The light that never goes out

Advent 2025, Week 3: Psalm 139, Part 5

This guest post is by Molly Stouffer, a ministry student at Regent University.

Does anything feel like darkness in your life right now?

Maybe it’s sin that you can’t seem to shake yourself from, or shame that you’ve carried for such a long time that you feel its weight daily.

Maybe it’s the state of our world with so much turmoil and politics and violence and hate going on. You turn on the news and you feel fear for what next week or next year might bring.

Maybe it’s something closer to home. It’s your family and burdens that you carry for them. You’re worried that people you love might not yet know their savior.

Maybe it’s a cloud of mental health concerns or even physical health concerns that you can’t seem to find escape from even after countless years and efforts and dollars.

The message of Christmas is that Jesus is God who entered our darkness. He took on incarnate flesh, still holding on to all of his powerful divinity, while becoming entirely human. We see that in John 1:5.

He became the sacrificial lamb for our sins. The true light entered into the darkness of a fallen and sinful world. He shone his light, in a sense, by dying on the cross for our sins and raising from the grave three days later.

Now those of us who have walked in darkness have indeed seen such a great light. A light that shone into the darkness of our sin and saw us before we even realized that we needed saved. So we can walk in the light, but how? Think about the situations that might feel like burdens or worries in your life.

Because of Jesus, I want to push back for a moment on the darkness that you might be feeling, and I want to challenge you to consider something.

Why do we assume that we’re stuck there or that we’re unseen in darkness? In a previous post, I mentioned that God has seen us in darkness. He saw us in the darkness of the womb and what did he do there? He intricately wove you in darkness and made you exactly as he intended. He saw us in the darkness and sin of this world and what did he do? He sent a savior to come and rescue us in the darkness and be the light we needed.

In the beginning of time, God made light out of darkness as his first act of creation from the very beginning of the earth to the coming of Christ. God sends his son as the true light to shine through the dark of the world. From the beginning of our lives he knit us together in darkness.

So why do we assume now that he can’t work in the dark? Why do we assume that? Has he changed? Has anything about him changed? I don’t think so. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We’re encouraged by that in Hebrews 13:8. He has not changed and he’s never going to.

He will always be the God that created you in darkness, rescued you from the darkness of sin, and sees you now in whatever darkness you feel you might face.

In the first post in this week’s series on Psalm 139, I asked you to imagine what it would feel like waking up in a dark and foreign room in the middle of the night. You imagine the darkness covering the room.

Perhaps you’re feeling some of that right now. We know that we’re not home yet. This side of heaven is not our home.

We’re still in a world of darkness that’s clouded by sin. Yet God is present. Even if we cannot see him, he always sees us.

He always does and he always will. He will always be the light that never goes out. We can trust in him and lean into his light because the darkness with him is light as day.

While we’re on earth here we will still wrestle with darkness trying to sneak its way back into our life. But take heart and a deep breath and rest in the fact that darkness with God is as light as day because he is the light of the world. Cling to him and walk into his light because we know that the darkness is never dark with our God, with our bright light that is our God and our Savior.

Photo by ADARSH on Unsplash

How the light of Jesus can help us heal relationships

Advent 2025, Week 4: John’s Light of Christmas Past/Present/Future, Part 4

Jesus, the light of Christmas present, can bring healing to our broken relationships. Do you have any broken relationships in your life?

John elaborates on this in his epistle, his letter, 1st John, chapter 1, verse 5, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” 

Notice how the light of Christmas present comes out, as John continues writing in verse 7, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

We walk in the light, and that walking in the light, in Jesus’ light, means that we are purified from sin.  I love that thought, because it reminds me that I am not the one who can purify myself.  Jesus did the work of purifying us, by giving his life for us when he died.  John is using Old Testament imagery here.  In the OT sacrificial system, the blood of the sacrificial animal was like a detergent that washed away the sins of the people.  Similarly, Jesus’ blood is a detergent for the whole world.  Our response to that amazing gift, is the we walk in the light, as he is in the light.

