life](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/07/14/tired-bored-the-internet-how-i-frequently-almost-ruin-my-life/) - I've been a freelance writer and editor since I was 21 years old -- over a decade now. In that time I've edited hundreds of manuscripts, written 20-some books, and indie published more than 30 titles. The most common question people ask me is "How?" One word: FOCUS. I've tried to make an art form
- [Rotten Trees and Hypocrisy](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/07/07/rotten-trees-and-hypocrisy/) - The other day, during a light rain, a massive tree on our lawn fell over. (Thanks to Naomi Currey for the pictures!) Despite the fact that it only took a small gust of wind to bring the tree down, it didn't come as a surprise.
- [Heel Blisters and What I've Learned About Pain](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/06/30/heel-blisters-and-what-ive-learned-about-pain/) - A few days ago I returned from my second major hiking trip in the Bruce Peninsula -- we covered 22 km of clifftop and woodland trails along Lake Huron this time. Breathtaking. I've seen a lot of beautiful places in my life, but this region -- especially the parts you can only get to if
- [Our Freedom Hasn't Changed. Our Opportunity Is Growing.](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/06/29/our-freedom-hasnt-changed-our-opportunity-is-growing/) - I returned home from a hiking trip on Friday to learn that earlier that day, the US Supreme Court decision regarding gay marriage had been handed down. Like many, I'm saddened and concerned, though not surprised, by the decision. I do believe this decision opens the door for religious people to be targeted and important
- [If You Step Out That Door](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/06/23/if-you-step-out-that-door/) - One of my favorite moments in Avengers: Age of Ultron is when Wanda Maximoff (aka the Scarlet Witch, although you'd never know it just from watching the movie) is huddled in a traumatized, whimpering heap in the corner of a building while genocidal robots overrun her city -- traumatized not because she's a coward (she's
- [Good, Evil, & Winning the Fight](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/06/18/good-evil-winning-the-fight/) - As an author of fantasy adventure stories, I write a lot about what's popularly termed "the battle of good and evil." Even in secular popular culture, that phrase gets a lot of traction. We might officially deny there's any such thing as objective good or evil, but get us telling stories and we all know
- [Your Life Is a Seed (Not a Diamond)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/06/16/your-life-is-a-seed-not-a-diamond/) - Once upon a time, there was a man entrusted with a great treasure. "This is the most precious thing I own," his master told him. "I'm trusting it to you until I return. Don't waste it." Then the master left on a long journey (as masters in parables are wont to do.) The man gazed
- [Excelsior! (Yes, I Am a Marvel Nerd)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/06/09/excelsior-yes-i-am-a-marvel-nerd/) - When I was a kid my dad had this book of Marvel origins stories--basically a bunch of #1 comic books bound together before "graphic novel" was even a term. Featuring stories by Stan Lee and those strong jaws by Jack Kirby, it included the origins of Iron Man, Thor, the Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, the X-Men,
- [Just a Few More Steps](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/05/30/just-a-few-more-steps/) - Last week I hiked 11.5 miles on the Bruce Trail, following the white blazes through Hamilton's Dundas Valley. It was a perfect day--clear blue skies, warm sun, cool breezes, and no bugs to speak of. My hiking buddy and I didn't have a plan to get picked up at the end of our hike, so
- [How Far Will Love Go?](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/04/03/how-far-will-love-go/) - Along with other members of the 1:11 ministry team, I had the privilege of sharing at my home church for Good Friday. Below are some of the thoughts I shared and the music we used. It happened over three thousand years ago, and we're still telling the story today. Three thousand years ago, life
- [Double-Minded](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/03/24/double-minded/) - "A double-minded man," says the book of James, "is unstable in all his ways." He was talking about prayer. But it's true in so many ways, isn't it? If I get on Facebook first thing in the morning and check out news and views and people's pics and lives, I'll have a horrible time getting
- [Finding Love and Fighting Back](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2015/01/07/finding-love-and-fighting-back/) - Our culture is so full of confused and harmful ideas about love that a lot of women and girls are looking for love in the wrong places. But there is a RIGHT place--a starting place for all real, authentic, life-changing love. That's what the book I put together two years ago, with contributions from multiple
- [Free Will in the Multiverse (CSFF Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2014/12/17/free-will-in-the-multiverse-csff-day-3/) - Warning: this post may give a little bit of plot away. But I've done my best not to make it too spoilery. In one of BRIGHT EMPIRES' most mysterious scenes, Kit Livingstone sat inside a hut made of neolithic bones, watching an ancient man named En Ul "dream time." What exactly En Ul was doing
- [Review: The Fatal Tree (CSFF Tour, Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2014/12/16/review-the-fatal-tree-csff-tour-day-2/) - When I finished reading THE SPIRIT WELL, book 3 in the BRIGHT EMPIRES series, I wrote, "Having read this installment, I predict that Bright Empires may become one of those perennial journeys: a long read you can soak into every other winter or so and just enjoy the trip." Indeed: Although I found the story
- [CSFF Tour: The Fatal Tree (Day 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2014/12/15/csff-tour-the-fatal-tree-day-1/) - This month's CSFF tour features the final installment in Stephen Lawhead's epic BRIGHT EMPIRES series. Think time travel, dimensional theory, physics, theology, and a good old-fashioned character romp that unfolds slowly--and richly--and brings the entire universe into its fold. There are five books total, so that's a lot of backstory. You can read my reviews
- [Review: Jupiter Winds](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2014/11/22/review-jupiter-winds/) - CJ Darlington is a young author with whom I have quite a bit in common. She's a homeschool grad, a multiple genre author, and a newcomer in the indie publishing world with her company, Mountainview Books. She contacted me about reviewing her latest book, sci-fi entry Jupiter Winds. Kathy Tyers, author of the Firebird series
- [Review: The Warden and the Wolf King (CSFF Tour, Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2014/07/22/review-the-warden-and-the-wolf-king-csff-tour-day-2/) - At the end of every romance is a wedding, and at the end of every epic fantasy is a war--a war that will remake and reshape worlds and characters we have come to love. The Warden and the Wolf King is the story, as the cover says, of "The Final Battle for the Shining Isle."
- [CSFF Tour: The Warden and the Wolf King (Day 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2014/07/21/csff-tour-the-warden-and-the-wolf-king-day-1/) - Welcome back to the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour! I'm excited to be with you for the finish of Andrew Peterson's Wingfeather Saga. This series--ostensibly written for children--is one of the more memorable to come out of Christian fantasy publishing. Charming, scary, funny, and profound--it's everything children's lit should be, and I suspect
- [CSFF Blog Tour: NUMB by John W. Otte](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2014/04/24/csff-blog-tour-numb-by-john-w-otte/) - ... because late is better than never, right? This month's blog tour actually ran Monday-Wednesday, and yes this is Thursday, but I wanted to jump in anyway. (Why the weekend didn't happen: airplanes, time zones, Internet, you can add it up.) I met John W. Otte, Lutheran minister, unusually tall man, and author of FAILSTATE,
- [Review: THE CRYSTAL SCEPTER and THE SANDS OF ETHRYN](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2014/03/14/review-the-crystal-scepter-and-the-sands-of-ethryn/) - C.S. Lakin's series of fairy tales for adults, influenced in equal parts by the Bible, various mythologies, and the fairy tale books we all grew up with, continues with two more stories about the Gates of Heaven and those who serve as their Keepers: THE CRYSTAL SCEPTER and THE SANDS OF ETHRYN. In THE CRYSTAL
- [Review: The Shadow Lamp (CSFF Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2013/11/13/review-the-shadow-lamp-csff-day-3/) - Flash floods. Roman invaders. Tomb raiding. Pirate attacks. Betrayals. Getting lost in the multiverse ... and discovering the greatest threat imaginable. Ley leaping may be the journey of a lifetime, but no one ever said it was easy. Or safe. THE SHADOW LAMP, Book 4 in Stephen R. Lawhead's BRIGHT EMPIRES series, picks up the
- [CSFF Day 2: Bright Empires](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2013/11/12/csff-day-2-bright-empires/) - I'm planning to post my review of THE SHADOW LAMP tomorrow. I've been with this series from the start, and as it's a complex and continuous series of the first order (not one of these stories stands alone), I thought it would appropriate to go back in time, introducing the series (and the story thus
- [CSFF Tour: The Shadow Lamp (Day 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2013/11/11/csff-tour-the-shadow-lamp-day-1/) - Welcome back to the Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Blog Tour! I've not been doing these as regularly as I used to, but this month the tour is covering the latest installment of a series I've been following from the start--so I could hardly miss this one. Stephen R. Lawhead is one of the greats
- [Review: Angel Eyes (CSFF Tour, Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2013/01/22/review-angel-eyes-csff-tour-day-2/) - This month's review is a little different because Angel Eyes was originally scheduled for the CSFF tour two months ago. By some incredible fluke, I, the sole Canadian member of the CSFF force, was also the only member to receive my review copy on time. Thus I read the book some time ago and am
