Audible Visual

Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” John 14:9 NASB Who has seen Me – Imagine standing with Philip during this conversation. Yeshua directs a question and a comment to…

Ready to Quit

The Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him.  Sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”  Leaving them, He again embarked and went away to the other side. Mark 8:11-13 NASB Sighing deeply…

Quicksand Theology

“If you do this thing and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.” Exodus 18:23 NASB To endure – Maybe you feel a little like a James Bond martini these days. “Shaken, not stirred.” Maybe you feel as if all this exploration into…

Paul’s Shema (2) Rewind

So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Romans 10:17 NASB Christ – Is it the Son’s words or the Father’s words? If you look at this verse in the King James Version, it reads, “by the word of God.” That’s because the KJV is based on the Greek Textus Receptus,…

Paul’s Shema (1) Rewind

So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Romans 10:17 NASB Hearing – If you were Paul, the Jewish rabbi named Sha’ul, what Hebrew word would you have in mind when you wrote the Greek verb akoe (to hear)? There can only be one obvious answer – shema. But as soon…

Opposites

“Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith.” Habakkuk 2:4 NASB Proud one – The NASB translation attempts to capture the idiomatic meaning of a phrase that literally says, “behold, swollen not straight his nephesh (person).” “Not straight” is the Hebrew lo…

In the Name of

one Lord, one faith, one baptism, Ephesians 4:5 NASB One faith – “‘Religion’ comes from the Latin ligare, meaning to join or bind. Religion binds people within a group – Christian to Christian, Muslim to Muslin, Jew to Jew. More specifically, since some of the most bitter conflicts take place within a faith, it bonds…

The Living Facts

Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them: Exodus 21:1 NASB Ordinances – “The service of God is an extremely concrete, an extremely real, literal, and factual affair. We do not employ symbols to make Him understand what we mean. We worship Him not by employing figures of speech but by…

A Crisis of Faith?

I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8 NASB Faith – (I apologize.  This is long) Are you familiar with the common sentiment that the Christian world is having a crisis of faith? Pundits point…