“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Isaiah 1:16-17 Evil Of Your Deeds – “The mistaken notion that ritual worship could atone for criminality or intentional religious desecration…
“So also My heavenly Father will do to you unless each of you from your hearts forgive his brother their offenses.” Matthew 18:35 Forgive – Forgiveness is fundamental to faith. It is the action that separates human being from human biology. When I refuse to forgive, I move away from alignment with the Father. In…
Of David, a contemplation. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom YHWH does not charge iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. Psalm 32:1-2 Forgiven/Covered/Does Not Charge/No Guile – Now that we see the parallelism in David’s maskil, we must draw the connecting…
Of David, a contemplation. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Psalm 32:1 Transgression/ Sin – Hebrew poetry rhymes ideas, not sounds. One Hebrew technique is parallel construction. In this technique, the first idea is matched with a second parallel idea and one idea elaborates the thought of the other. In…
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 Confess – Let’s translate this verse according to contemporary standards: “If we admit our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins.” In Hollywood terms, this is the equivalent…
And the man called the name of his wife, Eve, because she became the mother of all living. Genesis 3:20 Eve – Of course, we know that the name Eve is a corruption of the real text. The man did not call her Eve. He called her by the Hebrew name Havvah. Why is it…
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; Psalm 79:9 Help Us – I’m just guessing but I suspect that each of us has vocalized a prayer just like this one. No matter what your circumstances in life, there will always be a time when you ask for God’s help. …
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14-15 Neither – How easily we gloss over and diminish the harsh reality of Jesus’ teaching! You won’t hear much about this condition of…
but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin. Mark 3:29 (with parallels in Matthew 12:31-32 and Luke 12:10) Blasphemes – Do you think that God always forgives? Contemporary Christianity often presents the “all-forgiving” God, implying that no matter what you do, this God will always accept…
