Serving with Your Heart

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  Deuteronomy 6:5  NASB Strength – If I asked you where this statement is found in the Bible, you would probably direct me to Matthew 22:37 where Yeshua cites this verse in response to the question about the…

Party Time

We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.  Romans 12:6a Berean Study Bible Gifts – Paul introduces the subject of gifts with the word chárismata.  The Greek text does not designate these as spiritual gifts.  Church doctrine often views this word as though it is confined to the spiritual realm, but that is an extension…

Pleasing Pursuits

We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.  Romans 12:6 Berean Study Bible Gifts– The Greeks recognized a connection between chairo (joy) and edone (pleasure).  In later Greek thinking the two terms are barely distinguishable.  Alignment with the deepest expression of joy is the truest sense of pleasure. Eric Liddell made the connection when he…

Work Hard, Play Hard?

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, Ecclesiastes 2:24 ESV Toil – “Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work we go.” Ah, the naiveté of those seven dwarfs in the Disney…

Taking Care of Business

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy; six days you shall labor and do all your work; and the seventh day is a sabbath to YHVH your God; you shall not do any work, . . . Exodus 20:8-10   J. Green translation Work – Work/worship/serve is the combination of meanings associated with the…

Double Trouble

For man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward. Job 5:7 NASB Trouble – “Don’t give me yours. I have enough of my own.” That’s right. Each one of us has enough trouble to last us all the days we live. It’s just part of being in this world. Don’t’ believe it? Try this….

Serving the Lord

“It shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul, Deuteronomy 11:13 NASB To serve Him with all your heart – Maimonides points out that the Hebrew expression, le’ovdo bekol…

Relationship Management

And the Twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables . . .”  Acts 6:2  NASB Not desirable – What does God want you to do?  Ah, while you are answering that question you must also ask,…

Variations on a Theme

The LORD is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.  Psalm 145:17 ESV Kind – David’s declaration answers several questions.  First, it answers the question, “Why does God let these terrible things happen?”  David declares that the question itself is misinformed.  YHWH is righteous in all His ways.  Tsaddiq entails that…

How to Honor the Sabbath

Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.  Exodus 31:14  NASB Work – In an internet article titled “How to Honor the Sabbath”…