Tag: love

  • Burning Call

    Burning Call

    Psalm 145:10–18; 1 Kings 19:19–21; Colossians 1:9–14 One of the issues that has come up in the last year in church-ish circles is the ordination of women. Saddleback took a bold step and ordained women which went against the predominant grain of their partner body (SBC). There was an unexpected explosion in certain circles against…

  • The Shepherd’s Care

    The Shepherd’s Care

    Psalm 100; 2 Samuel 5:1–12; Luke 15:1–7 In case you haven’t noticed, the theme for the week (Thursday through today, plus tomorrow) is sheep. Almost all the Scriptures reference sheep in some form or another. Without question, the sheep are the People of God. Even in Luke, Jesus is still using the sheep as a…

  • Tabled Enemies

    Tabled Enemies

    Psalm 23; Jeremiah 10:17–25; Acts 17:16–31 One of the things that will make many Christians fall away from the faith is a weak foundation when it comes to trials. We say many platitudes, and try not to think about what happens where we actually tested. If you’ve ever read anything on the many martyrs of…

  • Road Inheritance

    Road Inheritance

    Psalm 23; Jeremiah 10:1–16; Colossians 1:15–23 Psalm 23:3 reads, in effect, “God helps and guides me along the paths that are best for me.” Note that it doesn’t say, “God will make me…” We choose to follow the guide, or we choose not to. That isn’t all that comforting, especially as we look around us.…

  • And Now We Worship

    And Now We Worship

    Psalm 142; Amos 9:11–15; Luke 7:31–35 As mentioned previously, Amos’ prophetic mission was to the Israelites, the nation of the 10 tribes that separated from Judah and Benjamin. As part of the “rebellion” the leader of the Israelites, Jeroboam, made 2 golden calves for local worship to protect his “kingship” from reverting to Judah and…

  • Rubble and Ruin

    Rubble and Ruin

    Psalm 142; Amos 9:1–4; Acts 23:12–35 I don’t know about you, but I’m a little jaundiced about earthquakes. I grew up in Northern California. Earthquakes were…normal isn’t the word…to be expected. So much so, that the first earthquake my wife experiences was in the middle of the night. She woke me up in a panic,…

  • God of Boxes

    God of Boxes

    We struggle (and that’s fine) with the concept that God would discipline through pestilence, famine, war, etcetera. We will often use the language of “God allows”, or explain things as “an ‘old world’ understanding”.

  • Hear the Roar

    Hear the Roar

    Psalm 85:8–13; Amos 3:1–12; Colossians 4:2–18 The Psalm speaks of the land of Israel having God’s blessings. It needed it. God’s blessing was both a protection and a source of bounty. The gist is that if Israel’s people were being blessed by the land, including peace from war, bountiful crops, and growing families, then God…