Before Before

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.  Psalm 119:67  NASB Before – Well, before we look at “before,” let’s review what we learned about this verse before.  Here are the previous three investigations: April 25, 2005  the word “afflicted” April 26, 2005   the word “astray” April 27, 2005   the…

Hear-See

All the people, experiencing the thunder and lightning, the trumpet blast and the smoking mountain, were afraid  Exodus 20:18a  The Message Experiencing – When was the last time you saw thunder?  Ah, probably never.  We perceive thunder as audible, not visual.  So when we try to translate this particular verse from Hebrew, we run into…

Paradox

casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.  1 Peter 5:7  NASB Cares – What is a paradox?  We could rely on dictionary definitions like this one: “a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true,” but what this really says is that a paradox is only an apparent problem.  The definition…

The Real Question (1)

“Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” Jonah 3:9  NIV Who knows? – The king of Nineveh asked one of humanity’s most important questions.  Does God change His mind?  When the king of Nineveh asked this question, it was possible to imagine an empirical answer.  Yes,…

A Different Wordview

But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.  Psalm 115:3  NASB Whatever – Richard Nisbett’s book, The Geography of Thought, is a contemporary study of ancient differences in worldviews. Contrasting the Western Greek view with that of the Chinese, Nisbett’s analysis demonstrates that our “world” is hardly uniform in conception or observation….

Spiritual Obligations

so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;  Philippians 1:10  NASB In order to be – Read it slowly.  Paul has just proclaimed that God and God alone will complete the good work in us (v. 6).  God won’t stop the…