The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Babylon (5): The Eric Rule

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  Deuteronomy 6:5  NASB You shall love – Love God—or else!  Is that what it sounds like?  Is that how it makes you feel?  How can you be forced to love someone?  You can’t!  Impossible!  So, if that’s what…

The Biblical Surrogate

When brothers live together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband’s brother shall have relations with her and take her to himself as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.  Deuteronomy 25:5  NASB The duty – We…

Do Your Duty

As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the multifaceted grace of God  1 Peter 4:10 NASB Employ it – I’ve written a lot of linguistic studies.  More than 8000 and counting.  But today I just don’t feel like it.  I feel spent, lonely, anxious.  I’m feeling worn…

Call of Duty

Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” Matthew 26:38  NASB Watch– We know the story all too well.  Yeshua makes a request that the disciples are unable to handle.  In spite of Yeshua’s obvious need for emotional support, the disciples all fall asleep. …

Raison d’être

Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you who serve Him, doing His will. Psalm 103:21 NASB Will – What does it mean to do God’s will? We often think it must mean fulfilling His commandments and ordinances or listening to the guidance of the Spirit or acting in righteous ways. But I’m not so…

Gloriously Hidden

Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, YHWH appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty, walk before Me, and be blameless.” Genesis 17:1 Walk – Oswald Chambers knew the Lord.  His insights continue to challenge believers decades after his death.  One of his great concerns was the call to humility.  As…

Filial Responsibility

“Am I my brother’s keeper?” Genesis 4:9 Keeper – “It’s his problem.” “I can’t be responsible for everything!” “He’s just got to grow up.” Have you ever heard yourself saying something like this? In a world system that emphasizes the individual, we often defer involvement, feeling as though the best we can do is make…