1 Corinthians 4:7, “What do you have that you did not receive?” I was reading some of Martin Luther’s theology this weekend and this passage was mentioned as foundational to his understanding of the human condition. Our existence itself, the very fact that we are, is GIFTED to us. This is not a new […]
Psalm 86:4, “Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O YHWH, do I lift up my soul.” Only one who has swallowed up death and secured eternal life can gladden the souls of the dying. No write up today. I need to keep hammering away at Everlasting Arms! I’m only a few
Mark 10:43, 45, “…whoever would be great among you must be your servant…For even the Son of Man came not to be served But to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.” When God enters time and space He defines all things by Himself. Yes, ALL things must now draw
Proverbs 17:3, “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and YHWH tests hearts.” The crucible and the furnace melt the metals down to liquid so that the dross and slag that were inseparably fused within and throughout the pure metal rise to the surface and can be skimmed off. It
Psalm 139:8,12, “If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!…even darkness is not dark to you…” Descending to the depths, Jesus invaded our darkest night with the fellowship of His presence; rising from those depths, He pierced the Sheol of our affliction with the light of final hope.
Psalm 9:10, “…those who know your name put their trust in you.” As I’ve said many times in different blog posts and articles before, the “Name” of God denotes His character or identity. When David talks about those who know YHWH’s name, he’s not referring to those who can pronounce the name, or those
Malachi 3:2, “…He is like a refiner’s fire…” John 3:18, “Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” As I was reading through Malachi 3 this morning it struck me that John the
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Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
2 Corinthians 5:14-15, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we have judged that one died for all, therefore all have died, and He died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who for their sakes died and was raised.” We might see Paul’s logical
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2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who said ’Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” At creation, God’s Spirit hovered over the abyss and His Word gave form to chaos. So too at our
Zechariah 9:11, “…because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.” See also Luke 22:21 and Hebrews 13:20 Long Thoughts: I was reading in Zechariah 9 this morning and noticed again the similarity between verse 11 and Hebrews 13:20, “…the God of peace…brought again
2 Corinthians 3:16-17, “But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” “The Lord is the Spirit” means—I think—that, post-ascension, the Lord (typically Christ in Paul’s writings) is seen and known and received and communed
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1 Corinthians 15:21, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.” When Paul speaks of the resurrection—as we will see in verses 35-42, and even more clearly in Romans 8:18-25 —he has more in mind than just the resurrection of believer’s bodies. Ultimately the
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1 Corinthians 15:28, “When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to Him who put all things in subjection under Him, that God may be all in all.” At first the “when / then” logic in this verse can be a bit confusing. It makes it sound
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1 Corinthians 13:2, “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” Jesus died and rose again so that we might be folded into the life of God, which is a life
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Haggai 2:9, “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former…” The people have begun to rebuild the temple and many of them lament over its seeming lack of glory…it is “as nothing in [their] eyes” (2:3). This must have been especially discouraging since they thought that this would be it….It
Colossians 1:15-17, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or authorities — all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things and
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1 Corinthians 11:26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” Two things to consider here. First, Jesus gave His Church the elements of bread and wine as images, symbols, signs, proxies of His Body and His Blood. The body and
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Psalm 30:5, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning.” I realized after I’d already started in on today’s picture that it is almost an exact duplicate of a picture I created last March….ah, well….what I like about this particular set up (and I remember now, what I liked about
