choice

  • Life: The Movie

    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 Trust – Movies have plots.  They are usually accompanied by subtle forewarning clues.  There are no extraneous persons in the story.  That incidental character who just happens to…

  • The Law of the Kingdom

    They will not teach again, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their wrongdoing, and their sin I will no longer remember.”  Jeremiah 31:34  NASB They will all know Me – Yeshua…

  • Toil and Trouble

    For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he will begin to save Israel from the hands of the Philistines.  Judges 13:5  NASB From the womb – Is the story of Samson…

  • Pick One

    I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,  Deuteronomy 30:19  NASB Choose – Consider the tone of Moses’ final remarks to the people.  “Witness against you,” doesn’t…

  • A Little Change Here, a Little Change There (2)

    You favor man with perception and teach mankind understanding. Grant us knowledge, understanding and intellect from You. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Grantor of perception.  Amidah  (Ashkenazi version) Perception/ Understanding – Let’s summarize yesterday’s insights.  This version of the Amidah suggests that da’at was given to Adam, and that bina was taught to ‘enosh.  These are…

  • No Crystal Ball for Us

    For I have taken all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men, and their deeds are in the hand of God. Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred; anything awaits him.  Ecclesiastes 9:1 NASB In the hand of God – Michael Fox clarifies Koheleth’s comment: “Literally, ‘in God’s hand.’  This means that…

  • The Final Choice

    A perverse heart shall depart from me, I will know no evil.  Psalm 101:4  NASB I will know – End of the Roman calendar year.  Most people are making some sort of resolution.  Usually these last but a short time and the ordinary routine returns.  Most resolutions are statements of positive self-improvement.  I have a…

  • Heretical Orthodoxy

    But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.2 Peter 2:1  NASB Destructive heresies – The second chapter of Peter’s second letter reads like a prosecutor’s opening argument.  These people, says Peter, do nothing right.  They…

  • Thrown into the World

    And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, Romans 9:10-11  NASB Choice– Why were you born?  What difference…

  • Opting Out

    “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Matthew 6:24  NASB Cannot serve– It’s not possible to “opt out” in the Hebrew worldview.  Choosing not to participate is still a choice. …