“rejoicing dries up from the sons of men.” Joel 1:12 Dries up – Yesterday I received a newsletter on the plight of people in Haiti. It began with this verse from Joel. Today the newspaper headlines carried the story of more killing and turmoil in that country. A few weeks ago I wrote about Cite…
“Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1 Condemnation – God loves you and wants to forgive you. But watch out! As soon as you “get saved”, then God turns into the moral policeman who beats you up over every single thing you do wrong. Is that how you…
“and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” Romans 12:2 Conformed– EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it. I need to make a correction. In literary circles its called errata. But in spiritual circles it’s called “sin”. Conformity to this world is sin in God’s view. What’s…
“I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not fasten its grip on me.” Psalm 101:3 We have a big field behind our home. It used to be full of underbrush and weeds. Whenever we walked in that field, our clothes would be…
“I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not fasten its grip on me.” Psalm 101:3 We know what “worthless” means. It means “good for nothing, garbage, trash.” Of course, in these days of recycling, garbage and trash might actually be worth something. …
2 “Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;” Exodus 34:6 A few days ago we looked at another form of this word (chanan). Have you been gathering chicks under your Hebrew wings? Today we…
“Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;” Exodus 34:6 It is customary at social gatherings to be asked the question, “What do you do?” You have probably heard it hundreds of times. But what…
“One who is gracious to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his good deed.” Proverbs 19:17 Repay – Just in case you are still unconvinced that this verse is about accounting, the Hebrew word gemul makes it certain. Gemul is a word that means “a deserved receipt for something.” …
“One who is gracious to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his good deed.” Proverbs 19:17 Poor – Poor me. The poor in Haiti. That poor person. Poor circumstances. All of these thoughts use the word “poor” but they all have slightly different meanings. And that is exactly the…
“One who is gracious to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his good deed.” Proverbs 19:17 Gracious – What does it mean to be gracious to the poor? Most of us would immediately reject the Martha Stewart “gracious living” answer. We know that being gracious to the poor does…
