Monthly Archives: June 2014

Monday, June 30 “We behave on the basis of what we believe.”—Jason Willoughby. When my girls were little, I would sometimes, put one of them up on a stone wall and encourage her to jump into my arms. If she … Continue reading →

Sunday, June 29 “Good guys are just less evil than bad guys.” The key word in this statement is the word “just.’ We would all readily agree that without that word the statement is innocuous. Of course good guys are … Continue reading →

Saturday, June 28 “Worrying means that we don’t trust God.”—Jason Willoughby. I guess we all worry at times. I know I do. As I grow older, the tendency to worry is still there, but I seem to be able to … Continue reading →

Friday, June 27 I ran across an amazing parable the other day. It was as though I had never read it before. It had to do with the Jews’ failure to recognize their Messiah. Lk. 13:6-9. There is just one … Continue reading →

Thursday, June 26 I don’t intend to exhaust the subject of hermeneutics, but there’s another literary form that gives people problems—parables. A parable is a short fictional story that illustrates a moral principle. A parable has several distinct advantages. 1) … Continue reading →

Wednesday, June 25 Proverbial Problems Discovery of scribal errors has resolved perhaps 5% of the problems of interpretation—and there are still debates about some of them. For example Mark 16: 9-20 is not in the oldest manuscripts. Some versions—NIV, NLT, … Continue reading →

Tuesday, June 24 Hermeneutics is more than just a nice word for theologians to play with. It’s a crucial element in interpreting Scripture. Books have been written on the subject. I refer to it affectionately as “my friend Hermen.” It’s … Continue reading →

Monday, June 23 “To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.”—Fathers’ Day Cartoonist Joel Heller in the Statesman Journal (Salem, OR), June 15, 2014. Obviously, this is applicable to anyone, not … Continue reading →

Saturday, June 21 Our adult Sunday School class is using a video series by Howard Hendricks about how to study the Bible. Last Sunday Howard touched on prayer, using Nehemiah’s prayer as a model. He noted that all the prayers … Continue reading →

Friday, June 20 I hope you don’t get the idea that we are not to give. The Bible is full of instructions about giving. The point is that we don’t give in order to be accepted by God. We are … Continue reading →

Thursday, June 19 There’s another aspect of this payback thing. It’s so easy to fall into a “payback” tactic when dealing with God. When we think about it, we realize that we can’t pay God back for our salvation or … Continue reading →

Wednesday, June 18 I referred to Rom. 13:8 yesterday. Paul said that loving one another “fulfills the law.” This evidently refers to the Mosaic Law, which was front and center for all Jews of Paul’s day. This is quite a … Continue reading →

Tuesday, June 17 We all like to have balanced accounts. That’s not just at the bank; it’s in terms of people. Someone takes us out to dinner. We feel an obligation to return the favor. It’s not just in the … Continue reading →

Monday, June 16 “The first to apologize is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest. The first to forget is the happiest.”—Melanie Samoy-Lutz in Guideposts, May 2014. This sounds profound, and I think it is an excellent reminder … Continue reading →

Sunday, June 15 A Coming Out Party Human reaction to a crisis takes peculiar turns. Surely there was no greater crisis in the world’s history than that of Christ’s crucifixion. At this critical point in history the apostles, who supposedly … Continue reading →

Saturday, June 14 There’s an interesting statement that Jesus made to His disciples shortly before the crucifixion. He said “They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone kills you will think he … Continue reading →

Friday, June 13 In the account of the Israelites leaving Egypt, there’s a statement that is often missed. In Ex. 12:32 we have these words: “Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And bless me.” The … Continue reading →

Thursday, June 12 “One of the criticisms of the church is that it spends time answering questions no one is asking in a language no one is speaking.”—Briscoe. He calls this an exercise in futility. I’m not altogether sure what … Continue reading →

Wednesday, June 11 “Disappointments are inevitable; discouragement is a choice.”—Charles Stanley. It’s easy to get these two things mixed up. The human tendency is that when disappointments come, we become discouraged. Charles Stanley makes it quite clear. A disappointment is … Continue reading →

Tuesday, June 10 Music revisited. We all like some kinds of music and dislike others. I, for example, enjoy classical music, and I don’t mean classical rock. I have to admit that some classical pieces and composers don’t do much … Continue reading →

Monday, June 9 I find that I use the word “awesome” quite a bit when I think about God. We all probably use the word so much that we lose the real meaning of it. When was the last time … Continue reading →

Sunday, June 8 “It’s a tragedy when a person is successful in things that don’t count.”—Judson Hendricks. This statement by a young man from a local church really impressed me. Judson is 22 and just returned from a short term … Continue reading →

Saturday, June 7 June 7, 1953. I walked down the aisle to the most exciting experience of my life. I say most exciting—not most significant. I think only one other event was more significant, the day I accepted Christ as … Continue reading →

Friday, June 6 Music is a source of contention in the world, especially in churches. Many churches struggle over what kind of music is acceptable. The issue is between traditional and contemporary music. To older folks, the old time hymns … Continue reading →

Thursday, June 5 I find it interesting that music is endemic to every ethnic group in the world. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE) calls it the “universal language of emotions.” We all are aware that music is a part … Continue reading →

Wednesday, June 4 I must not let this thing of wisdom go without dealing with Solomon. Solomon must have had a lot of godly instruction from his father, David, who groomed him to become king. Solomon didn’t get off to … Continue reading →

Tuesday, June 3 “Wise men aren’t born wise.”—Stuart Briscoe. Any parent knows this to be true. Even if a baby is born without a sin nature, wisdom comes only with maturity. Even Jesus (without a sin nature) grew in wisdom. … Continue reading →

Monday, June 2 Jesus made a special place for young children. Mark 10:13-16. People were bringing children to Him and He relished it. I guess we could assume that the “people” were parents, but in any case they must have … Continue reading →

Sunday, June 1 Doug Burch commented in a recent sermon that children demonstrate the Scriptural teaching that the union of a man and wife is “two becoming one.” This is quite obvious, but we don’t usually catch the significance of … Continue reading →