Notice too that we walk in the present light of Jesus together, with each other.  Fellowship.  We have the beautiful gift of not only walking with Jesus, but with each other.  This is the beauty and necessity of a local church family.  We help each other walk in the light with Jesus.  This requires connection. Vulnerability.  Checking in with one another.  Walking through the darkness of life together.  It’s not shallow. It gets real.  Study the life of Jesus in the four Gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you’ll see how deeply he engaged with people.

John goes on to get practical again.  He writes in 1 John 2:8–10, “Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.”

Notice the theme of fellowship in the light again.  We are together, walking in the light together.  But if we claim to be in the light, and yet have hatred for our brother or sister, we are actually still in the darkness. 

What does that mean: “Still in the darkness”?  So often we don’t see ourselves accurately. We are in darkness if we hate.  It seems to me, though, that when we have hate in our lives, we have a hard time seeing it in ourselves, admitting it, and doing something about it.  Be reflective.  Ask God to show you your true self.  Ask people who are able to be honest with you.  Confess any hatred, contempt, bitterness, or grudge or other negative feeling or action you have toward another person or group of people.  Call out the darkness in your heart, mind, and actions. Ask Jesus to bring his light to dispel that darkness.  Confess, repent, ask for forgiveness.

We need the present light of Jesus’ love to fill us, and transform us.  We don’t need to be best friends with everyone in our lives, including those who used to be best friends, but we do need to forgive. 

Photo by Thiago Barletta on Unsplash

The significance of the night being bright as day for God

Advent 2025, Week 3: Psalm 139, Part 4

This guest post is by Molly Stouffer, a ministry student at Regent University.

In Psalm 139, verse 12, when David explains that the dark is not too dark for God, it’s because the night is bright as the day.

But how? To understand this, think about the first act of creation, all the way back in Genesis. The very first thing that God created was light. He didn’t need light for himself, but he made it with us in mind. He knew that we were going to need light so that we weren’t going to stumble around in darkness.

He also knew we were going to need another kind of light, so that we wouldn’t have to stumble around in the darkness of sin.

In John 1, we learn about Jesus, the son of God, who is described as the true light. And this light, his light, will just be so bright. It will be so bright that nothing could be dark anymore. Verse 9 and 10 of John 1 says, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. And he was in the world, and the world was made through him, and yet the world did not know him.”

So we see that we have the light from the sun, and yet we still needed another kind of light. And it wasn’t a light that everyone could see. He was in the world, and he made the world, and yet some people didn’t quite see his light.

It’s because it was another kind of light, a light that would shine in the darkness of sin. Though some people didn’t recognize Jesus as the true light, there will be a day when everyone will be able to see him for exactly who he is.

He is the true light. This kind of makes me think of this old verse from a hymn that I used to sing in church, “Great Is Thy faithfulness.” I think of the hymn’s line, “There is no shadow of turning with thee.”

When we’re with Jesus, walking with him, we walk in his light. We have the ability to be present with him in his light. But how are we able, and why should we want to walk in his light?

To answer that, we go back to Psalm 139, verse 12 again, but specifically the last part of this verse, “For darkness is as light with you.”

While you’re considering that phrase, I want to read you Isaiah 9:2, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them a light has shown.”

Notice the distinction as having been in darkness, but now seeing a light. I’m referring to the past tense nature of the words, “walked in darkness…are no longer walking in it.” This passage overwhelmingly reminds me of the darkness of sin and the light of salvation through Jesus.

Four verses later in Isaiah, a child is described as a wonderful counselor, a prince of peace, mighty God, and everlasting father. This child is Jesus, the one who is the true light. And when the true light shines, no darkness can overcome it.

Photo by Anirudh on Unsplash

How Jesus as Light of the World matters to our daily lives

Advent 2025, Week 4 – John’s Light of Christmas Past/Present/Future, Part 3

Jesus is the light of Christmas past and present.  He brought light into the world, and he continues to bring light in our lives.  How so? To answer that question this week, we’ve been studying the writings of his disciple John.

