Psalm 96:1 “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.” What’s on your playlist? Oh I don’t mean the sequence of songs on your iPod or mp3 player. I’m talking about the tunes running through your mind. Refrains that shuffle to the front of Continue Reading…
Matthew 10:32-33 “Therefore everyone who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” “In the interest of full disclosure…” We sometimes hear that disclaimer in Continue Reading…
Luke 5:8, 10 “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’ Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.’” Without heart-rending, gut-wrenching, fall-on-our-knees conviction of sin we can’t repent. Continue Reading…
James 1:14-15 “but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” When our son Josiah was young, he and his sister Bethany got into a Continue Reading…
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Condemn. Condone. Compromise. These seem to be Continue Reading…
Job 34:36 “Oh, that Job might be tested to the utmost…” Guilty until proven innocent. No, that’s not a typo. I’d like to say the rush to judgment on people simply accused of wrongdoing is a sign of the times, but viewing others through the prism of “circumstantial evidence” has Continue Reading…
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world….” The classic 1963 movie, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, featured more iconic comedians than any film that’s ever been produced. It also contained more adjectives in its title than most productions. It’s those four adjectives (the mads)that keep echoing in Continue Reading…
Acts 19:40 “As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of what happened today. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it.” Those early Christians had no fear of rocking the boat. They Continue Reading…
2 Thessalonians 2:10 “They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” “Having allowed oneself to drift, unresisting, unpraying, accepting every half-conscious solicitation from our desires, we reached a point where we no longer believed the Faith,” says one of C.S. Lewis’ characters in his book, Continue Reading…
Judges 17:6 “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (ESV) Cultural compromise. Underlying uncertainty. Increased immorality. Fickle faithfulness. These characteristics of Jewish society during the time of the Judges could just as easily describe our 21st century conditions. No less Continue Reading…