Gracious God and Lord, we thank You for all the provision that You have lavished upon us. We are very grateful, and we would like to thank You now for the food, for the wine, for the hands that prepared all that we see before us, and for the fellowship that we will enjoy around …
Ezra Nehemiah 8
Introduction: God moves in history through His appointed means. But although some of His means are inscrutable to us (Dt. 29:29), in many other cases, He describes for us what it is like when He is working. In this instance, we see how God determined to give favor to the Jews by placing favor upon …
Avoiding Moral Incongruities
The Lord’s brother warned us about the problem of incongruity in speech. With the same tongue we praise God, in a service of worship, and we also curse those who are made in God’s likeness — whether in traffic, or in family irritations, or in self-righteousness censure. Gossip during the week is inconsistent with what …
The World to Come
The supremacy of Christ over the angels continues as the theme in the early portion of Hebrews, but with an important development in the text. Christ is not only supreme over the angels, He holds this position now as the Incarnate One — the God/man. For He has not put the world to come, of …
The Armory of Slander
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Hear my voice, oh my God, Hear my prayer to You now. Preserve me from fear, From fear of my enemy. Hide me away from the secret counsels of the wicked, From the plotting and insurrection Of those who love to work …
On The Last Word
I just had the pleasure of finishing a new book from N.T. Wright on the authority of Scripture. In many important ways, it was fantastic, and far better than his earlier article on the same subject. The book is called The Last Word, and is subtitled “Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of …
Stricter Sanctions
We have now come to the first great warning of this epistle. As the force of the warning makes clear, this is not an exercise in academic theology. True theology is never merely academic. How we think is important to how we live, but how we think must never be taken as a substitute for …
Worship As the Key to History
We are continuing to address the great theme of Christ’s supremacy over the angels. Here in this passage, His greatness is declared in His work of creating and dissolving all created things, and in His mediatorial reign. And: “You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work …
The Voice of Many Waters
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! The Lord reigns! His cloak and clothing are majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength, He has tied His strength on as a belt. The world is founded, And cannot be moved. Your throne, Oh, God, is established of old, You are …
Much Better
Once there was a high school girl who decided that she wanted to become a fighter pilot. She had decided this after watching a movie with her brother, and in the movie it had all worked out perfectly. She knew that it would involve a great deal of hard work, but to be honest, she …