In John 3, verse 19, John writes,

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

John 3:19-21 has a practical application to how we followers of Jesus live our lives. We will get to that in a moment, but first let’s hear what Jesus himself said about being the light. In the Gospel of John, Jesus talks about being the light in numerous places.

In John 8:12, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Similarly in John 9:5, Jesus says, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Then there’s what he says in John 12:35 and 36, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going.  Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.’”

Jesus keeps talking about his light in John 12:46, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”

When we put these teachings together, how is Jesus the light? By dispelling the darkness of sin and death with the light of his righteous selflessness.

Jesus is the light in that he brings hope and love into darkness. Note that word “into.”  In John 12:46, he says “I have come into the world.”  That’s what we celebrate at Christmas.  Jesus brings the light of Christmas past and present into the world.

When he says he brings light into the world, he is not promising to remove the all darkness.  He says he brings light into the darkness.  How, though, does he bring light into the world?

He brings the light of truth.  As Christians we believe that Jesus not only has the truth, he himself is the embodiment of truth. 

In our world there are many cultures, organizations, churches, political parties claiming to have the truth.  But we Christians look to Jesus to translate the world for us.  His way is the true way.  He lived the true life.  We look at how he lived, and we strive to live like him.  That is how his light dispels the darkness in our world. 

How did Jesus live?

With humility, with a heart for those in need, with a courage to face hypocrisy, with a passion for the mission of God, with very little regard for material possessions, with a desire to help people experience abundant life.

To put it simply, to live the light of Jesus, we live sacrificially like he did.  Some call it the cruciform life.  Cruciform is in the shape of the cross.  And what happened on the cross?  Jesus gave his life, sacrificially for us. Jesus calls us to live that same way.  To be his disciples is to die to ourselves, he said, take up our cross, and follow him.

That involves believing in him.  Perhaps that’s where it starts, believing in him in our hearts and minds.  But following Jesus is an active way of life.  We live in the light when we do the deeds of light. Of love.  Of selfless love.  Living with love toward others from the love that we receive in our relationship with Jesus.

Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash

Knitting in the dark

Advent 2025, Week 3: Psalm 139, Part 3

This guest post is by Molly Stouffer, a ministry student at Regent University.

I’ve been trying to learn how to crochet since 2023. People who aren’t familiar with knitting or crocheting might see them as the same thing. I disagree entirely.

I can kind of do crocheting, but I’m not good. I gave some of my earliest projects as gifts to my boyfriend. I look at them now and think they’re really bad.

Crocheting is tough, but knitting, oh my goodness, that’s a challenge. If any of you can knit, kudos to you.

Knitting is so much more involved. Knitting requires more needles, and there’s endless spools of yarn going all at the same time. You’ve got all these strings, all the pearls, and I don’t quite know what. It’s a lot to keep up with if you want to make something that’s really beautiful.

In Psalm 139, David talks about knitting. Before we get to the knitting, let’s remember the context. In the first half of verse 12, David writes to God, “Even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is bright as the day.”

There is no place or moment that’s too dark for God. Now look at verses 13 through 16, where David expands on this idea by describing a dark place that each of us have been before, our mother’s womb.

David uses this analogy that each of us, even the original audience and the contemporary readers today, could resonate with. The womb is this dark place that each of us have been, and David reminds us that God is present there.

Here’s how David describes darkness and the womb in verses 13 through 16, “For you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother’s womb. And I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret. Intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”

These verses describe in intricate details that God was present and forming us from our earliest moments. The passage doesn’t have to say the words, “God was with us from our beginning,” because we can read about the hands-on nature of God that’s displayed in these verses. Of course we know that God was present, because how else would he have knit us together in the womb?

The word “knit” describes the intricate and delicate creation that is you. And if that alone isn’t enough to make you smile, that God intricately created you exactly the way He intended to, think about this: He did it in the dark.

