All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 2 Timothy 3:16 NIV Is useful – No, we’re not going to spend any more time investigating the meanings of “Scripture” or “God-breathed” or any of the participles of action that follow. We’ve been over that ground time and again. What…
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will also be like him. Answer a fool as his folly deserves, that he not be wise in his own eyes. Proverbs 26:4-5 NASB 1995 Do not answer/ answer – Proverbs is instruction in piety. It’s practical. It’s didactic. It’s anthropological (human) rather than divine. “Live…
“Command the priests who carry the ark of the testimony that they come up from the Jordan.” Joshua 4:16 NASB Come up – God is pretty great, right? How great? Well, greater than we can even imagine. So great, in fact, that He does things we think are beyond doing. We call them “miracles” because they…
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Judges 21:25 NASB In his own eyes – A recent conversation with the rabbi of Parma caused me to recognize just how much of my Christian theological training affects the way I read a text. We were…
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? …
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, Titus 2:11-12 NASB Instructing – Everything you need to know about life you learn in kindergarten. It seems that God thinks that’s true too. The verb used here is…
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13 NASB Work out your salvation – If you’re saved by…
Thus My anger will be spent and I will satisfy My wrath on them, Ezekiel 5:13a NASB Will be spent – The biblical God is in serious need of mental health counseling. Just look at the swings of emotion He displays: Since you are precious in My sight, Since you are honored and I love you, …
Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. Romans 15:2 NASB 1977 Please – The wonderful thing about paradigms is that they help you make sense of the world. In fact, if you start discovering anomalies in your world—things that just don’t add up–paradigms offer useful solutions. You can claim…
and all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Galatians 1:2 NASB Churches – In 1349, a ship carrying wool set out from England, bound for some destination in the north. During its journey, crew members started dying. Attempts to quarantine the sick on board failed. The Black Plague took one person after…
