We’ve camped for awhile around the idea that the longest song in the Bible (Psa 119) celebrates the Law (Torah) of God, and that it ends with a cry for help: ‘I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands (Psa119:76). The previous song (118) also contains [...]
I didn’t stay up last night to see David Freese’s 11th inning game winning home run get the St Louis Cardinals into the 7th game of the World Series. But I read the news this morning of what must have been baseball at its best. Was also interested in after the game comments by Cardinal [...]
In the days of the Bible, the world understood the concept of a kingdom. People saw themselves as subjects of one who would rule over them until death, defeat, or voluntarily relinquishing power to a son. Today, and most recently with the help of social media like Facebook and Twitter, governments that refuse to acknowledge [...]
The Apostle Paul has an interesting approach to prayer. He doesn’t end his prayers “in Jesus name.” Neither do his prayers sound like “The Lord’s Prayer” (Eph 1:16-20) (Eph 3:14-21). In addition, Paul writes in his letter to the Romans that in our weakness we don’t even know what to ask God for. So, according [...]
Never before have so many people had access to so much information. With human knowledge doubling every few years and search engines like Google and Yahoo! at our fingertips, the potential for learning seems endless. The horizons of knowledge—According to Reuters News Service, the Hubble Space Telescope has found 10,000 galaxies in a window of [...]
From Moses to Jesus, the Bible tells the story of a Creator who eventually reveals himself in the Son who wants us to know his Father, and a Father who wants us to know his Son. The Son tells us that, at heart, he is just like his Father; that his Father is just like [...]
Just hours before Jesus’ death, He promised His disciples, “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:14 NKJV). Two thousand years later, those words continue to echo around the world. Millions of us will end our prayers today “in Jesus’ name.” But what about the promise? If we consider ourselves [...]
One way to break down someone’s faith may be to quote Jesus’ promise that… the Father in heaven will give us any thing we ask in Jesus name (John 16:23). Many of us have discovered the hard way that ending our prayers “in the name of Jesus” doesn’t necessarily make a difference in whether we [...]
In the public trauma of 911, religious leaders gathered for an interfaith public prayer service. While Muslim clerics prayed for the United States in the name of Allah, some Christian leaders did not begin or end their prayers in the name of Jesus. I remember a well known author and pastor who, in a 2002 [...]
Go public with faith-based actions. Hide them. Which is it supposed to be? Jesus taught his disciples to do both: To go public with the good that they did. To keep their good actions as a secret between themselves and God. How are we supposed to sort that out? In the Lord’s Sermon on the [...]