Evil is on the loose. Goliath-like, it stands across the valley and mocks our once-civilized society. Since we’ve rejected the Bible’s God for our own selfish ways, it laughs at our attempts to salvage the benefits of a Christian worldview while we’re unwilling to take seriously the Bible’s claims. That’s impossible. What to do? Many, […]
My beloved first-born son and his precious wife have such a challenge with two special needs sons. As I grieved for them recently on a family holiday, the question gripped me, “Are you more compassionate than their heavenly Father?” Would I be like the one who snipped the restrictive opening of the chrysalis of an […]
God in Christ has devised a way by which justice can be satisfied and yet mercy can triumph. For our story today, it helps to have a brief overview both of the geography and history of Jerusalem. Coming west from the Jordan Valley through the Judean Wilderness, we meet a long north-south ridge looming over […]
Read More… from September 19, 2024 — “Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment”
“When leaders lead in Israel, when the people willingly offer themselves, bless the Lord!” (Jdg 5:2). After the sweeping heaven-given victory against the far superior forces of Sisera, Deborah and Barak sang a duet, beginning with this line. Without being political, let me say, this is what we need in the world today: leaders who […]
“What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mt 16:26). While this is almost always applied to the lost, it was spoken by the Lord to His own. To turn it around, since your soul has been rescued by God’s Champion, what will you give Him in gratitude for such heavenly heroism? Here’s […]
In this math, it’s the answer that makes the problem: 1,570,000 – 70,000 = so much heartache! Numbering Israel’s warriors without collecting the ransom silver was a serious matter—as if these men belonged to the king and not to God. The penalty? “Then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord, when you […]
“Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me” (Ps 19:13). Presumptuous sins! These are sins committed not through weakness or the enemy’s stealth, but from our own deliberate action. They are sins that we engage in against our own best judgment and in spite of the light of […]
Leonard Sheldrake reminds us that “No work is more noble or fraught with more blessed possibilities than sowing the seeds of the gospel.” What to sow? “The sower sows the word” (Mk 4:14). When should we sow? “In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand; for you do […]