Posts from May 2023
…Practice These Things
What do you think of the word, Discipline? I don’t mean discipline as in using discipline to punish a person for making a mistake. But I mean discipline as in training oneself to reach a certain improvement or goal. This past week, a friend told me he had been training hard for his very first triathlon in his life. But for the most of us, No, we don’t think very highly of the word. Discipline stirs up feelings of pushing…
Knowing the Unchanging God in an Ever-Changing World
This Sunday I am going to teach the last in this series “Knowing God,” but by saying this, please understand, there is NO WAY that we have come to end of what it means to Know God. We have taught about 35 Sunday’s using this headline “Knowing God.” We have taught a great deal from Exodus, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Matthew, John, and Hebrews… and have looked carefully at many other Scriptures as well during this whole academic year. Some of us…
The Shema: Deuteronomy 6:4
The Shema: Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” In the days of Moses, just before they were to cross the Jordan River to enter the promised land, the people of God – the Covenant people Israel – were given this command that we find in Deuteronomy 6:4. It is famous in the Jewish world and called “The Shema.” This literally means… “listen!”…
Raising the Next Generation to Know God
What a joy it is to be a parent. Well… most of the time, right? Just this week I saw on Facebook another one of our families who is celebrating their little babies month by month birthday. It’s that cute photo of the infant laying on a blanket surrounded by those 12 numbers with a circle on how many months old they are now. Those are the cutest photos and what a joy it is to celebrate. This coming Sunday…
Some of My Thoughts on the Levite (Part II)
Read Part I. When we hear that the Levites did not receive a land inheritance like all the other tribes, it is easy for any of us to think they were, in some way, less than the other tribes. But that would be a mistake. It would be wrong for us to think God did not care for them as much as he cared for the other tribes or love them as much as he loved the other tribes. Why…