- [CSFF Tour: Angel Eyes (Day 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2013/01/21/csff-tour-angel-eyes-day-1/) - The CSFF (Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy) Blog Tour is back! This month we're featuringAngel Eyesby Shannon Dittemore, YA supernatural realism. Or young adult spiritual warfare fantasy. Or something like that :). Think Frank Peretti's original "Darkness" novels reimagined, updated for today's culture, and written for teens. Review coming tomorrow. For now, here are the
- [Review: Starflower (Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2012/12/19/review-starflower-day-2/) - Fairy tale is a hard genre to explain, perhaps because we know fairy tales when we see them, but it's difficult to pin down exactly what differentiates them from other works we just call "fantasy." Those who claim to write them have to hit just the right chord, made up of notes beautiful, strange, and
- [CSFF Tour: Starflower (Day 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2012/12/18/csff-tour-starflower-day-1/) - (Yes, I know this is one day late ... yesterday the Internet broke and refused to let me post.) I was introduced to the work of Anne Elisabeth Stengl when I read her novel Veiled Rose last year alongside many other recent works of Christian fantasy. Veiled Rose was a standout: beautifully written, with excellent
- [Review: The Spirit Well](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2012/11/17/review-the-spirit-well/) - Stephen R. Lawhead's The Spirit Well is Book 3 in the Bright Empires series, and as predicted, it takes the whole series to a new level: it is here that its many storylines begin to come together, that its timelines coalesce, and that its themes truly emerge. Having read this installment, I predict that Bright
- [The Spirit Well: Of Time and Travel (CSFF Tour, Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2012/10/23/the-spirit-well-of-time-and-travel-csff-tour-day-2/) - Welcome to Day 2 of the CSFF Blog Tour for The Spirit Well, by Stephen R. Lawhead. It was a tale of time, travel, and trains ... of unexpected detours, mysterious illnesses, and a search for the deeper meanings of life. And no, I'm not talking about Lawhead's story; I'm talking about mine for the last
- [CSFF Tour: The Spirit Well (Day 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2012/10/22/csff-tour-the-spirit-well-day-1/) - It's tour time! This month's featured title is The Spirit Well, Book 3 in the Bright Empires series by fantasy master Stephen R. Lawhead. (I thought it was the final book of a trilogy, but lo and behold ... an ad in the back for Book 4. So either this is a trilogy in the
- [that which I see not](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2012/06/27/that-which-i-see-not/) - "Frequently we hold on so tightly to the good that we do know that we cannot receive the greater good that we do not know. God has to help us let go of our tiny vision in order to release the greater good he has in store for us." - Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the
- [Review: The Unraveling of Wentwater](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2012/06/18/review-the-unraveling-of-wentwater/) - In the fourth installment of C.S. Lakin’s “Gates of Heaven” series of fairy tales, various powers cross, collide, create, and unravel—powers of love and jealousy, magic and knowledge, justice and compassion, music and stitching, and above all, of words. The Unraveling of Wentwater centers around Teralyn, a beautiful young woman with a mysterious past who—unknown
- [Night of the Living Dead Christian: A Review (CSFF Tour, Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2012/03/28/night-of-the-living-dead-christian-a-review-csff-tour-day-3/) - Luther Martin is a werewolf. Not many people know it--his estranged father, a Lutheran minister, does; so do the wife and daughter he managed to run off in a fit of rage. But to the rest of the world, he's just an ordinary man--the quiet little man next door. That is, until Matt Mikalatos, the
- [Night of the Living Dead Christian: CSFF Blog Tour, Day 1](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2012/03/26/night-of-the-living-dead-christian-csff-blog-tour-day-1/) - Greetings! This month's blog tour features Night of the Living Dead Christian, the second release by the fabulously entertaining and surprisingly insightful Matt Mikalatos. We toured Matt's first book, Imaginary Jesus (which is being repackaged and released as My Imaginary Jesus) last year, and I found it to be both very funny and also quite
- [Rhyme Schemes Are Hard](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2012/02/28/rhyme-schemes-are-hard/) - I've been experimenting with poetry recently ... you know, the kind that actually follows some kind of pattern. My conclusion is that rhyme schemes are harder than they look. This doesn't have a title, but here you go: Warm and generous, like the sun Always giving, ever feeding The hungers of a world still
- [Review: The Realms Thereunder (CSFF Tour, Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2012/02/21/review-the-realms-thereunder-csff-tour-day-2/) - Ross Lawhead is probably doomed (or blessed, however you want to look at it) to have his name linked to his father and sometime cowriter, Stephen R. Lawhead, in every review. Perils of having a famous father (well, famous in our little backwater genre, anyway). But Ross’s first solely penned novel, The Realms Thereunder, stands
- [CSFF Tour: The Realms Thereunder (Day 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2012/02/20/csff-tour-the-realms-thereunder-day-1/) - It's time for another CSFF Blog Tour! Perhaps because I am glutton for punishment, I requested this latest book even though I have PILES and PILES of other reading that has to be done on deadline in the next few months. I was interested because the author, Ross Lawhead, is the son of Stephen R.
- [Review: The Land of Darkness](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2012/02/03/review-the-land-of-darkness/) - The Land of Darkness is the third fairy tale in C.S. Lakin’s Gates of Heaven series, this time following the quest of a twelve-year-old girl named Jadiel and her unlikely companion, a woodworking apprentice who is obsessed with finding a legendary bridge. Driven out by her evil stepmother to find the eternal-youth-giving leaves of a
- [More About D. Barkley Briggs and Genre Expectations](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/12/23/more-about-d-barkley-briggs-and-genre-expectations/) - So, I really spaced on the last CSFF Tour--totally forgot to write/post a third entry. This had nothing to do with the quality of the book and everything to do with me being in the midst of traveling. We were featuring D. Barkley Briggs's Corus the Champion, which was a really great read. My one
- [Review: Corus the Champion (CSFF Tour, Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/12/06/review-corus-the-champion-csff-tour-day-2/) - The Barlow brothers are not the first to cross between Earth and Karac Tor, two of the Creator’s Nine Worlds. But the crossing has positioned the boys, each of whom possesses a significant gift, to influence the future of the Hidden Lands. Hadyn, who has discovered the power in names; Ewan, whose music weaves magic
- [CSFF Tour: Corus the Champion (Day 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/12/05/csff-tour-corus-the-champion-day-1/) - European mythology, great writing, deep spirituality, and an exciting (if familiar) story: this month's book tour is for Corus the Champion, Book 2 of the Legends of Karac Tor series by D. Barkley Briggs. The series has been a long time coming to print after the original publisher dropped it, but it is finally here,
- [Swimming](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/11/19/swimming/) - What we must never be encouraged to do, although all of us are guilty of it over and over, is to force Scripture to fit our experience. Our experience is too small; it's like trying to put the ocean into a thimble. What we want is to fit into the world revealed by Scripture, to
- [Review of Lawhead's "The Bone House"](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/11/14/review-of-lawheads-the-bone-house/) - In The Bone House, Book 2 of the Bright Empires series, the race to recover the fabled Skin Map -- once tattooed on the torso of the greatest traveler the multiverse has ever known, and rumoured to contain the greatest secret of all -- is still on. Kit and Giles have escaped from the disease-ridden
- [Whens and Wheres, According to Stephen Lawhead (CSFF Tour, Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/10/26/whens-and-wheres-according-to-stephen-lawhead-csff-tour-day-3/) - A word of explanation is in order: you may have noticed that "Day 2" of this tour got skipped (for the first time ever, I'd like to point out). The sad fact is that my copy of the book arrived really, really late, and by the time it got here, it collided head-on with an
- [CSFF Tour: The Bone House (Day 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/10/24/csff-tour-the-bone-house-day-1/) - The Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Blog Tour is touring again! This month the featured title is The Bone House, Book 2 of the Bright Empires series. My review of the first book, The Skin Map, can be found here. Bright Empires is a many-layered story exploring the idea of "ley travel," a way of
- [A Celtic Prayer: The Complete Production](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/10/20/a-celtic-prayer-the-complete-production/) - If you wished you could see what we were doing in the Maritimes ... Now you can! Soli Deo Gloria Ballet toured our twenty-minute piece "A Celtic Prayer" in New Brunswick, Novia Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Our hosts in New Minas, Nova Scotia, filmed it and posted it on YouTube. (I'm the tall one
- [There's More](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/09/27/theres-more/) - written after an airplane ride, summer 2010 ... I gazed out the airplane window at the storm gathering over the Arizona desert. Night was falling, and beneath the clouds, city lights shone out of the darkness. Above, the clouds were shining with amber sunlight. Lightning arced through the clouds, forking out over the city; it
