truth

  • Nicodemus and the Pole

    You have given a banner to those who fear You, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. Psalm 60:4 NASB Given a banner – The Hebrew word nes means a flag, a standard (as in military combat) or a banner. In ancient times, factions involved in wars flew banners to identify themselves….

  • The Academy

    Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” John 18:38a NASB Truth – Plato is in many respects the founder of Western civilization. His teacher, Socrates, and his pupil, Aristotle, completed a trinity of minds that literally shaped our conception of the world, God and Man. A product of wealthy and aristocratic Athenians, Plato’s ideas have…

  • Allusion

    “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24 NASB Spirit and truth – If you are familiar with the words of the Tanakh, you might hear this phrase differently. The combination of “truth” with another crucial Hebrew word is so common in the Hebrew Scriptures that you…

  • The Holy Combination

    Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You. Psalm 89:14 NASB Lovingkindness and Truth – Imagine God riding on the clouds, the Ancient of Days approaching. Are you transfixed? Awestruck? Afraid? Ready? What precedes Him? According to David’s hymn of praise, we see hesed ve’emet. The NASB translates…

  • Backtracking

    All the LORD’s paths are kindness and truth for the keepers of His pact and His precepts.  Psalm 25:10  Robert Alter translation All – Do you really believe that all of YHWH’s ways are kindness and truth?  Are you just as likely to proclaim this with David when the plane crashes and everyone is killed,…

  • Pilate’s Problem

     He will send from heaven and save me; He reproaches him who tramples upon me.  Selah.  God will send forth His lovingkindness and His truth.  Psalm 57:3 NASB Truth – “What is truth?” the man asked.  Pilate’s question is still with us.  He was a conventionalist.  Truth is what he decided was truth.  It was…

  • The Ultimate Testimony

    For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.  John 18:37  NASB To bear witness – Why did Yeshua come?  What was His purpose?  What did He accomplish?  Far too often we jump to ready-made answers rather than even listening to His own…

  • What Do You Want? (1)

    Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4  NASB Desires – The first word in this verse is a word that expresses the sheer enjoyment of the person of God.  When we delight in who God is an amazing transformation occurs.  Our lives progress toward fulfillment. …

  • The Road Less Traveled

    I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.  3 John 4  NASB Walking – This Greek word is peripatounta.  It combines two Greek words to produce the meaning, “to walk about.”  This is a Greek substitution for a Hebrew idiom that encompasses all of our activities.  “To…

  • Gut-level Goodness

    to sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted and humble in spirit”  1 Peter 3:8  NASB Kind-hearted – eusplanchnoi in Greek.  Wow! Don’t even try to say this word.  The prefix eu means “well” or “good” (you remember eulogize?).  But “good” what?  The second part of the word (splanchnon) means “intestine” or in…