The Chronicles finish the Hebrew Bible. Ezra’s first paragraph is put here so the book ends in hope! What did this mean, “until the rule of the kingdom of Persia” (2 Chron 36:20)? The Chaldeans had swept Israel away to Mesopotamia. The Assyrians had assimilated Chaldea into their empire. Then Babylon, the new superpower, had removed the prime […]
CHRIST the TRUE VINE: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:1). Christian service can be either overwork or overflow. Are we under Law or Grace? Is our Master an Egyptian slave-trader or is […]
“Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ” (2 Thess 3:5). What a gift to give your dear friends today, this prayer for perfect patience and infinite love—perfect because it is in Christ and infinite because it is from God. How much we need that […]
There are many ideas about Election. What does the Bible say? The word is used to describe the divine choice of: Christ (Isa 42:1; Lk 23:35; 1 Pet 2:6), obviously not for salvation for He is the Savior; the unfallen angels (1 Tim 5:21) who did not need to be saved; Israel (Rom 11:28) of […]
Fanny J. Crosby is synonymous with gospel songs. At age 8, that’s right, at age 8, she decided to change sighing over her blindness to singing, and spent the next 86 years filling the worldwide church with praise to the Lord. […]
I was in prison this past week, waiting for a graduation ceremony to begin. Chatting with one of the men in that program, I asked if he could share something he’d learned. Moving his hands around his head in a mixing motion, he said it was all up there, but he couldn’t grab it. I knew […]
“The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked” (Nah 1:3). If there’s one thing to be learned from reading the Chronicles, it’s the longsuffering of God. “But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness” (Ps 86:15, BSB). […]
CHRIST our TRANSFORMER: “We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3:18). You may have heard the saying: You have the face you deserve by the time […]
“Then He said to them, ‘The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest’” (Lk 10:2). The word translated “send out” is ekballo, to expel, to throw out, to thrust or drive out. It was used of a dislocated shoulder. […]