- [The Monster in the Hollows: A Review (Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/09/21/the-monster-in-the-hollows-a-review-day-3/) - On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness is a whimsical adventure tale, funny, scary, inhabited by Fangs of Dang, crazy sock men, and genuine recipes for maggotloaf. North! Or Be Eaten, Book 2 of The Wingfeather Saga, is the classic journey story: a book of creatures, encounters, fascinating locales, and of course, coming
- [The Wingfeather Saga: A Briefish Overview (Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/09/20/the-wingfeather-saga-a-briefish-overview-day-2/) - A boy who longs for freedom and adventure, who lives under an oppressive regime, who does not truly know who he is. A journey to strange lands full of strange creatures, one that is simultaneously a journey to discover the past and to shape the future. Beauty, tragedy, and wonder. Coming of age. Dragons, mysterious
- [CSFF Tour: The Monster in the Hollows (Day 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/09/19/csff-tour-the-monster-in-the-hollows-day-1/) - I promise that by Wednesday, I will actually write a review of The Monster in the Hollows. Getting this far has been a journey, let me tell you. First, there have been other Wingfeather Saga tours, which I always missed. I'm not sure why, but I did. Then there were all the glowing reviews, the
- [The Closet](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/09/14/the-closet/) - Posting something a bit different today :). I'm not sure if this qualifies as poetry, but here you go: The Closet Rachel Starr Thomson Written at the Magnificat Retreat in Guelph, February 12, 2011 Here I sit In my deep dark closet Where the plaster peels And reveals Wallpaper that was ugly when they put
- [Wake Up and Get a Life!](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/09/08/wake-up-and-get-a-life/) - Ephesians is a companion letter to Colossians, and here we find the bracing instruction, taken perhaps from an early Christian poem or hymn: "Awake, sleeper, rise from the dead, and the Messiah will give you light!" (5:14). In other words, it's time to wake up! Living at the level of the nonheavenly world around you
- [Study and Obedience](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/08/23/study-and-obedience/) - Besides overseeing the schedule and volunteers, my big job at SDG Ballet and Arts Camp earlier this month was teaching Bible class for older and younger kids. For the older class, we started each day by looking at principles of study. For me, one of the most important principles of study is obedience. A quote
- [Review: Did Adam and Eve Really Exist?](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/08/14/review-did-adam-and-eve-really-exist/) - Origins matter. Few answers are more enlightening that those that tell us where something—or someone—came from. Origins give us insight into the shape of reality, answering not only the what but the why. Even if you are a literalist* Bible reader (which I assume most of my readers are), you’ve no doubt heard people—maybe even
- [perseverance](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/08/02/1586-2/) - Yes, I know, this post is REALLY late. I am pulling a late night in the office because I have so much to do today: besides "normal" work, I'm preparing to run a week-long arts camp next week as part of the outreach of Soli Deo Gloria Ballet. I am scheduling, arranging travel for, and
- [Wild Geese in the City](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/07/26/wild-geese-in-the-city/) - I live in a city famous for air pollution, across the river from a horrendously run-down section of Detroit. My neighborhood is decorated by abandoned shopping carts and graffiti. Two years ago the city workers went on strike for nearly the entire summer, and as weeds grew waist-high in our public parks and walking trails,
- [the inconvenient necessity of understanding the Scriptures](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/07/12/the-inconvenient-necessity-of-understanding-the-scriptures/) - Inconvenient or not, we are stuck with the necessity of exegesis. We have a written word to read and attend to. It is God's word, or so we believe, and we had better get it right. Exegesis is foundational to Christian spirituality. Foundations disappear from view as a building is constructed, but if the builders
- [my prayer](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/07/06/my-prayer/) - Today I had hot chocolate with a missionary friend, and I shared an area in which God is dealing with me: I'm scared of "big" things, especially if they have anything to do with serving God. It's kind of a twisted hang-up, and I won't go into all of its roots and branches here, but
- [setting the table to pray](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/06/28/setting-the-table-for-prayer/) - When I was in my late teens, I was really really passionate about seeking the Lord. So passionate, in fact, that after reading a few books on revival and the "godly habits of godly people," I pretty much burned myself out in prayer. And ever since, I've been a bit gun shy when it comes
- [treasuring God - practically](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/06/21/practically-making-god-my-treasure/) - In my last post, I wrote about God as the single person's inheritance and the opportunity we have to make God our treasure. But really, that idea is not new. Anyone who has been single for any length of time after the age of 21 has heard this. We are pointed to 1 Corinthians 7,
- [Review: Konig's Fire](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/06/18/review-konigs-fire/) - Sascha Konig is a brilliant chemist, a Nazi, and a good man. That, at least, is what he tells himself. He is, after all, an educated, literate man, an artist, a man of faith. That he must sometimes obey unspeakable orders does not change that. Ah, but, It is times such as these that we
- [God my inheritance](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/06/15/god-my-inheritance/) - I am twenty-eight, and I am single. I don't know whether I always will be, but I am sure single now. Several of my friends, both men and women, are in the same boat. And some of us will never marry. For the sake of discussion, let's pretend that's where I am--single and going to
- [Review: The Resurrection](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/06/09/review-the-resurrection/) - The Reverend Ian Clark, pastor of a small church in Stonetree, California, has been hiding his resignation letter in his desk drawer for days, working up the nerve to call it quits on his position, his faith, and his dreams. For good. Haunted by past tragedy and his own personal failures, Ian lives up to
- ["too heavenly minded"?](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/06/07/too-heavenly-minded-2/) - For much of my life, a pallor has been cast over my spiritual aspersions by this insidious little whisper, spoken by some persnickety church person in the general ether of evangelical life: "She's too heavenly minded to be any earthly good!" Why does that whisper manage to come in and cripple my prayer life, my
- [thoughts on the ascended Christ](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/06/02/still-risen/) - God ascends to shouts of joy, alleluia, alleluia. The Lord to the blast of trumpets, alleluia, alleluia. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, God ascends to shouts of joy, alleluia, alleluia. A while back I bought a prayer book which, among other things, notes the days of the
- [questions and constancies](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/05/28/questions-and-constancies/) - No one who lives stands still. One begins to ask questions as soon as one can speak. Indeed, my first utterance, if I am to believe Mother, was not a single word but a coherent question: "Where's Daddy?" I must have wanted to know. The young, at least, always want answers . . . The
- [soaking, and why social media is bad for our brains](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/05/26/soaking-and-why-social-media-is-bad-for-our-brains/) - Socrates said, famously, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Sheldon Vanauken, less famously, wrote, "Examination of one's life goes hand in hand with contemplation: first the seeing it as it is and then the thinking about it." Solomon saw, and thought, and wrote, "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all
- [Interview with Jeffrey Overstreet (CSFF Tour, Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/05/18/interview-with-jeffrey-overstreet-csff-tour-day-3/) - "It's too late . . . I've come this far, and I'm not giving up now. Beauty is leading us home." "You may find nothing at all. Or else a tyrant who takes away your freedom." "And I may find the freedom to choose what is best and go on choosing it. All the time.
- [The Ale Boy's Feast: My Review (CSFF Tour Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/05/17/the-ale-boys-feast-my-review-csff-tour-day-2/) - He tightened his picker-staff grip, desire rotting into resentment. Most creatures of the ground had vanished from the Expanse, caught by the underground menace or fleeing its clutches. Krawg had pursued that rusty-hinge chirp, compelled by hunger and, even more, by a longing to see feathers lift a mystery into the air, to hear a
- [CSFF Tour: The Ale Boy's Feast (Day 1)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/05/16/csff-tour-the-ale-boys-feast-day-1/) - In this, my first CSFF tour in quite some time, I am proud to feature Jeffrey Overstreet's The Ale Boy's Feast, easily my favourite novel of the year. In the next two days I'll be posting my review, and interview with the author, a book giveaway, and quotes from The Auralia Thread itself. Today, the
- [Review: Wake Up, O Sleeper!](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/04/05/review-wake-up-o-sleeper/) - Jack Wilson’s life is marked by disappearances. First, his entire world disappeared in a moment when the bombs fell and Americans were taken to plastic-wrapped, regulated cities where they’ll be safe from radiation, poisonous air, and freedom. Ten years later, just before his nineteenth birthday, his best (and only) friend, Lori, disappeared when she was
- [Review: The Map Across Time](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/02/16/review-the-map-across-time/) - This second book in C.S. Lakin’s “The Gates of Heaven” series follows The Wolf of Tebron with an adventure tale that echoes the tone and tropes of many a classic fairy tale—with a lot of ancient Hebrew and a little Dr. Who thrown in for good measure. The kingdom of Sherbourne is under a curse.
