Use Scripture

Use Scripture, slowly.

Writing

Articles & Devotionals

Short essays on reading Scripture slowly, honest questions about the Christian life, and devotional reflections. Newest first.

  1. 5 min read

    The gift of imperfect community

    The church is people, which means it will sometimes let you down. The New Testament does not pretend otherwise — it teaches us how to stay anyway. A short essay on why imperfect community is part of the design, not a flaw in it.

  2. 4 min read

    Cultivating a prayer life that grows

    Prayer is a friendship before it is a request. A short guide to growing a prayer life that lasts — built on habit, honesty, and the help of the Spirit.

  3. 5 min read

    The hope hidden in Lamentations

    A short, dark book at the back of the Old Testament gives us language we usually lack — the language of grief that does not let go of hope. A reading guide to Lamentations.

  4. 5 min read

    Reading the Beatitudes slowly

    Eight short sentences at the start of the Sermon on the Mount that quietly invert most of the world. A slow read of Matthew 5:1–12.

  5. 5 min read

    Honest questions, lasting faith

    The opposite of faith is not doubt. It is indifference. The Bible is full of honest questioners — and the pattern is that questions, brought to God rather than carried away from God, deepen faith.

  6. 5 min read

    Why the resurrection is the linchpin

    Christianity stands or falls on a historical claim. Why the bodily resurrection of Jesus is the single load-bearing belief — and why the earliest Christians treated it that way.

  7. 4 min read

    What 'gospel' actually means

    A four-letter word that has lost its sharpness through overuse. What the New Testament actually meant by "gospel," and why the original meaning still has teeth.

  8. 4 min read

    Reading Paul slowly

    Paul wrote letters to specific churches with specific problems. Reading them as letters — not as theology textbooks — opens them up. A short guide to entering the epistles.

  9. 4 min read

    Building a Bible-reading rhythm that lasts

    Most Bible-reading plans fail not because the plan was wrong but because the rhythm was wrong. A short guide to building one you will keep.

  10. 4 min read

    Reading Genesis slowly

    The first book of the Bible is one story, not a battlefield. A short guide to reading Genesis 1–12 as the start of a story that has not yet ended.