Tag: chosen
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Salvation Praise
Psalm 107:1–3, 17–22; Genesis 9:8–17; Ephesians 1:3–6 (read online ⧉) Destined to be a child of God. This is such a comforting phrase. As in all comfortable things, there is a danger. This comforting phrase is often, and understandably, taken as being directed toward individuals. Yet, if we use both Old Testament and New Testament…
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Is It All About the Experience?
Psalm 19; Exodus 19:16–25; Mark 9:2–8 (read online ⧉) Spend enough time in (at least) Christian circles, and you will likely hear the phrase, “mountain-top experience.” This is usually described as a deeply powerful encounter with God that emotionally and spiritually separates someone from the “real” world. Moses, the Israelites, and Aaron have different experiences…
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Child Identified
Exodus 3:1–12, 1 John 2:28–29, 1 John 4:7 (read online ⧉) Moses was not a shining example of humanity. He was…human. He had a temper. He certainly had a confused identity. He was a child of the court of Egypt. How he fit (or didn’t ) into the courts of the Pharoahs is an unknown.…
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Another Test?
Nehemiah 8:1–6; Luke 24:18–27; Acts 17:10–15 (read online ⧉) The Israelite Exiles have returned home, sort of. As Ezra reads the Scriptures, the remnant of Israel learns what it means to be God’s chosen people. Generations had already wandered away emotionally and spiritually. Then they went into exile in a foreign land with various gods…
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Choose Your Answer?
Judges 6:11–24, Psalm 27:7–14, Isaiah 6:8–10 (read online ⧉) Gideon had a prayer. Likely many of the Israelites had the same prayer, “Save us!” It was certainly a worthwhile prayer. We could say that Gideon was chosen. He was. We look backward to Scriptures and we say, “Of course, Gideon was chosen.” Gideon certainly did…
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Same Change, Different Day
Galatians 1:21–2:10 (read online ⧉) The church often states that the message from God has never changed. That’s not entirely accurate. God’s amazing grace was before all and in all. God’s expression of grace was certainly in multiple forms from Adam to Jacob’s (Israel’s) sons. Through Moses, the message changed from a family group to…
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Strength and Joy
Deuteronomy 28:45–48, Isaiah 29:17–21, John 15:11 (read online ⧉) “The joy of the Lord is my strength” Nehemiah 8:10Why is it God’s joy, and not our own this our strength? First, we are finite. Even the physically strongest person alive is not stronger than God. Second, our joy as much as it can be Godly…
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Hope Together
1 Chronicles 29:14–19, Psalm 31, Isaiah 2:1–5 (read online ⧉) It is pretty universal across humanity for people to question their value and their purpose. In the ancient world, the view of gods was often not particularly positive. Much of the activity was done to appease the wrathful gods and to “bribe” them enough to…