If I tried to crochet anything in the dark, when the lights come on, you’re not going to be able to tell what it is. Even with the lights on, half the time you can’t tell what I’m making.

But in this dark place here, in the womb, God saw you. In the darkness, entirely unformed, God intricately knit you together. He wove together all your parts, from how you look, to how you talk, to how you speak, the way your personality is.

In our next post, we go back to verse 12, where David explains that the dark is not too dark for God, because the night is bright as the day. But how? We find out in the next post!

Photo by David Vilches on Unsplash

A new light is shining in the darkness

Advent 2025, Week 4 – John’s Light of Christmas Past/Present/Future, Part 2

What is the darkness in your life?  Maybe it is in a relationship.  Maybe it is inside you, like anxiety, which is a part of my life, or depression.  These long dark nights, like yesterday, the winter solstice.  The longest, darkest night of the year.  It can affect us.  The cold.  Maybe your darkness is financial.  Maybe a habit you just can’t seem to kick.  Maybe a negative, bitter, complaining attitude through which you view things in your life, and it is affecting your daily life and relationships.

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  John 1:4-5

In this verse a new light is shining in the darkness.  There is hope.

John is saying, “We need a new creation story, because of Jesus.”  Jesus is creator, and Jesus is the light shining in the darkness.  That’s different than the original creation story, but just as true. 

By saying that Jesus is the light, John is directing our attention to all sorts of imagery about light.  Not just the light of creation.  But the light of the pillar of fire that guided the nation of Israel on their journey to the promised land.  The light of the Bethlehem star. 

All of these symbolized something.  Yes there was a physical light, but in Jesus that light is symbolic, as he is, John says, the light of life. 

When we are in darkness, we can feel dead.  Or we feel like death warmed over.  We can feel exhausted, paralyzed, stuck.  Or like me when I was a kid coming up from the basement, rushing up the stairs because it felt like the darkness was literally nipping at my heels.  A lack of light symbolizes death.  The valley of the shadow of death. You know the darkness you feel in your life.  And you long for life to enter that dying situation.

Yet, Jesus, John tells us, is the bringer of light and life, and Jesus himself brings that life.  In Jesus is life.  He said that he came to bring eternal life in the future and abundant life now.  More on that in a moment.

For the time being, notice that we are talking about the light of Christmas past.  John is saying that Jesus brought a new kind of light, the light of life, when he was born.  Jesus’ real human birth was God taking on flesh, an astounding new hope for new life.  John puts it this way just a few verses later in John 1:9, “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.”

After reminding his readers of the light of Christmas past, John writes about the light of Christmas present, and we’ll learn about that in the next post.

Photo by Mehran Biabani on Unsplash

Do you feel comfort and/or anxiety in God’s presence?

Advent 2025, Week 3: Psalm 139, Part 2

This guest post is by Molly Stouffer, a ministry student at Regent University.

In Psalm 139, verse 11, David writes, “Darkness shall cover me.”

The word, “cover,” in the Hebrew is the same word that’s used all the way back in Genesis 3:15, when God is speaking to Adam and Eve, after they sinned. God tells them that their offspring “strike the head of the enemy.” This is the first time God refers to someone who was going to come and save the world. It is the first message of the gospel. The same Hebrew is translated “strike.”

In Psalm 139, that word is translated “cover.” This gives us the sense that the darkness that’s described here is like a thick, heavy blanket that’s laid across us, covering all sense of light. David is painting a picture for us.

In the previous post, I asked you to imagine a scenario of being in a dark, strange room in the middle of the night. I’m going to keep revisiting that scene to help us understand what God’s trying to say in Psalm 139. For example, I mentioned that David seems to be writing about hiding in the darkness. But is this verse really about fleeing? Having this impulse to just go from God? But go where? I don’t think it is.

I don’t think we can flee. All of Psalm 139 is about how deeply, personally God knows us. The verses leading up to verse eleven talk about this overwhelming and always present God.