- [Depicting Christ in Fiction (Wolf of Tebron, Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/01/05/depicting-christ-in-fiction-wolf-of-tebron-day-3/) - Recently, Stephen Burnett wrote a post on SpecFaith about how we depict God in our fantasy. Entitled "Fighting man-centered monsters in fiction," it used the recent Voyage of the Dawn Treader film as a jumping-off point to address man-centeredness in our fiction: I won’t say names here — partly because, sorry to say, the titles
- [Review (Wolf of Tebron, Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/01/04/review-wolf-of-tebron-day-2/) - (This post is reposted from August 12. Before you read it, go back to yesterday's post and look at that gorgeous cover art again. Just because it's amazing.) In the village of Tebron, surrounded by forests and peaceful mountains, Joran works as an apprentice blacksmith because his unusually sharp ability to mindspeak with animals has
- [The Wolf of Tebron: CSFF Tour, Day 1](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2011/01/03/the-wolf-of-tebron-csff-tour-day-1/) - After taking December off, I am back in the blog tour! This month, we're touring C.S. Lakin's The Wolf of Tebron, Book 1 in The Gates of Heaven series. (that link is my Amazon affiliate link, so thanks for clicking!). I reviewed the book several months back when I first got a chance to read it,
- [When Expectations and Reality Collide (CSFF, Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/11/03/when-expectations-and-reality-collide-csff-day-3/) - In an early scene of The Skin Map, Kit's expectation of how ley travel should work results in disaster and lands him and several other people in a great deal of trouble. Expectations are funny things, capable of depressing or enhancing a reader's experience -- and sometimes of doing both. My review of The Skin
- [Review of "The Skin Map" (CSFF, Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/11/02/review-of-the-skin-map-csff-day-2/) - Kit Livingstone, like so many heroes of so many stories, is living a vaguely dissatisfying life when we first meet him attempting to navigate the London transit system on his way to meet Wilhelmina Klug, described in book blurbs as Kit's "unpleasant girlfriend." But it doesn't take long for the unexpected to charge in, starting
- ["The Skin Map" by Stephen Lawhead: CSFF Tour Day 1](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/11/01/the-skin-map-by-stephen-lawhead-csff-tour-day-1/) - It's time once again for the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour! This month's featured book (featured late, as the astute among you may be aware, because of a delay in books reaching reviewers) is by one of the Grand Masters of Christian speculative fiction, Stephen R. Lawhead. Stephen Lawhead has been writing books
- [Review: The Word Unleashed](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/10/12/review-the-word-unleashed/) - Steve Rzasa’s The Word Unleashed is the most rip-roaring, heart-pounding space adventure since, well, since The Word Reclaimed. (Read my review here.) That book ended with the treacherous overthrow of the Realm of Five’s monarchy by Kesek, the Realm’s secret police. The Realm’s finest defenders had been lured away to a distant planet to be
- [Review: The Dark Man](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/09/28/review-the-dark-man/) - His name is Charles Graves. He can wear any face; imitate any voice; fit in anywhere. His work for the Agency is legendary, especially among the hidden clusters of Christians he has helped uncover and “reclaim.” His father and only remaining family, Senator Cotton Graves, loves him. His coworker, relentless logic-girl Julia Jenkins, will do
- [Why Write Fantasy?](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/09/23/why-write-fantasy/) - Someone once asked me why I write fantasy instead of (pardon me) real literature. This person wondered from a particularly Christian standpoint -- shouldn't Christians be more concerned about the real world? I've given the question a lot of thought over the years and summed up some of my answers in my "Apologetic" essay on
- [Jump, Jump, Jump](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/09/14/jump-jump-jump/) - This video was filmed and edited by my good friend Josh (of JGills fame); everyone in it is a friend. A frightening number of them are related to me. The Nerdfest may or may not be happening in my house . . . The kid in the red shirt who really can actually dance is
- [Review: The Word Reclaimed](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/09/07/1275-2/) - Here is how I feel about cliffhangers: AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUGH! It doesn’t help that I am still nursing a feeling of rawness over the lack of resolution in Bryan Davis’s Masters and Slayers. I had to take my raw self wading into Steve Rzasa's space opera The Word Reclaimed, suspecting more and more that this story was
- [Masters and Slayers: A Review](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/08/31/masters-and-slayers-a-review/) - Readers of the young adult fantasy Starlighter will recognize the opening scene of Bryan Davis's upcoming Masters and Slayers — that feeling of “we’ve been here before” is more than just deja vu. Masters and Slayers is the first book in the “Tales of Starlight” series published by AMG/Living Ink, a fantasy series for adults
- [A Seventh World Interview (Favourites Tour, Day 4)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/08/26/a-seventh-world-interview-favourites-tour-day-4/) - I know that our CSFF tours are technically three days long, but lately I have a hard time saying all I want to say in three days. This interview was supposed to go up yesterday, but the post was getting long -- so here we are. An interview of me by Joshua Gilman of JGills
- [A Look Into the Seventh World (Favourites Tour, Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/08/25/a-look-into-the-seventh-world-favourites-tour-day-3/) - (First, an announcement: I've signed on as a regular contributor to the newly revamped Speculative Faith blog, along with Becky Miller and Stephen Burnett and Stuart Stockton. My first post, "The Stakes Are High," is up today. Check it out.) As I prepare for the release of Coming Day, Book 3 of the Seventh World
- [Words and Music (CSFF Favorites, Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/08/24/words-and-music-csff-favorites-day-2/) - I stand behind a table laden with my books and talk to passers-by about my work, and as they stop and handle ink and paper and converse, they ask, "Where did you get your ideas? What led you to become a writer?" I smile -- such a simple question, such a not-simple answer. I was
- [CSFF Tour: Your Favorite!](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/08/23/csff-tour-your-favorite/) - Welcome to August's CSFF Tour and something ... rather different. As you probably know, every month, the CSFF Tour Bloggers read, review, and heatedly happily discuss a new title that falls under the Christian speculative fiction umbrella. Well, we were going to do that this month too, but the title fell through. SO, we are
- [Review: The Wolf of Tebron](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/08/12/review-the-wolf-of-tebron/) - In the village of Tebron, surrounded by forests and peaceful mountains, Joran works as an apprentice blacksmith because his unusually sharp ability to mindspeak with animals has made forestry, hunting, and fishing too painful an occupation. He is painfully aware of his difference from his brothers, whom he loves but is unlike. Joran is slender,
- [The Madwoman of Bethlehem](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/08/03/the-madwoman-of-bethlehem/) - Content Warning: I usually write reviews of family-friendly books, so I wanted to give a heads up on this one: this story is for mature readers only, as it deals with heavy subject matter and contains some strong language and other content not for children. The Madwoman of Bethlehem is a beautifully written story of
- [Interview with Christy Award Winner Jill Williamson](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/07/27/interview-with-christy-award-winner-jill-williamson/) - Jill Williamson is the author of the Christy-Award-winning fantasy novel By Darkness Hid, as well as its newly released sequel, To Darkness Fled. The CSFF bloggers toured By Darkness Hid back in May (my review is here), and Jill was kind enough to grant me a late interview. Below, we talk about Jill's amazing world-building process,
- [Magical Mirrors (Starlighter, Day 4)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/07/22/magical-mirrors-starlighter-day-4/) - "Remember how I followed you and Adrian like a little puppy until I was eight?" Jason grinned. "I remember. We didn't mind. We needed a fair maiden to rescue whenever we stormed the sand castles." "Well, I always knew you'd be a warrior. Remember what I used to say when we were getting ready to
- [Interview with Bryan Davis (Starlighter, Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/07/21/interview-with-bryan-davis-starlighter-day-3/) - Today, I interview Bryan Davis, author of Starlighter, on the characters, upcoming titles, the strange and fascinating journeys that lead to publication, and the difference between magical powers in fantasy and magical powers in the real world. Rachel: So let’s start with a really easy question: who’s your favourite character in Starlighter? Why? Bryan: I
- [Review of Starlighter (Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/07/20/review-of-starlighter-day-2/) - Jason Masters is trained to be a hero, a peasant whose skill takes him to the top of warrior training. With his brother Adrian, he grows up fighting homemade dragons and "rescuing" his best friend, Elyssa, from all manner of peril. But growing up brings unwelcome realities with it. His oldest brother, Frederick, disappears, and
- [CSFF Tour: Starlighter](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/07/19/csff-tour-starlighter/) - This month's CSFF feature is Bryan Davis's Starlighter, a book I almost didn't get to review. You see, Zondervan was only sending review copies out via UPS, and as a Canadian that didn't work for me. I asked Bryan for an interview anyway, and when he learned about the situation, he sent me a (signed!)
