Reflections

These reflections began as quiet meditations between patient visits and pages of fiction. They’ve grown into a journal of faith — a place to wrestle with Scripture, grace, and the call to live faithfully in a restless world.

  • Scripture Life Savers

    Scripture Life Savers

    Life can become overwhelming very quickly. Anxiety, grief, pain, conflict, financial worries, and fear can leave us searching for something solid to hold on to. Scripture Life Savers is designed to make the wisdom and comfort of the Bible easier to reach in those moments.  Each Life Saver begins with a passage from the King…


  • Can My 90-Year-Old Mother Still Come to Know Jesus?

    Can My 90-Year-Old Mother Still Come to Know Jesus?

    My mother is ninety years old. She was raised in a poor, fairly dysfunctional, and largely uneducated secular Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York. Through intelligence, determination, and hard work, she became one of the first in her family to attend college. After marrying my father, a physician, and raising our family, she earned a…


  • Should Christians Expect the Tribulation? Revisiting Revelation 20

    Should Christians Expect the Tribulation? Revisiting Revelation 20

    Acknowledging the Question That Started It All Before presenting this study, I would like to acknowledge the person whose careful reading of Scripture inspired it: my wife, Jinmei Xu. This exploration did not begin with a theological debate or a desire to challenge established doctrine. It began with a simple question raised by a thoughtful…


  • Did Solomon Write Job? The Wisdom Parallels Between Job and Proverbs

    Did Solomon Write Job? The Wisdom Parallels Between Job and Proverbs

    The Book of Job is anonymous, which means biblical scholars have spent centuries doing what biblical scholars do best: confidently disagreeing with one another. Yet Job’s theological depth, poetic brilliance, and relentless emphasis on wisdom have led many readers to wonder whether it emerged from the same literary and theological world associated with King Solomon.…


  • Why Send the Son? A Question Worth Asking

    Why Send the Son? A Question Worth Asking

    If God already had a system—Law, failure, repentance, remnant, repeat—why introduce the dramatic plot twist of the Incarnation? It’s a fair question, and one that thoughtful readers of Scripture eventually run into. The Old Testament rhythm seems clear enough: God gives the Law (Exodus 20), Israel fails (reliably), judgment follows (also reliably), and a remnant…


  • Understanding the Purpose of the Beatitudes

    Understanding the Purpose of the Beatitudes

    Many Christians wrestle with a central question when reading the Sermon on the Mount: what was Jesus really trying to accomplish? On one hand, Jesus calls His listeners to radical inner righteousness—equating anger with murder and lust with adultery. On the other hand, believers still fall short no matter how sincerely they try. Was Jesus…


  • When God Feels Silent: An Easter Reflection on Psalm 22

    When God Feels Silent: An Easter Reflection on Psalm 22

    Easter is often wrapped in celebration, light, and victory, yet for many of us, it arrives with quieter emotions. There are seasons when prayers seem to go unanswered, when God feels distant, and when faith becomes something we hold rather than something we feel. Psalm 22 speaks directly into that tension. It begins with one…


  • Holding Joy and Sorrow Together During Holy Week

    Holding Joy and Sorrow Together During Holy Week

    For me, this time of year has become something I didn’t expect. What used to feel simple now feels layered. Growing up, Passover was filled with joy, family, and a deep sense of identity. It was a celebration of freedom, of God’s faithfulness to His people. But now, through my belief in Jesus Christ, this…


  • The Narrow Gate and the Faithful Remnant

    The Narrow Gate and the Faithful Remnant

    While reading the book of Deuteronomy recently, I was struck by how clearly God lays out the covenant with His people. Blessings follow obedience. Consequences follow rebellion. Again and again God speaks of testing the people of Israel, not because He needs information, but because faith must be revealed in the choices people make. That…


  • The Beatitudes, the Holy Spirit, and the Myth of Effortless Holiness

    The Beatitudes, the Holy Spirit, and the Myth of Effortless Holiness

    I’m currently reading a book on the Beatitudes whose central claim is both bracing and unsettling. The author argues that true Christians should actually live the teachings of Jesus as articulated in the Sermon on the Mount: meekness, purity of heart, freedom from anger, freedom from lust, radical love. So far, so good. He goes…


  • When God Speaks Through Others: Lessons from Paul’s Awakening

    When God Speaks Through Others: Lessons from Paul’s Awakening

    When Paul fell to the ground on the road to Damascus, he was overwhelmed by a light brighter than the noonday sun and a voice that broke open his entire world. In that moment, he expected total clarity, a divine download of purpose, instruction, and direction. Instead, he heard something unexpected: “Rise and enter the…


  • Christ Is Head

    Christ Is Head

    The great Christian evangelist, Watchman Nee believed that every Christian must learn to declare that \”Christ is Head,\” emphasizing that we must not follow our own will. He believed that a key part of the Christian life was to be humbled by the Lord and to surrender to Him. To support this thesis, he gave…