Tag: righteousness
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The New Communal
Psalm 133; Daniel 1:1–21; Acts 2:42–47 Most of us have at least one food dislike. I read this story of Daniel and I’m not sure how I would do living with Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Only vegetables? Eventually, I suppose, I would get accustomed to it, but…just ew. Vegetables. At this point in my…
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Passing It Off
An inheritance is not “earned”. An inheritance is given. It is given by the person whose it is to the person (or people) whose it isn’t.
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Is It Yours?
It’s humbling—or it should be—that the righteousness that we (should) cling to is not ours. It is a gift of grace.
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God and Relationships
Our relationships with fellow humans really do deeply affect our relationship with God. One could even go so far as to say that if your relationships with humans are broken, so is your relationship with God.
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Not Yours, But God’s
Psalm 69:1–5, 30–36; Genesis 17:1–13; Romans 4:1–12 “Abram” translates to “exalted ancestor”. “Abraham” translates to “ancestor of a multitude”. While Ismael was Abraham’s son (the son he had with Sarah’s servant), it didn’t quite connect with Abraham as Ishmael wasn’t a result of him and Sarah (his wife and love).Both names had their own sting.…
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Have Hope; Give Hope
“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”—Jeremiah 23:5 (NRSV) Let’s be honest. This hasn’t been a very hope-filled year. No normal graduations, weddings, births, family vacations,…
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Prepare to Prepare
Psalm 80; Zechariah 13:1–9; Revelation 14:6–13 If you’ve ever watched a professional chef (besides the competition ones), they will often have pre-cut and -measured ingredients so that when a customer orders a dish, most of the time-consuming work is completed. If you’ve ever ordered a sandwich at Subway, the meat and cheese are already pre-portioned.…
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Good Gone Bad
Mark 12:1–17; Matthew 10:5–7; Matthew 17:24–27 Within the context of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the primacy of the remnants of the Israelites cannot be denied. Jesus calls them the “lost sheep”. Their place is significant to God, for they are even called by God’s name (2 Chronicles 7:14). The tragedy of it all is that while…