Luke 21:34, ‘But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.’ Jesus equates the ‘cares of this life’ to ‘drunkenness’ and ‘dissipation.’ Both drunkenness and dissipation translate words that relate to literal, physical drunkenness and its […]
Psalm 31:7, ‘I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul…’ /// This Psalm is written from the depths of affliction. Though v.8 presents YHWH’s salvation in the past tense, it is a past tense of David’s faith, not yet
Psalm 51:10-12, ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.’ This picture was a request from one of
Job 9:23-24, ‘When disaster brings sudden death, He mocks at the calamity of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He covers the face of its judges—if it is not He, WHO then is it?’ In this post, I’m not commenting on Job’s evaluation of the situation, only on the
Colossians 3:22-23, ‘Whatever you do, work from your [very] soul, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance.’ [author’s translation] Though these words are written to 1st century bondservants, they remain applicable to any Christian who works under the authority of someone
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Luke 14:33, ‘…any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.’ V.33 is the summarizing statement for vs 25-33…and these are hard words. ‘So every one of you who does not renounce / send away / take leave of all the things he possesses cannot be my disciple.’
Isaiah 40:11, “He will tend His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs in His arms; He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.” The One who mercifully shepherds His people is also the One who humbles the world by His might (v.10), and the hands
Ps. 52:8-9, “But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever…I will wait for your name, for it is good…” David as a tree in God’s house is an image for his trusting in the Lord. As in Ps. 1:3—and
Romans 2:16, “…on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” How does God judge the secret things of human hearts “by Christ Jesus”? I think there are at least two ways. First, there is a day of judgment appointed for all human beings. On
3 John 11, “Beloved, do not imitate the evil but the good. The one doing good is from God; the one doing evil has not seen God.” In the context of 3 John, John is contrasting Gaius and Diotrephes. “Doing good” means—like Gaius—to generously receive and to love other believers for the sake of
Rev. 1:17-18, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one, and I died, and behold, I am alive unto the ages of the ages, and I have the key of Death and of Hades.” What is John not to fear? The immediate context suggests fear of obliteration before the
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John 4:14, “…whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirst again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The one who drinks the water that Jesus freely gives—the water who is the Holy Spirit,
1 Timothy 1:5, “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith.” I love the “North Star” statements of Scripture. The North Star is clear and unmoving and—no matter what else may be happening—if you follow that star, you will be heading North…Similarly,
Luke 12:34, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” What our heart loves is where our heart lives. And where our heart lives determines everything about us, since from it flow all the streams of our life (Prov.4:19). May we—by the Spirit—be enamored with the crucified and risen Lord and so
Galatians 6:14, “…far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
John 7:17, “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God…” John 8:44, “Your will is to do your father’s desires.” Short Thoughts: The root desire (will) of our hearts determines whether or not we are able to receive Christ as truth…and apart from the Spirit, our
Philippians 3:12-14, “…I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own…forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” I’m not reading in Philippians right now,
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Job 1:21, “the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” I started reading Job this morning and was freshly struck by the words of Job 1:21…scripture is often like a mold, forged by God, into which He invites us to pour the molten anguish of
John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” John 17:3 is one of the most paradigmatic verses for me in all of scripture….it overflows with implications for all of life and informs pretty much everything I do and create…So with
