Gaining a heart of wisdom
Four days into 2016 and already my resolve is being tested. Maybe that's true for you as well, and as unsettling as it is to encounter our own lack of self-discipline or perseverance, it is certainly a helpful perspective to bring to the study of Hebrews 2:14-18. When Jesus took on the constraints of a body,… Continue reading The Endless Downward Pull of Temptation
Pull your chair a little closer to the table and join us for a study in The Epistle to the Hebrews, a letter to a congregation of struggling Jewish Christians written by an unknown author sometime before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. My class and I will be landing on a few… Continue reading God Has Spoken
I love a decisive verb, and when it appears in the setting of a solid, declarative sentence? Well, so much the better. When autumn rolls around my mind returns to the pronouncements in Isaiah 12, because I studied and memorized it in the season of bright leaves and stiff breezes. The prophet's bracing words stood up to… Continue reading Giving Thanks Is a Choice
Whenever I read Psalm 125, I am in awe of this unnamed author’s trusting words: 1-5 Those who trust in God are like Zion Mountain: Nothing can move it, a rock-solid mountain you can always depend on. Mountains encircle Jerusalem, and God encircles his people— always has and always will. (The Message) The image is one… Continue reading A Confident Faith
In a meandering, three-way conversation with far-away friends, we began to ponder the term: just exactly what does it mean to be "reformed"? Without thinking, certainly with no editorial or theological censors in place, I said, "I would, actually, rather say that I'm reforming!" After that conversation, the statement lingered in memory and wafted its way into… Continue reading Just One Thing: Reforming
I'll admit it. I can be just a teensy bit compulsive about my daily to-do list. Could this be why it does my heart good to see that God has included lists in the Bible? Chapters eleven and twelve of Nehemiah are, essentially, a series of lists: leaders (v. 3); members of the tribes of… Continue reading Just One Thing: Order
The weather here in Maine is warming. Bright green daffodil leaves, the tiny nose of a hyacinth peeking out of the ground, goldfinches mobbing the birdfeeder, and the sound of spring peepers in the early darkness are all telling me that it's time . . . Time to get out my summer clothes. After a long… Continue reading Just One Thing: Change
Since I'm on vacation this week with the family, it seems good to pause and look at a "big picture" theme that is prevalent in Nehemiah. Early in my preparation for this study, I ran into the statistic that 11% of the book of Nehemiah is prayer, and now that we've made it through chapter nine's longest prayer… Continue reading Just One Thing: Prayer
The longest recorded prayer in the Old Testament, Nehemiah 9:6-38 is also the fullest summarized retelling of Old Testament history. It's all there, point and counterpoint: the Red Sea crossing, the manna, the subduing of the Canaanites. Ponder these alongside the disobedience, the mutiny, and the faithless complaining. A slow reading of this prayer with an eye… Continue reading Just One Thing: History
When I taught my way through the book of Nehemiah with my Sunday School class this year, I was reminded of the context for one of the Bible's most "quotable" verses on joy -- it's not what I expected! Thanks be to God that He is our infallible source of joy during Advent and throughout… Continue reading Just One Thing: Joy
Living Our Days 