- [Interview with Matt Mikalatos (Imaginary Jesus Tour, Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/06/23/interview-with-matt-mikalatos-imaginary-jesus-tour-day-3/) - Today, an interview with Matt Mikalatos, author of Imaginary Jesus, in which we discuss controversy, the significance of style, the people behind the story, and more. Venture on! Rachel: The info sheet sent with Imaginary Jesus proclaims that your book “has the potential to get a Christian publisher in a whole lot of trouble.” The
- [Review: Imaginary Jesus (CSFF Tour Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/06/22/review-imaginary-jesus-csff-tour-day-2/) - The story begins at the Red and Black, a Communist coffee shop in Portland, Oregon, where Matt (our hero) and someone he thinks is Jesus are just hanging out. Enter the Apostle Peter, a.k.a. "Pete," who recognizes Matt's Jesus as an imposter and quickly instigates a fistfight. Imaginary Jesus takes off running, Pete and Matt
- [CSFF Tour: Imaginary Jesus](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/06/21/csff-tour-imaginary-jesus/) - This month's book for the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour is not science fiction or (exactly) fantasy. It is Christian. And it is imaginative. In fact, imagination is a big theme in the book, in one of its less helpful and edifying roles. The book is Imaginary Jesus by Matt Mikalatos, a Campus
- [Mustard and Vinegar](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/05/25/mustard-and-vinegar/) - A couple of weeks ago at a writers' meeting I had the privilege of meeting Rosine Nimeh-Mailloux, a gracious lady who grew up in Bethlehem in a Syrian Orthodox family. She's written and published two books, one a collection of short stories based on her family's experiences in Turkey, Lebanon, and Palestine (Mustard and Vinegar,
- [Choosing Ourselves (By Darkness Hid Tour, Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/05/19/choosing-ourselves-by-darkness-hid-tour-day-3/) - Fred Warren of Frederation, whose reviews are always insightful and entertaining, brought up an interesting point about By Darkness Hid yesterday: Nature vs. Nurture: Given Achan’s terrible upbringing, it was a bit of a puzzlement how well he turned out. Kept ignorant, hungry, and hopeless, beaten and beaten-down at every turn, he was still kind,
- [By Darkness Hid: A Review (CSFF Tour, Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/05/18/by-darkness-hid-a-review-csff-tour-day-2/) - Pressure filled his head again. This time the insight that followed was not dread but kinship and hope. Achan paused at the entrance to the kitchens and turned, seeking out the source of the sensation. His gaze was drawn to the armory. A knight stood leaning against the crude structure of the armory, watching Achan
- [CSFF Tour: By Darkness Hid](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/05/17/csff-tour-by-darkness-hid/) - It's Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour time again! (Say THAT five times fast!) This month's book (sent to me free by the publisher for review, though as a Canadian I don't think I'm actually required to disclose that) is By Darkness Hid by Jill Williamson. Classic storyline, great world-building, strong characterization -- there's
- [The Man, the Beast, and the Nature of Desire (Raven's Ladder, Day 4)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/04/29/the-man-the-beast-and-the-nature-of-desire-ravens-ladder-day-4/) - The CSFF Tour for this month is officially over, but before we leave Raven's Ladder, I want to explore one of its themes. I also have a book to give away, so it's time for a contest! Scroll all the way down to the bottom of this post for contest rules and deadline. Warning: there
- [Interview with Jeffrey Overstreet, Part 2 (Raven's Ladder Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/04/28/interview-with-jeffrey-overstreet-part-2-ravens-ladder-day-3/) - And yesterday's discussion continues, this time touching on editing, plot, fantasy as a genre, and influences. Enjoy! Rachel: You once mentioned on Facebook that copyediting is one of your favourite parts of revision: I think you said you would turn the whole Auralia Thread into a long prose-poem if you could. Can you comment on
- [Interview with Jeffrey Overstreet, Part 1 (Raven's Ladder, Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/04/27/interview-with-jeffrey-overstreet-part-1-ravens-ladder-day-2/) - A slight change to the planned schedule: as I revisited this interview, I realized that it is long and rich and worthy of being posted over more than one day. So this week my touring days are going to extend to Thursday, methinks :). Today we discuss allegory, art, religion, and shockwyrms. The interview begins:
- [CSFF Tour: Raven's Ladder](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/04/26/csff-tour-ravens-ladder/) - Raven's Ladder is the third book in the four-book Auralia Thread, a startlingly poetic, deeply spiritual fantasy series that begins with Auralia's Colors and Cyndere's Midnight The story dawns on a displaced people: The people of House Abascar, led by the young king Cal-Raven and his faithful guardsman Tabor Jan, have moved into a network
- [Abide in My Love](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/03/22/abide-in-my-love/) - This morning I read John 15:9-12 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept the Father's commandments, and abide in his love . . . This is my commandment, That ye
- [Raven's Ladder: A Review](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/02/27/ravens-ladder-a-review/) - Raven's Ladder is the third book in the four-book Auralia Thread, a startlingly poetic, deeply spiritual fantasy series that begins with Auralia's Colors and Cyndere's Midnight. The story dawns on a displaced people: The people of House Abascar, led by the young king Cal-Raven and his faithful guardsman Tabor Jan, have moved into a network
- [Halfway Awake](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/02/01/halfway-awake/) - I have been up for two hours, but I'm only halfway awake. Some days it's just really hard for me to stop sleeping, even after I'm vertical and have eaten and studied my Bible and gone through the whole morning routine. I suppose being up until nearly 2:00 a.m. doesn't help. This morning I hoped
- [Marketing in the Internet Age: North! Or Be Eaten Day 3](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/01/29/marketing-in-the-internet-age-north-or-be-eaten-day-3/) - While we have been blogging about Andrew Peterson, Andrew Peterson has been blogging about us. My favourite thing about CSFF Tours (even ones like this, which I hardly qualify as participating in because I didn't read the book) is author involvement. Authors used to be sort of mythic. They didn't live on the same planet
- [Childlikeness and Storytelling (North! Or Be Eaten, Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/01/28/childlikeness-and-storytelling-north-or-be-eaten-day-2/) - I haven't, as I said yesterday, read North! Or Be Eaten, nor have I read Andrew Peterson's first book. I've now read a bit of his blogging at The Rabbit Room (and intend to keep visiting long after this tour is over). I'm struck by Andrew's vision of Christian art. In "About the Rabbit Room,"
- [North! Or Be Eaten: CSFF Blog Tour](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/01/27/north-or-be-eaten-csff-blog-tour/) - Good morning, world! (OK, fine, technically it's afternoon. But I have a morning sort of spirit today, so good morning it is!) Today marks the start of the first CSFF Blog Tour I've done since Haunt of Jackals, and alas and alack, this tour has gone awry. Our Fearless Leader's computer crashed after I sent
- [Painful Perfection](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/01/26/painful-perfection/) - I've been reading the Epistle to the Hebrews for the last few days, and yesterday was struck by the way God chose to perfect Jesus. If the Bible didn't say that Jesus had to be made perfect, I wouldn't believe it; I would believe that He was already totally perfect when He got here. But
- [Trusting God for Finances](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/01/06/trusting-god-for-finances/) - Remember the "Work, For I Am With You" article I wrote a while back? It shared a lesson I learned last spring about trusting God for my income, and the subsequent slashing of my student roster: I went home simultaneously buoyed and subdued. I knew God might allow things to get worse before they got
- [Revisions and the Joy of Allegory](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/01/05/revisions-and-the-joy-of-allegory/) - Today I plan to start revisions on The Advent. Step 1 is reading through the manuscript as it stands. This is always an interesting venture. I haven't looked at it since I finished the first draft back in early December, and I have a short memory when it comes to my own writing. I also
- [Sick in the New Year](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/01/04/sick-in-the-new-year/) - I planned to spend the new year in a sort of glowing rhapsody, resting, enjoying family over the holidays, eating Christmas cookies and reading novels. I planned to be refreshed, excited about the wonderful things to come. I planned to file the last of 2009's receipts, lay out my goals and plans for the new
- [Happy New Year](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2010/01/01/happy-new-year/) - (I am terrible at titles. I realize this post should have a more original one, but who can think up good titles at quarter to 2 in the morning?) So here we are, the end of one year, the start of another -- more significantly, perhaps, the end of one decade, the start of another.
