Author: David Cay

The Book of Ruth – July 5, 2026

Read the passage: Ruth 1

We are starting a new series in the Book of Ruth!

Ruth takes place in the era of the Judges, which is arguably the worst era of Israel’s history. There was moral and spiritual collapse everywhere. Not only was it chaos on a moral and spiritual level, economically, things were in shambles too.

There was no food because of a famine and in the ancient world, this was not just an “economic” problem, but it was a theological indicator that something was deeply wrong.

The land was supposed to be blessed if Israel stayed faithful to Yahweh, so the fact that the crops are failing was a sign of God’s dissatisfaction. In v.1-5, we are introduced to a family: Elimelech and his wife, Naomi. They have two sons.

Because of the famine, they move to Moab, which isn’t the best place for an Israelite to go to. The sons end up marrying Moabite women, which was discouraged, because of their commitment to other gods like Molech. And then absolute tragedy strikes!

Elimelech, the patriarch of the family, dies. And then the two sons also die, BUT they die without having children. This is a very big deal in an ancient world dominated by men. It wasn’t just personal heartbreak. It also meant no inheritance. It meant no economic security and no social standing.

Our Bible passage today is about how we can respond to suffering? Every single one of us inevitably will experience some sort of suffering in this broken world. It’s going to happen, but we have a choice on how we respond to it. In our passage, we have two sufferers in Naomi and Ruth and both respond differently to their circumstances.

The Book of Jonah – May 24, 2026

Read the passage: Jonah 4

Today, we get to the end of Jonah’s story.

Let’s first quickly review the story so far. At the beginning, God told Jonah to warn the Ninevites of impending judgement. Remember, the Ninevites have done atrocious things too!

They would cut off their enemies legs and one arm, leaving the other arm and hand so they could shake the victim’s hand in mockery as he was dying. They forced friends and family members to parade with the decapitated heads of loved ones on elevated poles.

The Ninevites were a very violent society. Jonah didn’t want to warn the Ninevites. He didn’t want to give them a chance, he would rather they stay the way they are so God can just destroy them. Nothing would make Jonah happier than an obliterated Nineveh.

So, Jonah runs away and he finds out the hard way that he can’t run away from God. So, he reluctantly goes to Nineveh and warns them of looming judgment if they don’t change their ways. And lo and behold, the people of Nineveh shockingly take the warning seriously.

They turn from their evil and violent ways and God shows them mercy. He doesn’t destroy them. And this brings us to our passage, let’s see how Jonah responds when he sees that God had spared the city. When he sees that God has shown mercy to this violent city.

The Book of Jonah – May 3, 2026

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Read the passage: Jonah 1:4-16

We all wonder sometimes what is God doing. You may have big dreams, but at times it seems like everything is just falling apart. Maybe this year has been really painful. Our Bible story today helps us make sense of our trouble.

It reminds us that God is working in ways that we might not expect, that he’s using our trouble to empower and draw us to himself.

Last week, I talked about Jonah and how God wanted him to warn the Ninevites of impending judgment. But Jonah didn’t want to help them, so instead, he ran away from God. He got on a boat and tried to sail as far away as he could.

The Book of Jonah – April 26, 2026


Read the passage: Jonah 1:1-6

Maybe you had big plans for your life, but it never worked out, leaving you confused and disappointed. That’s how I felt, when people were leaving all around me as I pastored a small church. I wanted to run! Yet God was teaching me that I still need to love and obey him, right where I was at.

That is what our Bible story is about today. It helps us understand the core basics of God’s will for our lives. Our story teaches God’s will is love in the big picture and faithfulness in each moment. We’ll see this pattern in the book of Jonah!

Encounters with Jesus – March 15, 2026

Read the passage: Matthew 17:24-27

Culture clashes are inevitable. However, it isn’t just between ethnic cultures. It also happens between our Christian culture and the secular culture that we live in. We feel that tension because we see the world differently.

How do we navigate this tension that we feel with people who don’t believe like us? Some Christians respond by trying to blend in at all costs so that they don’t look weird. Other Christians become very zealous, yet they become unnecessarily offensive that it affects the mission.

The Bible gives us a better way to deal with the tension.

Encounters with Jesus – February 15, 2026

Read the passage: Matthew 8:5-13

Growing up, I had a pastor named Jesse Morales. He was awesome! He played basketball with me. He was always asking about my walk with Jesus. And he believed in me! When I was in high school, he asked me to preach one Sunday. That was scary!

However, the best thing I admired about him was that he always shared his faith. He always told me stories of sharing his faith with someone at the gas station and then I’d meet that guy at church.

Then one day, he was diagnosed with ALS, which is a fatal neurodegenerative disease. This disease starts taking away your motor neurons. It progressed to the point where he couldn’t talk anymore.

So, when I visited him, he would communicate using a letterboard. I had to write down what he was saying to me. And he was always asking me again, how my walk with Jesus was going.

Do you know what amazed me the most?! Even though he couldn’t talk anymore, he was still sharing his faith, using the letterboard. He had a caregiver named Sonya and with the letterboard he shared about how she can have peace with God and eternal life with Jesus!

And you know what happened?! Sonya became a Christian! Isn’t that crazy!

When I heard that story, I was so amazed at his faith. Here’s a man that can’t talk anymore and yet he’s still find ways to share Jesus to people. He could have packed it in and just waited to be with be with Jesus. But he was still on mission, even till his last breath.

Our passage today is about amazing faith. We will learn from a person whose faith was so great that even Jesus was amazed.