Let the lying lips be mute, which speak arrogantly against the righteous with pride and contempt. Psalm 31:18 NASB Arrogant– Some years ago (quite some years ago) I received a card from a dear friend. On the outside it read: “I used to be conceited, but I got over that.” On the inside: “Now I’m perfect.” 🙂 Arrogance is…
Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, He was forming a locust-swarm when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king’s mowing. And it came about, when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said, “Lord God, please pardon! How can Jacob stand, For he is small?” The Lord changed His mind about…
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7 NASB Timidity – “If I am to tell you who I really am, I must tell you about my feelings, whether I will act upon them or not.”[1] If this is true for human beings, don’t you…
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1:21 NASB Naked I shall return there – Do we truly understand Job’s response to calamity? Are we prepared to have our lives stripped to the bone simply because God…
He shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities. Leviticus 16:16 NASB Which – How would…
Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48 NASB Perfect – Yesterday we considered some of the behavioral implications of the translation of teleios as “perfect.” Today we need to look at the deeper theological implications. It all begins with Parmenides. Parmenides, a 5th Century BCE Greek philosopher and…
“Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.” Jonah 3:9 NASB Who knows – Does God change His mind? The king of Nineveh certainly hoped so. So should we. What hope can we have if the will of God is inflexibly fixed from eternity past?…
“If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Genesis 4:7 NASB Master – “To be sure, we sin. Each of us has a yetser, an impulse to evil,…
You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? Matthew 7:16 NASB Fruits – Of course we all know that the real test of faithfulness to God is found in the fruit of one’s life. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering; all that good stuff we…
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 NASB In the beginning – We just can’t get away from the opening verse, can we? Genesis 1:1 stands as a clarion call for everything that’s different about the Hebrew worldview. Not only does it soundly deny all of the opening ideas of…
