Membership

I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8  NASB Faith – When I was a child my family attended a local Protestant church.  At age twelve, I was enrolled in a membership class where twelve-year-olds learned…

Divine Pity

Grant us grace, LORD, grant us grace. For we are sorely sated with scorn.  Psalm 123:3  Robert Alter Grant – How did you come to believe?  I’m not asking how you came into religion.  That happens mostly by drifting through cultural or family expectations.  No, I’m asking something else.  How did you realize that God…

To Believe

And they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer. But they flattered Him with their mouth and lied to Him with their tongue.  For their heart was not steadfast toward Him, nor were they faithful with His covenant.  Psalm 78:35-37  NASB Remembered – “To believe is to remember,” wrote Abraham Heschel.  Asaph might not…

Night Moves

When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches,  Psalm 63:6 NASB Remember/meditate – “Now I lay me down to sleep,” but it rarely happens so easily.  Nursery rhymes are wishful fables.  Sleep is far more difficult.  The room is dark.  The noise of the day is finished, but there are…

The Introduction Matters

A Psalm of David, for a memorial.  “O LORD, rebuke me not in Your wrath, and chasten me not in Your burning anger.”  Psalm 38:1  NASB For a memorial – Have you ever prayed like this?  Have you reached the point, long after the Lord has redeemed you, long after you recognize your sinful condition…

Their Stories / Our Stories

Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; they came each one with his household:  Exodus 1:1  NASB Household – What did the children of Israel bring with them into the desert?  What did they carry for forty years as they wandered toward Canaan?  Each one brought his…

Believing

Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. Deuteronomy 9:7 NASB Remember – “To us, recollection is a holy act; we sanctify the present by remembering the past. To us…

The Introduction Matters

“O LORD, rebuke me not in Your wrath, and chasten me not in Your burning anger.”  Psalm 38:1  NASB Rebuke me not– Have you ever prayed like this:  reaching the point, long after the Lord redeemed you, long after you recognized your sinful condition and your desperate need for grace, you are still overwhelmed by the…

Who Has Been Forgotten?

Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service. Nehemiah 13:14 ESV Remember me – And Naomi said, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me”…

Fearful Recall

“Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothals, your following after Me in the wilderness, through a land not sown.’’” Jeremiah 2:2 NASB I remember – I have been reading the devotional by Oswald Chambers for many decades….