Listen to my prayer, God; and do not hide Yourself from my pleading. Give Your attention to me and answer me; Psalm 55:1-2a NASB Attention – Do you want God to pay attention to you? Be careful how you answer. What will it mean if God really takes a look at you? Will He find that obedient servant,…
Jesus wept. John 11:35 NASB Wept – “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,” (Luke 19:41). Why do we need to read both of these verses in order to understand the divine perspective? Because the translation hides the fact that there are two very different meanings here. When Yeshua encounters…
In the beginning, God . . .” Genesis 1:1a NASB God – How do you read those first words of the Tanakh? In Hebrew, berēʾšît bārāʾ ʾĕlōhîm. Most modern Westerners imagine that this is the opening statement of a cosmology, that is, a pre-scientific story of origins. Creationism proceeds from this assumption to propose an…
Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 NASB Will give you – What a great promise! Be greatly pleased with God and you’ll get everything your heart desires, right? Take pleasure in God and you’ll be guaranteed divinely provided health, wealth, and happiness (unless, of course, you desire…
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NIV To pray – “The purpose of prayer is not the same as the purpose of speech. The purpose of speech is to inform; the…
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NIV To pray – Perhaps it would help a bit to know the etymology of proseuchomai, the usual word for “to pray” in the Greek…
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NIV Us – Have you discovered that you don’t have the right words for prayer? You want to communicate with God, but when you actually…
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NIV Teach – Do you know how to pray? Do you know the purpose of prayer? Do you understand the importance of prayer? Great, you’re…
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NIV Teach us – “To live without prayer is to live without God, to live without a soul.”[1] When I first read Heschel’s words some…
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7 NASB Will be given – Rabbi Shraga Freedman makes an astounding claim in his book Living Kiddush Hashem. “If Hashem were to answer the tefillos of people who do not follow His ordinances, it would…
