Jeremiah 30
At the beginning of this chapter, God relates a distressing scene to Jeremiah: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Cries of fear are heard—terror, not peace. Ask and see: Can a man bear children? Then why do I see every strong man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor, every face turned deathly pale? How awful that day will be! No other will be like it.’” (vs 5-7)
Jeremiah 25
I know, I know. The title of this blog: duh! Nothing new or earth-shattering here. One of the basics of knowing God is recognizing that He is the parent and we are His children. But how often do we stop to really flesh out all the applications and implications of that? If we know God is a parent, should it surprise us when He acts like one?
Isaiah 43
This chapter begins with one of my all-time favorite passages in the Bible: “But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.’” (vs 1-2)
Proverbs 6
If there is one, overarching theme to the Bible, it must be that God is love. He is like a fierce Momma Bear who will do anything, absolutely anything, to protect His children. (And, you know, we’re all His children.) But because we spend so much time using that word love to describe God, it’s easy to forget that the Bible describes Him as hating things, too. (Notice I said things, not people.)
Psalm 138
Have you ever felt it? That moment when it seems like nothing else in the world matters except God, and at that moment, you would go anywhere and do anything—no matter the cost—if He called you to it? What happens to those moments? They come suddenly and go just as quickly, as the world and all its glittering promises come flooding back in.
Psalm 124
“If the Lord had not been on our side…” begins the psalm for today. Well, that’s a scary proposition! Yet every heathen religion is based on the idea that there is a god who is not for us, a god who is angry with us, a god who must be appeased in order to accept us. Unfortunately, these heathen ideas have even permeated Christianity, where Jesus (the Son of God) is often depicted as the One who decided to stand between us and God (the Father), who was angry and unwilling to forgive us.
Psalm 120
I love the abruptness of the Hebrew in the opening stanza of this psalm. The original wording of the verse goes like this: “To the Lord in my trouble—I called and He answered me.” (vs 1) The psalmist’s trouble is stressed in the first half of the verse, and then the two actions come like staccato thumps (only two words in the Hebrew) in the second half of the verse: Called. Answered.
Psalm 112
Here is one of the paradoxes of the Christian life: When we fear God, we won’t be afraid of anything. When we don’t fear God, we will be afraid of everything. Of course, as mentioned in yesterday’s blog, “fearing” God doesn’t have anything to do with being terrified of Him. It means to respect Him, to stand in awe of Him, to understand that He is over all and above all.
Psalm 11
I imagine there have been many eras throughout history when it looked like the world was on the edge of collapse and disaster… only to have peace arrive and quiet things down once again. So, this era may be no different, but when I watch the news or read the newspaper, it’s easy to believe that the world is hurtling ever closer to a total, chaotic meltdown. And when Earth’s final events begin to take place, the Bible says that God’s friends will be in the crosshairs.
Psalm 5
A friend of mine recently posted a video on Facebook about the potential collapse of the American economic system (and, presumably, the eventual collapse of the global economic system as well). The video talked about how, once the dollar collapses, food and energy prices will skyrocket—leading to starvation, desperation, riots, looting, and violence. The creator of the video hypothesized that, at that point, martial law will be attempted but will fail, as the soldiers will realize that they need to protect their own families from the growing masses of angry, out-of-control people.
Job 8
After Job got done rebuking Eliphaz, Bildad stood up to rebuke Job. His discourse continued on in much the same vein as Eliphaz’s speech, except Bildad didn’t have the class, style, and finesse of Eliphaz. Instead of "massaging" his point of view, Bildad was ready to get down and dirty and to the point: "When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin." (vs 4) In other words, Bildad was saying, your kids got exactly what they deserved. Wow. Nice friends, Job.
Esther 2
Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous. —Albert Einstein
I recently saw that quote on a church’s outdoor marquee, and I must say that I agree. In fact, I don’t even believe in coincidences anymore. I think all the details of our lives—even the nitty gritty ones—are being woven and spun by God into this grand tapestry. I don’t think He leaves anything to chance. Does He leave things to choice? Yes. But to chance? No. At least I don’t think so.
Ezra 9
In this chapter of Ezra, we encounter an idea that weaves its way throughout the Old Testament: "Blessings" for those who obey the Lord, and "punishment" for those who do not. In this case, Ezra is lamenting the discovery of further disobedience by the exiles. "I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today." (vs 6-7)
Ezra 8
Have you ever given much thought to God’s reputation? I guess if you asked ten different people what they thought of God, you would probably get ten different answers. But the fact that there are so many atheists in the world might suggest that, with some, God’s reputation isn’t a very good one. Many would rather believe that there is no God as opposed to believing in the kind of God they’ve been introduced to by some Christians. Makes me think of that bumper sticker I see from time to time: Please, Lord, save me from your followers!
Ezra 7
Seven chapters into his book, Ezra finally arrives on-scene, and the first thing he does is conduct a massive undertaking. It’s a huge task, including making a great journey across a large desert, transporting sacred items and gold and silver for the temple, and appointing judges to rule over the land. With such a monumental list of responsibilities at hand, Ezra was definitely going to need a lot of strength.
Ezra 5
In the previous chapter of Ezra, we learned that there was some fierce opposition to the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. It continued in this chapter: "At that time Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates went to them and asked, 'Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and to finish it?' They also asked, 'What are the names of those who are constructing this building?' But the eye of their God was watching over the elders of the Jews, and they were not stopped until a report could go to Darius and his written reply be received." (vs 3-5)
2 Chronicles 24
I heard a very good sermon recently about how God sometimes protects us in an ultimate, eternal sense by not protecting us physically in the here and now. This, of course, can be a very difficult concept for us to understand and grasp. We tend to want that "instant gratification" sort of protection, and quite often, we’re shocked and grieved when we don’t get it.
2 Chronicles 22
And once again, we find ourselves back to a familiar story from the time of the kings in Israel: "When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah. But Jehosheba... took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes who were about to be murdered and put him and his nurse in a bedroom... [Jehosheba] hid the child from Athaliah so she could not kill him. He remained hidden with them at the temple of God for six years while Athaliah ruled the land." (vs 10-12)