- [Reasons and Reasons for Hope and for Happiness](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/12/30/reasons-and-reasons-for-hope-and-for-happiness/) - Amy Carmichael, on a picture of the Alps -- a pine-filled slope leading to a misty valley, with mountains beyond and clouds edged with light. I see in this valley and mountain a general view of our years. We stand, when we are young, on the sunny slope among the pines, and look across an
- [Christmas Children](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/12/23/christmas-children/) - Luke 1 is one of my favourite scriptures. Far less famous than Luke 2 ("And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus" -- you know the one), the entire chapter is potent with the intervention of God. Praise, prophecy, and the workings of the impossible --
- [Haunt of Jackals: The Conversation Continues](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/10/27/haunt-of-jackals-the-conversation-continues/) - Last week when I blogged on Haunt of Jackals for the CSFF Blog Tour, I was hoping to stir up conversation. Well, thanks to everyone who jumped in with many different viewpoints, conversation has been stirred! In fact, Eric Wilson, the author of Haunt, was gracious enough to offer a response of his own. If
- [God in Fiction (Haunt of Jackals, Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/10/21/god-in-fiction-haunt-of-jackals-day-3/) - As my review made clear yesterday, I was bothered by the representation of Christ in Haunt of Jackals. In some ways I found it more pagan than Christian. But that brings me back to a question I've asked myself a thousand times since I began writing: how can we faithfully represent God in fiction? As
- [A Review: Haunt of Jackals (Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/10/20/a-review-haunt-of-jackals-day-2/) - April 2000--Zalmoxis Cave, Romania She was free, for now. The first step . . . With dagger in hand, Gina Lazarescu faced the cave opening where the sounds of scuffing feet seemed to mark the presence of another. A Collector? One of Jerusalem's Undead? Bleeding, she stood still and waited. Haunt of Jackals opens where
- [Haunt of Jackals: CSFF Blog Tour](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/10/19/haunt-of-jackals-csff-blog-tour/) - Kudos to Eric Wilson: he is a brave man. Since I put Worlds Unseen into the world, I've learned that reviews are a mixed bag. You'll get good ones. You'll get bad ones. Often you'll get mixed reviews, because very few people will share the exact vision you had for your story or will feel
- [Fiction at the Rim of Knowledge](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/10/01/fiction-at-the-rim-of-knowledge/) - As symbol, or as the structuring of symbols, art can render intelligible -- or at least visible, at least discussible -- those wilderness regions which philosophy has abandoned and those hazardous terrains where science's tools do not fit. I mean the rim of knowledge where language falters; and I mean all those areas of human
- [Story, Symbol, and Laughter in The Vanishing Sculptor: An Interview with Donita K. Paul (Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/09/23/interview-with-donita-k-paul-vanishing-sculptor-day-2/) - For this month's CSFF Blog Tour, Donita K. Paul was kind enough to grant me an interview. Although e-mail and spam filters tried hard to sabotage our conversation, we finally connected. I think it was a conversation worth having. I hope you'll agree! Rachel: The Vanishing Sculptor was the first of your works I've read,
- [A Review: The Vanishing Sculptor (Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/09/22/a-review-the-vanishing-sculptor-day-3/) - Tipper's heart skipped a beat . . . "I have a feeling," she said, "that we are going to have a glorious quest. This day is the beginning of a great adventure." So declares Tipper Schope, who gladly gives up the responsibility of caring for her family's estate when her disappearing father reappears after fifteen
- [The Vanishing Sculptor: CSFF Blog Tour](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/09/21/the-vanishing-sculptor-csff-blog-tour/) - This month's featured CSFF book is The Vanishing Sculptor by Donita K. Paul, the Dragon Lady of Christian fiction. Mrs. Paul's books have made a definite splash, and I've been hearing their ripples for years, but this is the first I've actually read. It is fun, more than usually so, even for a children's book
- [Who Am I, Anyway?](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/09/16/who-am-i-anyway/) - Yesterday I spent half an hour or so rounding up my editing credentials for a potential client who wanted to know more about who I am and what I've done -- happy clients, published books, industry connections, and so on and so forth. It's an interesting exercise, this putting together of a public face to
- [Passages: The Landmine of Me](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/08/26/passages-the-landmine-of-me/) - Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing was a fantastic shot in the arm years ago when I was playing with the idea of becoming a writer. He understands what it means to be creative and can articulate it like few others. This short passage is from the Preface. These essays were written at
- [The Book On Paper and the One In Here (Offworld, Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/08/19/the-book-on-paper-and-the-one-in-here-offworld-day-3/) - I've heard it said that every writer has two books: the one in his head, and the one that ends up on paper. CSFF Blogger Julie did an interview with Robin Parrish in which he says, There was also a desire on my part to do a story that was totally character-driven. The Dominion Trilogy
- [A Review - Offworld (Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/08/18/a-review-offworld-day-2/) - Six months out, six months back, two years on the surface of Mars. For dedicated astronauts, scientists, and adventurers, three years is just enough time to accomplish the greatest expedition in the history of mankind -- but it's also a long time away from home. Christopher Burke shares his teammates' eagerness to get home, home
- [Offworld: CSFF Blog Tour](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/08/17/offworld-csff-blog-tour/) - The time has come for another CSFF Blog Tour. Before I begin, I beg your leave to make an observation: It is HOT. This is BEASTLY. Thank you. August's book-o-the-month is Offworld by Robin Parrish. In this sci-fi novel set in 2033, a team of astronauts returns from the first successful trip to Mars to
- [Men, God, and Men Like Gods (The Enclave, Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/07/22/men-god-and-men-like-gods-the-enclave-day-3/) - And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:4-5) Karen Hancock's The Enclave is set at an institution that's high-tech and groundbreaking, modern
- [A Review - The Enclave (Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/07/21/a-review-the-enclave-day-2/) - The Kendall-Jakes Longevity Institute is a literal monument to science, creativity, and the ability of man to rise above his limitations: a black glass ziggurat in the Arizona desert, labs and conference rooms interspersed with rainforest atriums, coffee bars, and incredible views. True, the Institute's director, the globe-trotting, womanizing Parker Swain, once fell out of
- [The Enclave: CSFF Blog Tour](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/07/20/the-enclave-csff-blog-tour/) - Books--stories themselves--come in so many shades and textures and ways. Some books are lush, gorgeous, enriching. Some are dense but necessary. Some, like The Enclave by Karen Hancock, are just plain riveting. It took me all of about two chapters to be sucked thoroughly into The Enclave, guessing at its mysteries, marveling at its setting,
- [wind](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/07/17/wind/) - The wind had a secret. All across the Seventh World it blew, whispering, shouting, singing its wild way in the far northern mountains and fjords; it danced the new-growing leaves and flowered boughs in Galce and the vineyards of Italya. It whistled through hollows and secret places in the Eastern Lands and skipped across the
- [A Review - Vanish (Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/06/23/a-review-vanish-day-2/) - Conner Hayden: divorced lawyer struggling to relate to his teenaged daughter. Mitch Kent: tattooed mechanic on the eve of proposing to his girlfriend. Helen Krause: aging career woman and lonely ex-model. Three people with nothing in common -- except that each is hiding a secret. Thunder rumbled louder now, low and sustained. Flashes of lightning
- [Vanish: CSFF Blog Tour](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/06/22/vanish-csff-blog-tour/) - Over dinner recently my cousins and I got into a discussion about why anyone would read a book twice. One declared that she has never done so: "You read books to find out what happens, and once you know what happens, there's no point in reading it again." Others disagreed, including me, and the whole
- [Passages: Crystal-Clear Awake](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/06/10/passages-crystal-clear-awake/) - I read Susan Cooper's Dark Is Rising Sequence over ten years ago, but long after I had forgotten the details, its mood still lingered in my memory. It's no wonder, with atmospheric writing like this. In this scene from The Dark Is Rising, eleven-year-old Will wakes up in a time that is not his own.
