In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 NASB God – Have we mined this verse yet? It’s certainly familiar, but it might be too familiar to actually understand what it says. Today I want to leave you with just a few remarks that might cause you to think once more about this…
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, Deuteronomy 30:19 ESV Choose – Do it early! Choose when you are young. Isn’t it interesting that the Hebrew verb bahar (to choose,…
Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days. Proverbs 19:20 NASB Be wise – I have recently been reading the early speeches of Abraham Heschel. Fifty years ago his prophetic insight into our culture sounded the warning. Fifty years later it seems as though we didn’t listen…
I think this statement from Abraham Heschel, written sixty-one years ago, is perhaps the most accurate assessment of the state of our world today. The conscience of the world was destroyed by those who were wont to blame others rather than themselves. Let us remember. We revered the instincts but distrusted the prophets. We…
It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NASB Teach us – Do you want to pray? Did you ever learn how to pray? Most of us…
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8 NASB Word – Yesterday we considered the possibility that the Bible is not like books written from a Western point of view. Yesterday we suggested that the Bible is a book about experiences with the holy God of Israel,…
You shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3 NASB Shall have – In May of 2014 we looked at the important difference between Greek thought and Hebrew thought in this verse. Usually translated “you shall not have,” the Hebrew verb plus negative, lo-yihye’, reveals an important characteristic of Hebrew thought. The translation, “shall…
Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days. Proverbs 19:20 NASB Be wise – I have recently been reading the early speeches of Abraham Heschel. Fifty years ago his prophetic insight into our culture sounded the warning. Fifty years later it seems as though we didn’t listen…
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16 NASB To the Jew first – Paul was not ashamed, but don’t cut his sentence short. He was not ashamed of the good…
What real value is there for a man in all the gains he makes beneath the sun? Ecclesiastes 1:3 NJPS Value – What’s the point of life? That’s the Teacher’s question. If all of life is nothing more than a test for righteousness, why doesn’t the all-knowing God simply scoop up those who will prove…
