Deut 17-20 Our US system of justice follows these patterns that Moses gave the Israelites. Just like then, so today, we must not judge a person based on the evidence of one witness but rather have at least two. This is impartial judging and brings forth truth rather than what is false. Any death is […]
Job 33-35 Elihu Speaks Elihu has been silent up to this point. Now he is “full of words,” and angry. In fact, that character quality is mentioned four times. He was angry because Job saw himself as innocent and God as the aggressor. In hindsight, it would have been better for Elihu to have been […]
Zechariah 7-8 God and People NoticeWhen others hear my voice or see my actions, what does it tell them about my Christian walk and talk? The leaders in Bethel came to inquire about their practices of fasting. They expected to hear that all they were doing was righteous and pleasing to God, but they were […]
Hosea 8 to 10 If you listen carefully, you will hear many saying: “do not judge.” Jesus used that verse to remind us of the standard of judgment and that the standards we apply to others, God applies to us. Jesus is teaching that we are not God and we don’t know the motives behind […]
Jeremiah 5/Gen 18 Have you ever felt the deepness of a heart’s sadness? The world seems shattered, and the residents see death all around them. At times like this, our words lay fallow in our prayers—or so we think. We wonder, as Jeremiah did, Is there any good news, or Is it all bad news? […]
Luke 14 and James 2 “Pride and Prejudice.” Jesus and James show us the effects of both prideful and prejudicial choices. Luke recorded a story told by Jesus about how we view ourselves and demonstrate it in our options at a wedding feast, and the second story in James shows us how others view us […]
Jeremiah 5 Is our Heart like God’s? Jeremiah began to wonder, is there any good news? Is it all bad news? Like Ezekiel whom God told to look for a man who would stand in the gap, [Ezekiel 22:30] God told Jeremiah, “See if you can find a single person who deals honestly and tries […]
Judges 19-21 How do we handle stories like the one God left for us in these last chapters? God wants us to see how patient He is with our sinful natures. God is also challenging us to recognize why we need to evangelize the world with the gospel message, which is the only path to […]
Numbers 5 &6: Why so much given to the innocence or guilt of the woman and not the man? Is this not one-sided? But to help us see the bigger picture we must recall the warning in Prov 6:34. Men are more prone to retaliation than women. Second, her womb must be preserved; unlike today. […]
Luke 18 Yesterday Luke introduced us to the “freak, geek and the seek(er).” Today Luke shares another group of citizens: the “scoundrel and the scam artist.” First we meet a widow who encounters the “scoundrel” who is an unjust judge who cared little about God or man. She also is taken in by the “scam […]
