Pay Day

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 NASB Wages – opsonion. “What is appointed for purchase.” H. W. Heidland provides the following insight: “the use of the word brings out three important points: a. that sin is a deceiver,…

Fitness Formula

He restores my soul; he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Psalm 23:3 Hebrew World Restores – David was just out of touch. If he really wanted restoring, he would have grabbed a PowerAde or an energy bar. He might have taken extra multi-vitamins or gone to the doctor to…

HARD LESSONS

Scott Peck was right. Life is difficult. But perhaps it is difficult in a different way than he imagined. He noted that our expectations of comfort and pleasure are at odds with the reality of true fulfillment. Real life comes from the willingness to live for something bigger than myself (Heschel). That means sacrifice at…

Terrors in the Night

I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. Psalm 34:4 NASB Fears – Have any of your really bad dreams turned out to be real? Do you sometimes feel as if you are living in a nightmare? Even a cursory look at human history will convince you that…

David’s Duet

That You examine him every morning and try him every moment? Job 7:18 NASB Try – Job starts his declaration in very much the same way David does. “What is man that You magnify him and are concerned about him?” (Job 7:17) But maybe Job has a slightly different reason for his statement. David’s psalm…

Noah’s Rules

but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. Acts 15:20 NASB Abstain – Can we finally put this one to bed? The council of Jerusalem issued this decision for Gentiles who wanted to join the Jewish way of…

Bloodbath

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; . . . Genesis 1:26 NASB Image – You know, sometimes I think that all we do is circulate around poor exegesis of the Genesis text and as a result all kinds of doctrinal and ecclesiastical stupidities result. So I hate…