This post went live on Tuesday, 2/22/2022 at 2:22 am EST. In light of this fun date alignment, I thought I’d share a few thoughts. In Genesis 1, God creates the world in six days, resting on the seventh (Sabbath). The flow of each day is mostly the same. First, God speaks order into the chaos, and things come into existence. Then, God calls what he made good, and time progresses. Creation in Pairs However, a careful reading reveals a more nuanced and complex structure. Reality starts formless and empty. To fix this, God creates in two sets of three […]
Author Archive: Matt Johnson
Advent of the Suffering Son of Joseph
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”“Joy to the world!”“‘Tis the season to be jolly!” In our culture, Christmas has become synonymous with a time of merry celebration. But, there are hurting people all over our broken world today that holiday clichés of cheer fail to help. Maybe you’ve lost a loved one this year, and this is your first Christmas with an empty chair. Maybe this is the 20th year in a row of being isolated from family or friends. I write this for you: understanding the meaning of Christmas won’t immediately take away your grief or loneliness. […]
40 Days in Spiritual Quarantine
The LORD said to Moses, “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has an infectious skin disease or a discharge of any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean because of a dead body. Send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.” Numbers 5:1-3 Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I stumbled across that the English word “quarantine” comes from a Latin root meaning “forty”. This word was first used when ships containing people or goods would “quarantine” at a port for […]