Covenants and Vows


Mark 10 and Matt 19 A covenant is a binding agreement. As God made a covenant with His people, marriage partners covenant together by a vow that this union is for life or until God calls one home. What does that entail? It means what Solomon wrote: “When you make a vow to God, do […]

God is Patient


Exodus 12-15 Short Memories We remember in Exodus 5:2, Pharaoh had said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey him by releasing Israel? I do not know the Lord, and I will not release Israel!” After ten plagues, you would have thought he would now know the true God, but Pharaoh is stubborn and […]

A Promise Made is a Promise Kept


Exodus 4-6 God takes what is imperfect (in our eyes) and uses it for His glory. He wants us to see that it is His glory, not ours. And so we meet Moses as a shepherd who, like many of us, feels like they have failed in this life. They are not waiting for the […]

Behind the Scenes


Exodus 35-37 God Calls, Gifts, and Anoints In the tale of the Wizard of Oz, the wizard was orchestrating “behind the scenes” to get the Emerald City just the way he wanted it. God works behind the scenes and we often don’t know who or what is happening. Yet, He is in the business of […]

Lessons from Jethro


Exodus 18 In the course of time after Moses has been guiding the children of the Exodus, his father-in-law arrives.  He observed and “rejoiced because of all the good that the Lord had done for Israel” [Ex 18:9] In addition, he said; “now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods.” [Ex […]

Are you Blessed?


 Psalm 1 to 4 “Blessed Men and Women” God blessed Job; “a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil.” James references Job “Think of how we regard as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance…” [James 5] Now, as we leave Job behind and move […]

God honors courage and humility


Numbers 26 & 27 Louis May Alcott wrote a classic called Little Women, which captivated audiences and still does today. But here in an obscure passage, we read about, not four, but five little women and the problem they faced. As Moses recorded the male inheritances of the children of Israel, he listed the names of […]

Waiting…easy or hard?


Exodus 32 Do you have trouble waiting–especially for God to act, to speak, or “fill in the blank?” Do you become impatient? Do you want to wait, but circumstances take over, and you decide to take matters into your own hands? The Israelites had just said, ‘we will obey.’ Yet when a test came into […]

Grumbling or Trusting?


Exodus 5 to 7 When God calls us to His work do we immediately respond or are we like Moses with his many excuses: I can’t speak eloquently; send someone else or why me? God wants us to trust He will equip us for the task. For Moses, God gave him his brother Aaron to […]