Psalm 41 How does one pray for the sick and bedridden? Do we pray that God takes them home or do we pray for their deliverance? It seems that there will always be those who are hypocritical in how they respond to us when we are set aside for a time. They come with words […]
Luke 13: “Repent…”Jesus is asking if we are prepared for eternity. Without the work of the Holy Spirit to bring us to repentance of the heart, we are the most desperate people. In Jesus’ journey around Israel, people asked him about repentance and his message of grace and mercy. The recent calamities of that time […]
Luke 6 How do you see and experience true wisdom and a life that produces rewards? Remember, what you have now is temporal, and if you have nothing but obedience, then that will be rewarded not here but in the afterlife. Jesus wanted the religious leaders to look around them. Did they see those who […]
Matt 24 and 25 This is an old saying that says we can economize in small matters but miss the opportunity to save or gain in large matters. So what does that saying have to do with these two chapters? Jesus is telling the disciples to be wise one must be discerning where they spend […]
Esther 1-5 One thing we learn from this story is how God can and will use even the impulsiveness of a king to bring about His plan to preserve His people. King Ahasuerus, as we have seen in chapter one, is an impulsive king. He makes snap judgments without thinking of the long-term consequences. He […]
Ezra 1-3 One of the promises God gave his errant children is that after 70 yrs. they could return to Israel. Ezra believed that promise and prepared himself to not only go there but also to guide the people in this large company. Imagine being in this company of many, many people with large gifts […]
Ezekiel 22 Standing in the Gap As the prophet of God, Ezekiel uses great illustrations to grab our attention and help the exiles understand their problem before a holy God. One is this statement: Eze 22:30: “I looked for a man from among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me […]
Choices and Destiny Ezekiel 19 Yes, you are free to make choices, but you are not free from those consequences. As noted, the rich man in Luke 16:19-31 will live through eternity with the choice he made here on earth. He can’t blame God, for God has provided all the evidence one needs to accept […]
Numbers 6 Last night a precious friend shed his earthly garments for the garments of the righteous in heaven. He now stands clothed in the garments that had been prepared for him in eternity past because “no one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from […]
Job 14-16 Job listened and wisely reminded his friends that no one can know their appointed time of passing from this life to the next. No one knows the hour or the day of their departure to heaven or hell, but they can know their destiny. Job rightly knows that even if he dies, he […]
