So often in Catholic churches in Italy the conversion decision is portrayed in stark relief. Here’s something from Chiesa di San Vitale in Parma. You get to decide which path you want to choose (and notice who is in the “comforting” one): This? Or this?
Happy who seizes and smashes your infants against the rock. Psalm 137:9 Alter Happy – It’s difficult to believe God in the midst of great trauma. If God is good, if He cares about us, then why do we suffer so much? It doesn’t feel like a test. It feels like abandonment, or divine failure. …
So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Romans 7:12 NASB Law – Why is the Law holy? Before you answer, consider the radical difference between the Greco-Roman view of Law and the Semitic biblical view of Law. Christine Hays offers some insight: “Divine law can be minimally…
“For My devisings are not your devisings, and your ways are not My ways,” says the Lord. For as the heavens are high over the earth, so My ways are high over your ways and My devisings over your devisings.” Isaiah 55:8-9 Robert Alter Devisings – You’re probably more familiar with this verse translated in the popular religious vernacular: “For My…
Why are you in despair, my soul? And why are you restless within me? Wait for God, for I will again praise Him for the help of His presence, my God. Psalm 42:11 NASB In despair – What a great verse! The perfect response to Psalm 88, that dark and deary account of life when God…
You have removed lover and friend far from me; my acquaintances are in a hiding place. Psalm 88:18 NASB You have removed – A short excursus into enemy territory followed by an immediate return to the major theme: God is sovereign. This poem describes whatever happens as under God’s control and direction. Therefore, even if…
They have surrounded me like water all day long; they have encircled me altogether. Psalm 88:17 NASB They – Suddenly, a change. Through seventeen verses the psalmist has decried God’s absence. His lament holds God responsible for the sorry state of his life, for the nearly impossible burden he must carry, for the approach of death. But now,…
