Altars and Idols All the animals and all the creatures … came out of the ark, one kind after another. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse […]
Delivered from the Paw (Part 2) David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off […]
Delivered from the Paw (Part 1) And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!” ––1 Samuel 17:37, KJV God […]
Light and Shadow He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. ––Isaiah 53:3 Glory be to God for dappled things – For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple […]
God Hasn’t Changed His Mind About You For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the […]
Performance vs. Mastery There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears. ––Philippians 1:6, MSG We’ve heard it a thousand times: Our identity as […]
Freedom For … You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. ––Revelation 4:11 For the glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God. […]
Freedom To … Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ––John 8:34-36 Back in the day some of us (of a certain […]
The “Ethnically Unacceptable” There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ––Galatians 3:28 Samaritans were perceived as an ethnic malfunction in the days of Jesus––a blight which reminded the Jews of a season in their history they would rather forget. Samaritans […]
The Morally Unacceptable If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is––that she is a sinner. ––Luke 7:39 Religion is tricky. I’m not talking Jesus-connected relationship, but plain ‘ol religion. On the surface, it looks great: folks who try to follow a […]
