Month: October 2020
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Saintly Ones
Matthew 5:1–16; Revelation 7:1–17 ※ Q: What is a Saint? ※ You would think that this question is easy. However, the meaning of saint depends on the context and even timeframe. Chasid (חָסִיד) and Kaddish (קַדִּישׁ) are the Hebrew words that are most often translated as saint (not always, though). Chasid (חָסִיד) means faithful or…
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Cast Off
Matthew 23:13-15; Acts 15:1–22; Colossians 2:4–13 There is no question about Jesus’ attitude toward the scribes and the Pharisees in this verse. It seems pretty straightforward. What if it isn’t? What if Jesus was instead using their language in a way so as to make a point? The Pharisees, with their belief in the afterlife, would certainly not want…
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Wall Repair
Ezekiel 13:1–16; 2 Peter 2:1–3 If you ever lived in a dorm or rented an apartment (especially a college one), you may have been “enlightened” by friends or acquaintances about tricks to get your deposit back. One of the biggest items has always been holes in the walls, whether nails, tacks, pushpins, or anchors. The…
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Incomplete Armor
Psalm 27; Zechariah 10:12; Ephesians 6:10–18 This passage from Ephesians is one of those common favorites. Building and putting on the armor of God is still a popular activity for children. As a formation tool, it was and remains powerful. From the point of the Ephesians, they were very familiar with the attire of the…
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Foundational
Matthew 19:16–26; Hebrews 9:1–14; Romans 10:8–13 The story of the rich young ruler, in my experience, has always been presented in one way…he cared too much for his stuff. This is true…to a point. Is the conclusion that we have often been led to actually correct? Or perhaps we, too, are missing which point Jesus…
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Following
Matthew 10:21–22; Matthew 12:46–50; Luke 11:27–28 Have you ever been in a conversation…and it’s going well…and then it’s really digging in…and then someone interrupts? That feeling of…really? Couldn’t you have held out just a bit longer? Really? What was so important? Family. Except, in comparison to the Kingdom of God, what is family? That might…
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Rumble
Exodus 19:17–20; Haggai 2:5–9; Hebrews 12:25–27 We are often skeptical about God making the mountains tremble and the oceans roar. Our deeper understanding of the natural world makes us a little arrogant about things. We “know” that it’s really tectonic plate movement that causes that. The heavens don’t really shake, so we think. We “know”…
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You|Me and Us
Matthew 18:15–20; Luke 5:23–32 There is nobody beyond God’s redemptive reach. No one. No matter what a person has done or how “unclean” they may be, God is still there waiting. Tax collectors were not well appreciated. We generally are scornful of the IRS. The tax collectors of the age of Jesus were despised in…