There is a time to act for God; set aside the Torah Psalm 119:126 (Heschel) To act for God – You won’t get this translation in the English Bibles. Most English Bibles, and a lot of translations of the Jewish Tanakh, read something like, “It is time for the Lord to act, for they have…
Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2 NASB Devote – Yes, it’s fine for Paul to say this. After all, he is a saint. But for you and me? No, devotion to prayer is just too much, especially when it includes “keeping alert.” I don’t know about…
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. James 4:3 ESV Passions – But I thought being passionate was a good thing. Ah, if we only read it in Greek. Hedonais, the plural noun, makes it quite clear that James is talking about self-centered pleasures, not passions. …
In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. Luke 6:12 ESV Prayer – “And all night he continued.” Are you kidding me? Who can stay up all night praying? I dare say that most of us fall asleep after twenty minutes attempting to…
Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice! Psalm 141:2 ESV Sacrifice – Come and worship the King! Surrender your vanities, burn your insolence, abandon your bias.[1] But do not think that you will go away unscathed. Do not imagine His holiness will…
The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. Genesis 2:22 NASB Fashioned – If you read the Genesis account of creation within the framework of covenant commitments, you might notice the following pattern. God makes a covenant of power with male…
When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Isaiah 1:15 ESV I will not listen – We are often told that God hears all prayers, but the Bible says otherwise. Just as one must…
Pray without ceasing 1 Thessalonians 5:17 NASB Pray – “We do not refuse to pray. We merely feel that our tongues are tied, our minds inert, our inner vision dim, when we are about to enter the door that leads to prayer. We do not refuse to pray; we abstain from it. We ring the…
In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. Psalm 109:4 ESV I give myself to – Reading this verse presents a dilemma. Are we to accept the gloss (the additional words) of the translation because it makes sense to us or are we to reject the gloss and end…
For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Colossians 1:9 NASB For this reason – Would you like others to pray that you might…
