Welcome to this week’s Companion Thought on the Minor Prophet, Obadiah. No believer has an excuse for not reading his book. It’s only one chapter long! However, its story is rooted in a complex family feud. I won’t give the details here—I go to it in detail in the Bible Companion Book 9—but here’s the summary: two brothers become two nations that end up hating each other. When one suffers a devastating defeat, the other is not only gleeful but also helps destroy him. What ma

Welcome to this week’s Companion Thought on the Minor Prophets. The prophet Amos gives us the well-known Scripture, “Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard a lot of people quote this verse as a blessing, a picture of a time of unprecedented peace and abundance where God’s righteous kingdom will reign. But here’s something to consider. Throughout the gospel, we’re given the bad news first. Only afte

The 1993 romantic comedy Groundhog Day is about a weatherman who gets caught in a time loop while covering a Groundhog Day event in a small Pennsylvania town. And so, he is doomed to living that day over and over again and is powerless to stop it. When we read the books of the prophets, we get the same feeling as the weather man in the movie. God’s people are stuck in a repeating cycle of sin they can’t seem to get out of. That’s bad enough, but if we do what the prophets enc

The prophet Hosea is known for marrying a prostitute who breaks his heart—a story that reflects how our unfaithfulness grieves God and destroys families. As the tale unfolds, we’re given a multitude of insights into how we, as believers, are to respond in unfair and pressure situations. In Hosea 14:6, Hosea describes a believer as a person who carries a “fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.” Cedar is a type of tree that when cut has a warm, spicy aroma that is comforting. Plea

Welcome to Companion Thought, over the next few weeks we’ll take a short hike into the Scriptures using The Bible Companion as a guide. Book 8 (The Major prophets) and Book 9 (The Minor Prophets) recently released, so of course, I’ve been thinking a lot about these ancient storytellers We usually associate their writings with judgment. But these books are ultimately about hope. How to find it. How to live in it. You might be surprised to learn that messages of the prophets ar

If you are like me, you find yourself tiptoeing around conversations that might trigger emotional responses from friends and family about the state of our nation. People I love and respect, people I know love the Lord, hold political positions opposite to mine. I’ve learned not to make assumptions, not even in church. And lately, I’ve been asking the Lord if these friends are saying something I need to hear. One thought that keeps coming to mind is this: faith and patriotism

In 1997 the car my 18-year-old son Michael and four other teenagers were riding in flipped on a country road. Mike suffered a permanent traumatic brain injury. Before that night, we already knew he was in trouble. He’d been in rehab. Through his program, I’d received an education in drugs and alcohol that opened my naive eyes (and nose) to substances I’d had no experience with. Pot was the least of Mike’s problems but the pungent odor from the water pipe he used to smoke it—a

Father and daughter, Pastor Floyd Westbrook and Karen Westbrook Moderow ministering together. In 1993, my father, Pastor Floyd Westbrook challenged a group of men and women from his weekly Bible study to join him in reading the Bible from cover to cover. He found if he wrote short daily lessons for each chapter, people stayed engaged and were transformed by the Scripture they read. His work, though enjoyed by hundreds, was never widely published. I shared his passion for maki

I've just completed an eleven day personal retreat in Morro Bay. It was all I hoped it would be--a time of renewal, writing, walking...

While in D.C. for meetings, my husband Joe and I visited my niece Megan and her three children—Sawyer (7), Cash (5) and baby Norah. As we...