That’s our God. His presence. His spirit. We can’t flee from it. Look at what David writes in verse 7, “Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” His point is that we can’t flee.

Then in verse 11 he acknowledges that idea, almost as if David is joking by saying, “The dark is so piercing, and I can’t see anything. Even the light feels dark.”

David here has finally been crowned king. And he’s experiencing God’s light after what may have been many countless years of waiting. So, this verse isn’t a desire to go away from the Lord.

It’s this introduction and this acknowledgement of the reality of God’s omnipresence, his constant never-ending, never-ending, never-changing presence. He never leaves us. There isn’t anywhere that we could go to flee from him.

On the blog last year, we studied the life of David. He had his fair share of moments where he might have wanted to flee far from God. And yet, in every moment of his life and in ours, God is present.

When I say this, you’re likely going to feel one of two things. The first being that you’re going to have a sigh of relief moment where your shoulders kind of drop and you let out a sigh. You can acknowledge in your heart that “God’s never going to leave me. There isn’t anything I could do to make him leave.” And that’s a comfort.

But on the other hand, the second option is that you might tense up a little bit. You may bite your lip or grit your teeth or have a feeling of anxiety in your chest. Knowing that you can never flee from God might make you worried. You can’t hide from him. You can’t disguise yourself or put on a mask.

But at the same time, you could be feeling both relief and anxiety. We can’t put on a disguise from him because he knows us and he will never leave us. His presence is constant.

That feeling, knowing that we can’t put on a disguise, goes both ways. We can’t pretend to be something that we’re not, whether that’s good or bad, because God sees us at a heart level. And whether your disguise is something you would disguise as Christian or not, God sees you at your heart level, beneath everything.

This may be a comfort to you that you don’t have to put on a get up, that you can come to him exactly as you are right now, and he’ll lovingly embrace you. Or it might be terrifying that God sees you exactly where you are right now. But I want to encourage you, though, to lean into that first feeling that we have the ability to come to him right now.

Whether we’re broken or not, we can come to him exactly as we are in this moment. We don’t have to put on an act. Find peace in the fact that your maker loves you and knows you so deeply and personally. His light sees through us, and he knows us down to the depths of our souls.

And that truth leads into the next verse of Psalm 139, which we’ll study in the next post.

Photo by Ahtziri Lagarde on Unsplash

Difficult family relationships at the holidays

Advent 2025, Week 4 – John’s Light of Christmas Past/Present/Future, Part 1

I have a friend from college who, together with his wife, have experienced numerous difficulties in parenting.  Our kids are about the same age, and they even had three boys then a girl just like us.  One of their sons married, then soon divorced.  One struggled with addiction and died from an overdose.  Most recently, they’ve experienced the ups and downs of parenting their teenage daughter. 

Those ups and downs included numerous parent–child battles, changing schools to deal with bullying, and most recently the loss of her driver’s license.

Parenting can be hard.  Parenting teens can be really hard. Family relationships in general can be hard.  Maybe your holiday gatherings have already begun.  Maybe you’re looking forward to them. Maybe there’s drama and pain in your family. Probably a mix of both.

This week we’re going to look at Christmas past, Christmas present, and Christmas future, but without the ghosts in Charles Dickens’ book A Christmas Carol.

For our Christmas past, present, and future, we’re going to follow the writings of one of Jesus’ disciples, the one whom some scholars consider to be Jesus’ closest friend.  John.  John has something to say about Jesus’ past, present, and future, and I think it will provide some hope and encouragement to those difficult relationships.

John wrote a lot of the New Testament.  His writing style has led some to call him the Dr. Seuss of the NT.  You know how Dr. Seuss used only a few words, repeated a lot?  John is like that. 

One of the words John repeats frequently is the word “light.” 

In John 1, verses 1 through 3:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

Look at the first verse.  What famous Old Testament verse does it remind you of? 