- [The Unpredictable Power of Prayer - Tuck (Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/05/20/the-unpredictable-power-of-prayer-tuck-day-3/) - On Monday I promised to wrap up the CSFF tour for Stephen R. Lawhead's Tuck by writing about "Deux ex machina , highly improbable happy endings, and the marvelous, unpredictable power of prayer." It is very late now, and I'm typing in the dark at the end of a long day that ran away with
- [A Review - Tuck (Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/05/19/a-review-tuck-day-2/) - What we know now as legend, old and familiar as the dusty books we read as children, began in the dark distance of the past as something else—as some truth we’ve changed until we remember things that never were and forget those that really happened. For every legend we love, another story lies buried somewhere,
- [Tuck - CSFF Blog Tour](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/05/18/tuck-csff-blog-tour/) - As a writer, I'm commonly asked who my influences are. And ever since I was pulled heart over heels into The Paradise War , oh, many years ago now, I've named as chief among them Stephen R. Lawhead. In setting, in mood, in battle scenes, and in a sort of mythic vision of Christianity, he
- [Writing an Epic: An Interview with Marilyn Burns of Pendragon](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/04/30/writing-an-epic-an-interview-with-marilyn-burns-of-pendragon/) - Before I'd even seen Pendragon: Sword of His Father, I knew I wanted to interview its creators. Marilyn Burns, who stars as Wenneveria in the film but also handled other film creation aspects -- from cowriting the score to designing costumes to helping with a million logistical details -- was kind enough to grant me
- [Pendragon: Sword of His Father - A Review](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/04/29/pendragon-sword-of-his-father-a-review/) - Sometimes keeping a writer's blog and having connections means you get perks, like when Home School Enrichment editor Jonathan Lewis (who moonlights as a Saxon infidel in epic homeschool films) pulled some strings and won me both a screening copy of Pendragon: Sword of His Father and an interview with Marilyn Burns, who did WAY
- [Heroes: A Wrap-Up -- and Coming Next Week](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/04/24/heroes-a-wrap-up-and-coming-next-week/) - Thanks to another great CSFF Blog Tour, it's been a fascinating week around this blog. As I reviewed Blaggard's Moon , I found myself faced with many things I could have said. I thought about writing on heroes -- what they are in real life, what they are (and perhaps should be) in fiction. Blaggard's
- [An Interview with Bryan Polivka](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/04/23/an-interview-with-bryan-polivka/) - Brandon Barr, science fiction author and fellow CSFF Blog Tour member, loved Blaggard's Moon. In his review he says, "I became a fan of Bryan Polivka's storytelling when I first reviewed The Legend of the Firefish in 2007. After reading Blaggard's Moon, I was left stirred spiritually and emotionally yet again. The best way I
- [The Relevance of Pirates - Blaggard's Moon (Day 3)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/04/22/the-relevance-of-pirates-blaggards-moon-day-3/) - Delaney spoke directly to the boy. "Dallis, son, this here's Conch Imbry, and he's a great pirate captain. Says he'll save ye from the Cabeebs if ye'll turn pirate right now. Otherwise -- see that man with the gun there? Well, he's gonna shoot ye dead. So now, son, ye got to decide whether to
- [A Review - Blaggard's Moon (Day 2)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/04/21/a-review-blaggards-moon-day-2/) - There are moments in our lives that change everything. Forks in the road. Accidents. Love at first sight. Death. Yup, that one changes everything. Forever. A lot of the time we don't see those moments coming. Especially the last one. But Smith Delaney, the marooned pirate whose post-sitting ruminations open Blaggard's Moon, can see Death
- [Blaggard's Moon: CSFF Blog Tour](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/04/20/blaggards-moon-csff-blog-tour/) - As I settle back in a leather-cushioned library chair, looking out the window at the traffic passing through the rain, I find myself thinking on many things. On books, which surround me here. On life, which of late has been challenging and exciting and even tragic. On pirates. I have to think on pirates, because
- [Playing Guitar with Oven Mitts](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/03/19/playing-guitar-with-oven-mitts/) - As I sit at the computer, watching the clock strike 11:01 when I meant to be in bed at 10:00, and think over the day's events -- the phone calls I muddled my way through, the little Dodge Neon I bought though all these years I've planned to buy a minivan, the schedule which continually
- [Interview with Allan Miller - Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow 3](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/03/18/interview-with-allan-miller-hunter-brown-3/) - Tonight, I'm privileged to wrap up the March CSFF tour with an interview with Allan Miller, one of the Miller Brothers, who took time out of a very busy schedule to first agree to a last-minute interview and then to thoughtfully answer my questions about art, allegory, homeschooling, and more! I really enjoyed my conversation
- [A Review - Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow 2](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/03/17/a-review-hunter-brown-and-the-secret-of-the-shadow-2/) - Hunter Brown is an average ninth grade boy: good at pranks, bad at first impressions, mediocre at life. Things have been harder to deal with since his father disappeared years ago, but Hunter makes do. Until, in a Neverending-Story-meets-the-Matrix moment, he opens an ancient book and learns that everything he ever knew about his world
- [Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow: CSFF Blog Tour](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/03/16/hunter-brown-and-the-secret-of-the-shadow-csff-blog-tour/) - One of my first thoughts when I picked up Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow by the multitalented Miller Brothers was "Boy, reading sure has changed." Nonfiction underwent the transformation years ago: a book is a Web site is a blog is a Wiki is a link to a whole lotta more information.
- [Passages: Defy the Darkness](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/03/12/passages-defy-the-darkness/) - This week's "passage" is a movie, the first short from Lamplighter Publishing. In this "new dark age," a few will defy the darkness. This is a must-see for everyone who uses words to shine light in our culture! "With every word, with every page, with every story, we defy the darkness."
- [Images - Cyndere's Midnight 3](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/02/18/images-cynderes-midnight-3/) - Much has been said by other CSFF bloggers about the beauty of Jeffrey Overstreet's writing. They're right. Even Publishers Weekly, reviewing Auralia's Colors, called his writing "precise and beautiful." But what makes writing truly beautiful? It starts in the roots, in the word choices themselves, in the rhythms as they grow into something more. And
- [Immerse Yourself - Cyndere's Midnight 2](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/02/17/immerse-yourself-cynderes-midnight-2/) - Yesterday I bought a copy of Cyndere's Midnight, happy and excited because I rarely get to buy novels -- especially ones I'm really excited about. I actually bought two books, because Cyndere's Midnight is the sequel to Auralia's Colors, and you can't read a sequel first. At least I can't. Consequently, I'm halfway through Auralia's
- [Cyndere's Midnight: CSFF Blog Tour](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/02/16/cynderes-midnight-csff-blog-tour/) - Jeffrey Overstreet is not just a novelist. That "just" is not meant in any way derogatory; sometimes I wish I was just a novelist. But Overstreet, like me, writes a lot more than fiction, and I'm willing to bet his fiction is coloured by the attentive finger he keeps on the pulse of popular fiction.
- [Passages: The House of Dreams](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/02/04/passages-the-house-of-dreams/) - Maggie Sheffield has just begun her adventure when she meets Nicolas Fisher and his black bear. Nicolas takes her to an inn called the House of Dreams, where they quickly come face-to-face with a living nightmare. I love to write description, and the House of Dreams has always been a particularly vivid scene to me.
- [Passages: Virginia Ramsey](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/01/28/passages-virginia-ramsey/) - Virginia Ramsey is one of the key characters in the Seventh World Trilogy. She makes her first appearance in the passage below. This scene is special to me because it was the very first scene written in Worlds Unseen. I jotted it down on a scratchpad when I wasn't even sure what the story would
- [Whom Readest Thou? Book of Names 3](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/01/21/whom-readest-thou-book-of-names-3/) - Today wraps up my first blog tour with CSFF. Thanks everyone for your comments and participation--your answers to my question yesterday are fascinating. When I first visited Dean's HiddenLands.net, I was struck by the beginning of his "About Me" page: Dean Barkley Briggs is an author, father of eight, and prone to twisting his ankle
- [Why Writest Thou? - Book of Names 2](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/01/20/why-writest-thou-book-of-names-2/) - In yesterday's post I touched on Dean Briggs' personal reasons for writing The Book of Names (and its sequel, Corus the Champion, due out July 2009). I started reading the first few chapters of Corus last night and was struck by the poem that begins the book: What if sorrow was a doorway, And memory,
- [The Book of Names: CSFF Blog Tour](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/01/19/the-book-of-names-csff-blog-tour/) - First, an introduction: a week or so ago, I joined the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour group, which means that I have access to review copies of upcoming Christian speculative fiction and that I get to participate in promoting those books. I was too late to get a copy of the book I'm
- [To Love and to Honour: A Review of Robin McKinley's "Beauty"](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/01/15/to-love-and-to-honour-a-review-of-robin-mckinleys-beauty/) - "I was the youngest of three daughters. Our literal-minded mother named us Grace, Hope, and Honour, but few people except perhaps the minister who had baptized all three of us remembered my given name." As a very young child, Honour renames herself "Beauty," a nickname which sticks despite the fact that she is hardly the
- [a work of GENIUS](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2008/10/06/a-work-of-genius/) - When P.G. Wodehouse, possibly the best comic writer who ever lived, had his first novel published, he sent a copy to his friend Bill Townend with these words inscribed: To Villiam Townend these first-fruits of a GENIUS at which the WORLD will (shortly) be AMAZED (You see if it won't) from the author Sep 28.
