It’s the Season
Tulips are coming to Holland. I thought you’d like to see some in our local market. Just have a wonderful, colorful day today.
Fool’s Day
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB Acknowledge – Let’s have some fun today. We want to think about the Hebrew idea of knowing. It’s not the same as our Western idea. To get the…
Technical Terms
When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Genesis 32:25 NASB Socket of his thigh – The enigmatic Hebrew phrase bekaph yereko raises some interesting technical questions. If we try to figure out…
The Samson Connection
But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord . . . Jonah 1:3a NASB To flee – Everyone know the Jonah story. Probably everyone knows, or thinks that they know, the Sampson story as well. We have those Sunday school memories of the whale (big fish) and the long hair of the…
The Matrix
That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9 NASB Nothing new – On the surface, this claim seems preposterous if not outright false. Of course, there are new things. Every birth is…
Word and Deed
All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. Ecclesiastes 1:8 NASB Wearisome – Why is this book even in the Bible? It’s so pessimistic! What kind of spiritual message can be gleaned from writing that basically says nothing really matters, that death swallows up everyone, and there is really no solid evidence of anything…
The Sum of All Fears
“Utter futility!—said Koheleth—Utter futility! All is futile!” Ecclesiastes 1:2 JPS Utter futility! – Tom Clancy isn’t correct. The sum of all fears is not nuclear holocaust. That possibility might make some sense given the enormity of human evil, the insatiable quest for power, and the technological ability to exterminate. But when you read the novel,…
Truth and Fiction
The words of Koheleth son of David, king in Jerusalem Ecclesiastes 1:1 JPS Words – I love the line from the movie The International where the old Communist officer, now a sage, says, “There is a difference between truth and fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” I don’t know who wrote that line for the…
Posture Perfect
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! Psalm 1:1 NASB Walk/stand/sit – Undoubtedly Watchman Nee’s influential Christian book Sit, Walk, Stand found its genesis in a verse like this. Perhaps you, like me, read it when…
Stereotypes
One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” Titus 1:12 NASB Cretans – Crete has an ancient history. Home to the Minoans, significant to the Mycenaeans, and a major port island in the Roman Empire, Crete plays a role in the Mediterranean for thousands of years. …