Genesis 1:1.  “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Notice how John is basically saying, “We need to expand that Genesis story a bit. Yes, God created.  But what we now know is that Jesus is God, and therefore Jesus, God the Son, was a part of that creative process.” 

Think back to Genesis 1, and what is the first thing God created? “Let there be … what?” 

Light!

So far, in verses 1–3, though, John hasn’t mentioned light.

He’s about to. In fact, he will say something surprisingly different about light, when compared to the original Genesis account of creation. We learn what John says about light in the next post.

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Jesus’ parable that inspired Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

Advent 2025, Week 4 – Light of Christmas Past/Present/Future, Preview

Will you watch a dramatization of Charles Dickens’ famous A Christmas Carol this holiday season?  Some literary scholars believe that Dickens’ source material is one of Jesus’ parables.  What parable do you think might have sparked Dickens’ imagination to think about ghosts?  Does Jesus have any parables featuring ghosts who help people think about the ramifications of choices in their lives?  The answer is at the conclusion of this post.

This week on the blog, we’re going to conclude our Advent series with a theme that has some resonance to Dickens’ ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.  But I won’t be mentioning ghosts.  Instead, I’m going to be talking about light.  For that, we’re going to rely on another famous author.  This other famous author is sometimes called the Dr. Seuss of the New Testament.  Do you know who I mean?  Like Dr. Seuss, this ancient author repeats a lot of simple concepts to make complex ideas understandable. The person I’m referring to writes about light frequently.  We’re going to talk about the light of Christmas past, present, and future.  First post coming soon.

Oh, and Jesus’ parable that likely inspired Dickens? Luke 16:19–31, The Rich Man & Lazarus. While Jesus doesn’t call them ghosts, the rich man and Lazarus meet Abraham in the afterlife, and have quite an interesting conversation about the meaning of life. Jesus’ original audience would have been shocked that he put the rich man in hell, while Lazarus goes to heaven with Abraham. Why? I try to answer why in this post about the parable.

Photo by Phil Robson on Unsplash

The confusion of darkness

Advent 2025, Week 3 – Psalm 139, Part 1

This guest post is by Molly Stouffer, a ministry student at Regent University.

I want you to imagine with me waking up in the middle of the night. And instead of drifting off to sleep again, you realize something. You aren’t where you fell asleep. You’re not even home.

And yet it’s the middle of the night, so it’s so dark and you can’t even tell exactly where you even are.

In this scenario, how would you feel? Maybe scared, confused, frightened, or afraid?

What would you do? Would you try and fall back asleep thinking, “Oh, it’ll be okay when I wake up?” Would you sit still in bed waiting for something to happen?

Probably not.

I think the most sensible thing, and the thing I would probably do, is I would try to find some kind of light.

This week we’re going to look at Psalm 139, especially verses 11 and 12, “If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night. Even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”

So a little bit of background here. Psalm 139 is written by David.

Most bibles note that, but what they don’t mention is that it’s written by David around the time of 1048 BC. If you don’t know anything special about that year, that’s okay. Some scholars believe this psalm was written by David around the time that he would have been crowned king over Israel.

In 1 Chronicles 13:1-4, we see David go before leaders from all across the assembly of Israel, and the assembly decides that what David pleads for, the Ark of the Covenant, is what was right in their eyes. In 2 Samuel 5:3, David is then anointed as king over all of Israel. This psalm is written from the position that David is experiencing these blessings from God.

After a long period of darkness over Israel, David’s rise to power on the throne would have been a light at the end of the tunnel for so many of God’s people.

With that context in mind, let’s focus on Psalm 139, verse 11, “If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night.”

This verse, from a first glance, may appear that David, as the psalmist, is expressing a desire to flee something. But when we understand some of the words in verse 11, and its surrounding context (the verses before and after), and what they explain, we can see the true meaning emerge.

In the next post, we’ll start that deeper study by looking at the word “cover” in verse 11.

Photo by Илья Мельниченко on Unsplash