- [rowing out to the darkness](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2008/06/17/rowing-out-to-the-darkness/) - It could be that God has not absconded but spread, as our vision and understanding of the universe have spread, to a fabric of spirit and sense so grand and subtle, so powerful in a new way, that we can only feel blindly of its hem. In making the thick darkness a swaddling band for
- [thoughts on "Being the Body"](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2008/06/12/thoughts-on-being-the-body/) - I just finished reading Being the Body by Charles Colson and Ellen Vaughn. A friend lent it to me months ago, but during the school year I don't get much chance to read.Anyway, the book's central theme is the Church in its worldwide ("the church universal") and local ("the church particular") incarnations. Colson presents a
- [Religion BookLine on Creating Culture](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2008/05/22/religion-bookline-on-creating-culture/) - Religion BookLine, a division of Publishers Weekly, published this interview with Andy Crouch, author of Creating Culture, today. Crouch says, "As I read the work of academic sociologists like Peter Berger I became really convinced that the only way that cultures change is when people make more culture—which called into question a lot of the
- [gifted](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2008/03/19/gifted/) - "The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them." Proverbs 20:9 I wrote the fantasy novel Worlds Unseen six years ago. At the time, I had some loose ideas about what it could say--besides telling a good story, which was my first priority! It touched on some of my
- [Tales from an Irish Hermitage](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2008/02/18/tales-from-an-irish-hermitage/) - A few months ago, I was contacted by a nun in Ireland. She was trying to self-publish a book and wondered if I could give her any advice on formatting.I already knew her through an online community and had enjoyed her writing very much, so since I had a few weeks of vacation ahead of
- [Flashpoint: A Review](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2007/07/31/flashpoint-a-review/) - Review of Flashpoint by Frank Creed Review by Rachel Starr Thomson The year is 2036. The place, Chicago—under control of a worldwide government called the One State. A father drives his children through the rain and drops them off under a bridge before fleeing the “Peacekeepers” on his trail. Little do Dave and Jen know
- [small ones](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2007/05/18/small-ones/) - Four years ago, on a beautiful night in late June, my sister Tabithah was born. (I assume it was a beautiful night. Chances are it was humid and very warm, but I know it was green, and it wasn't raining. In any case, the event made it beautiful.) I was twenty years old.Taba and I
- [saintly service](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2007/05/15/saintly-service/) - Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek: Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth
- [Comforting Miracles](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2007/05/01/comforting-miracles/) - And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not
- [Inescapable God](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2007/04/27/inescapable-god/) - "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there shall
- [there's magic in the dirt](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2007/04/11/theres-magic-in-the-dirt/) - Why, you may wonder, has Rachel posted a picture of four pots of dirt on her blog?Ah, but you just think those are four pots of dirt. The truth is something much greater. Those four pots are an herb garden. They are glorious and green. They are healing for headaches and upset stomachs; they are
- [It's All About the Words](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2007/03/27/its-all-about-the-words/) - Taking a quick break from work...I work with words for seven or eight hours every day. I read them, I write them, I correct them. They never cease to amaze me. The fact that we can string 26 letters together and communicate worlds with them, across centuries and cultural boundary lines, that we can form
- [March](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2007/03/26/march/) - We like March, his shoes are purple, He is new and high;Makes he mud for dog and peddler, Makes he forest dry;Knows the adder's tongue his coming, And begets her spot.Stands the sun so close and mighty That our minds are hot.News is he of all the others; Bold it were to dieWith the blue-birds
- [see how it glistens](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2007/02/01/see-how-it-glistens/) - What do you do when your cousin calls you up at quarter to ten at night and asks you to pull yourself out from under the blankets and tea and laptop you're curled up with and venture into the frigid night to go sledding? Mind you, by "sledding" I mean throwing yourself onto a slick
- [from the mouths of three year olds](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2007/01/31/from-the-mouths-of-three-year-olds/) - "Oh, that's so cute," Tabithah tells me..."... I wish I had one of those.""I wish this whooooole house was mine," Tab says, her face a centimeter away from mine. "Even your room.""What would you do with it all?" I ask her."I would have forty beds, probably," she answers."What would you do with that many beds?
- [happy birthday, Robbie Burns!](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2007/01/25/happy-birthday-robbie-burns/) - But tent me, Davie, Ace o' Hearts!(To say aught less wad wrang the cartes, And flatt'ry I detest)This life has joys for you and I;And joys that riches ne'er could buy; And joy's the very best.There's a' the Pleasures o' the Heart, The Lover an' the Frien';Ye hae your Meg, your dearest part, And I
- [every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2007/01/01/every-new-beginning-comes-from-some-other-beginnings-end/) - It's been a full, good year. Full of life, though death has touched us more than once. Full of love, though there have been frustrations and misunderstandings and times of getting off course. Full of God... always full of God.One of my "discoveries" this year has been the work of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, so I'll
- [wild with the winds of September](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/11/05/wild-with-the-winds-of-september/) - "Now had the season returned, when the nights grow colder and longer,And the retreating sun the sign of the Scorpion enters.Birds of passage sailed through the leaden air, from the icebound,Desolate northern bays to the shores of tropical islands.Harvests were gathered in; and wild with the winds of SeptemberWrestled the trees of the forest, as
- [the childlike wisdom of asking questions](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/09/26/the-childlike-wisdom-of-asking-questions/) - My sister Keturah, seven years old, ran into the living room yesterday calling out to her just-older sister, "Tirzah, Tirzah! Which came first--the chicken or the egg?"How far they got on THAT question I don't know, but I do know that life in my house is a neverending stream of questions. Some are long and
- [the God of Imagination](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/09/20/the-god-of-imagination/) - My friend and companion in weekly Bible study Rielly McLaren posted this on his blog recently. I liked it, so I thought I'd share it with you:...........The imagination is a pathway to knowing God, because it inspires wonder inside us. The imagination leads to wonder, wonder inevitably leads to knowingGod, and knowing God leads to
- [High Standards and Hypocrisy: Avoiding the Trap of a Divided Life](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/09/13/high-standards-and-hypocrisy-avoiding-the-trap-of-a-divided-life/) - But nothing covered up isWhich shall not be uncovered,Nor hiddenWhich shall not be known;Wherefore whatever in the darkness ye said,In the light shall be heard;And what in the ear ye spoke in chambers,Shall be proclaimed upon housetops.(Luke 12:2-3, The Englishman's Greek New Testament)If in life you do anything differently than other people--if you hold to
- [a different fairy tale](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/09/04/a-different-fairy-tale/) - Jeff Fountain of YWAM, Europe, sends out weekly updates (creatively called "weekly words"). I really appreciated this week's, so I thought I'd post it here.04 Sep/06A different fairy taleThe lines, painted in white calligraphy on the black factory wall, silently summarised why we were gathering over the past two weeks as YWAM leaders from around
- [incomparable hope](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/08/29/incomparable-hope/) - My grandfather, a gentle Mennonite man who leaves behind six children, twenty-seven grandchildren, and twelve great-grandchildren, passed away unexpectedly last Thursday. I wrote this reflection after his funeral yesterday.The day before Opa died found me in Luke 9:59-60. Jesus called a young man to follow him. "But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go
- [God loves emotional wrecks](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/08/12/god-loves-emotional-wrecks/) - I'm feeling a little emotional today. (Ok, fine, I'm perched up in the top of an emotional tree and every time I look down I lose it a little.) My best friend, who has been with me all week, took a train home this afternoon, and I really dislike goodbyes.Being on the brink of tears
- [the storm](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/07/31/the-storm/) - I read this last night in "Streams in the Desert" and loved it. It's very applicable to things in my life right now. "I recollect, when a lad, and while attending a classical institute in the vicinity of Mount Pleasant, sitting on an elevation of that mountain, and watching a storm as it came up
- [Drunk on Worry (Sober and Free)](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/06/15/drunk-on-worry-sober-and-free/) - The apostle Peter, in his first letter to the saints, urged the people of God to "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." Many of us are well familiar with these verses, but we
- [Heather and Snow and One who Lives](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/04/21/heather-and-snow-and-one-who-lives/) - From one of my favourite books, George MacDonald's "Heather and Snow," which is slated for publication by Little Dozen Press in the none-too-distant future. It is the story of Kirsty Barclay and her half-witted brother Steenie, whose chief joy is to wander the Highland mountains at night in search of "the bonny man" and His
- [The Drama](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/04/18/the-drama/) - This has been a significant Easter. A season, a weekend, that has altered my perspective by reminding me that we are all living, not a mundane, meaningless existence, but in a drama that began before creation and reached its most critical point two thousand years ago. It is the story of Life and Death. Last
- [fallen flower](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/03/29/fallen-flower/) - "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth away: But the word of the LORD endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."I Peter 1:24-25A friend of mine passed away
- [The Power of Stillness](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/03/20/the-power-of-stillness/) - "There is no spectacle in all the Bible so sublime as the silent Savior answering not a word to the men who were maligning Him, and whom He could have laid prostrate at His feet by one look of Divine power, or one word of fiery rebuke. But He let them say and do their
- [beautiful stranger](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/03/11/beautiful-stranger/) - My friend Alexis and I poured milk for about a hundred people last night, at a dinner down on Drouillard... and if you know Windsor, you know that's not exactly high society. New Song Church serves dinner for anyone who will come on Friday nights, so we're talking homeless people and a lot of folks
- [Invasion](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/03/08/invasion/) - Life is mostly predictable, but now and then something BIG happens. Reading Matthew 28 last night, I was struck by the angel. Throughout Scripture "the angel of the LORD" sometimes visits men, intervening in wars and upheaval, battling demonic powers, bringing messages from the throne of almighty God. And now he comes again: "And behold,
- [the song is sweet](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/2006/03/06/the-song-is-sweet/) - "In Ramah was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not." If you're familiar with Matthew's account of Jesus' birth, you know what that verse is all about. It was an ancient prophecy, fulfilled when Herod ordered that all

## Pages

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- [My Top 11 Christian Book Recommendations - Christian Fantasy and a Little Bit of Nonfiction](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/top-christian-book-recommendations-christian-fantasy-little-bit-nonfiction/) - Welcome, friends! Today I want to share with you 11 of my top reads over the last several years. For the most part these are "newer" books, meaning they've been published in the last two decades as opposed to a hundred years ago. I know how hard it can be, as a fan of Christian
- [Free (and Almost Free) Christian Fantasy](https://rachelstarrthomson.com/free-almost-free-christian-fantasy/) - Hey friends! I went digging around Amazon today to find you a collection of free or almost free fantasy books to curl up with over the holidays (or, if your holidays are anything like mine ... to curl up with AFTER the holidays, when things slow down a little). To be honest, I was a
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