Beneficiaries

All the LORD’s paths are kindness and truth for the keepers of His pact and His precepts.  Psalm 25:10  Robert Alter translation Keepers – Think of the covenant like a trust fund with conditions.  All of God’s kindness and truth is available as a result of the trust He established.  But the benefits aren’t for…

Amazing Grace

I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.  Psalm 119:93  ESV You have given me life – Frankly, I am amazed.  I am amazed that the majority of Christians can read a verse like this and think that grace is all they need.  I am amazed that we can…

Pillars of Heaven: The Ethical Dilemma of Religion without Torah

In a recent conversation I challenged someone to provide either a theological or historical foundation for the claim that Christians need to be “good” people.  The topic arose because my friend remarked that her church taught that being saved and going to heaven was the true goal of Man’s spiritual quest.  Once salvation was assured,…

The Gospel for the Gentiles (3)

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Romans 1:21  ESV Give thanks – What does it mean to give thanks?  The answer has to come from a biblical point of view.   Paul…

The Four Spiritual Stages (2)

Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, “I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage.  I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.  Then I will take you for My people, and I…

Timing, Not Substance

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.  Ephesians 1:7  NASB Through His blood – When did we receive redemption through the blood of Yeshua?  There are several perfectly correct answers.  The first answer is entirely personal.  You were redeemed at the personal…

Missing the Introduction

To the choirmaster.  According to Jeduthun.  A psalm of David.  Psalm 62:1 (Hebrew Text) Jeduthun – Most translations of the psalms put the “introduction” of the text in tiny letters or completely ignore these “preliminary” words.  This is not the case in the Hebrew text.  The introduction is an essential part of knowing what the…

Beating the Dead Horse

 For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn…

Jumper

What then?  Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?  May it never be!  Romans 6:15  NASB What then? – “Questions of faith are not philosophical, sociological or psychological; they are intensely personal.  Everyone has to find his or her own way of dealing with them.  The point at which a…