“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,” James 1:2 NASB Joy – What is joy? According to the ancient Greeks, joy is the unbridled experience of self-being, the manifestation of the fullness of who we are as the culmination of our existence. It is that feeling that arises when we no longer are…
Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”Genesis 1:6 NASB Separate– When did the alienation between God and world begin? Are you likely to answer, “At the Fall”? Certainly sin entered the world at that point, as Paul reminds us, but alienation…
Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 1 Corinthians 6:18 NASB Flee– Paul is quite direct in his instructions to believers when it comes to the sexual atmosphere in ancient Corinth. Run away! Don’t try to take a stand for what is right. Don’t try…
Remove the false way from me, and graciously grant me Your law. Psalm 119:29 NASB Remove– Okay, I admit it. I make lots of mistakes. I do know a few things, and sometimes I get them right, but most of the time these little adventures into the language and culture of ancient people is just the best…
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matthew 5:6 NASB Righteousness– Let’s have a conversation about the process of converting language from one culture to another. It’s not just the translation of the words that matters. It’s the way the language fits into the patterns of living when the worldview changes. …
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; Hebrews 12:4 NASB Resisted– Are you resisting sin? Are you striving to follow the Way? Is it working? Ah, maybe not as well as you would like. The problem isn’t lack of understanding. The problem is intensity in motivation. And that doesn’t…
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Exodus 20:17 NASB Covet – We have often pointed out that this commandment is unique in the ancient world. It is only…
“Do you hear the secret counsel of God, and limit wisdom to yourself?” Job 15:8 NASB Limit– What do I know? That God is good, man is born to turmoil and I am a sinner in need of deliverance. The cosmos is His creation, I am blessed to be alive and righteousness will fill the earth. …
“For your guilt teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.” Job 15:5 NASB Crafty– “Naked I came into the world” is another way to say that when I arrived I didn’t have a hidden agenda. That’s what we learn from the phonetically similar Hebrew word ʿārôm in Genesis 2:25. Adam and Havvah were…
Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2:7 NASB A living being– In the Hebrew text, these significant words are nepeš ḥayyâ (for us, sounds like nefesh hayyah). The words themselves are fertile ground for all kinds of translation assumptions. …
