“How good is a timely word!” (Prov 15:23). My brother-in-law, Bob, who was a public school teacher, spent a great deal of time with special needs students. Many of them were deeply damaged by issues in the home. One 11-year-old girl seemed to be in trouble much of the time. One day, in exasperation, he […]
She debased her husband, corrupted her son, murdered her grandchildren. Death was too good for her. Athaliah couldn’t help but hear the hubbub outside her palace window. It wasn’t regular activity, especially for a Sabbath. It sounded like the people were praising a king! Then she saw it: “there was the king standing by his pillar […]
“The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel; and may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring which the Lord […]
How do we know the Lord Jesus is God? Note some key points. 1. The Old Testament promises that Messiah would be God in flesh: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given…and His name shall be called…The mighty God” (Isa 9:6). 2. The New Testament declares Him to be […]
“The Lord isn’t slow…as some people think” (2 Pet 3:9, GWT). The wait may be long, but He’s never late. If you were going to hide something (or someone!) from Athaliah, the wicked monarch of Judah, where would you put it? In “the house of God,” of course (2 Chron 22:12). She never went near the place. And […]
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory…” (Jn 1:14). A word is the embodiment of an idea. Throughout history, people had ideas about God, but now, says John, “we have heard,…we have seen with our eyes,…we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of […]
Holidays can be excellent, though often difficult, opportunities to reach out to relatives and friends who don’t know the Lord. Lonely people, international students—these were the kind of people, Jesus said, to invite to a “feast.” We should ask those who cannot recompense us, or invite us back (see Lk 14:13-14). I recall a life-changing […]
“The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands” (Prov 14:1). Her name, Athaliah, means “constrained by, or afflicted by, Jah.” Knowing the family situation, with Jezebel delivering the child and Ahab as her father, the name sounds like a charge against God. We know nothing of her childhood, but […]