Times were bad for God’s people. The year is around 597 B.C. when the prophet Jeremiah is writing this verse listed above. The tribe of Judah, now called the Kingdom of Judah, are all that remains of God’s people living in the Promised Land, the other tribes were destroyed and carried away into exile back in 721 B.C. And now the time has come for Judah. Exile is coming in just 10 years. For some, exile has already happened.   Read More

 “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchman for the morning, more than watchman for the morning.”  Psalm 130:5-6Waiting is a hard thing.  Especially when there seems to be an emergency.  Emergencies have a habit of making us throw caution to the wind to act right now, regardless of if it is right or wrong. King Saul from 1 Samuel, kno...  Read More

In several of St. Paul’s letters, namely 2 Thessalonians and Galatians, Paul will end the letter with a sign of genuineness: writing the farewell greeting with his own hand in large letters. We know from Paul’s letters that Paul would dictate the letter to his scribe, also called an amanuensis, who would write down all that Paul would say. (see Romans 16:22 “I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.”)  Read More

As it is now Spring, it is the time for me to get the lawn prepared, cleaned, and ready to be cut. That is, once the rain stops and the ground dries up. But when the time comes, the first thing that I do is to go out into the yard and gather the sticks that have fallen from the trees. Once I clear that debris, I am ready to mow the yard.  Read More

“For the sake of Christ I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.  Read More

St. Luke was the companion of St. Paul, and a doctor from what Paul says of him in Colossians 4:14. And Luke begins his Gospel by writing to a certain Theophilus. We are not sure of his identity, but his name means “loved by God.” Many commentators think that his name is code because of how Luke addresses him as “most excellent.” This is how one addresses a superior, especially a royal superior.   Read More

Perhaps the biggest spiritual practice that has vanished in the life of the church is the practice of fasting. I even struggle with the practice because it has never been a part of my life in the church, sad to say. But we see that fasting is the most common way in the Bible of living out sorrow at the death of a loved one, when sin has occurred, or to discipline the body in order to bring it back into alignment with the focus on God.  Read More

St. Matthew’s Gospel begins and ends with the same book end. At the beginning in 1:22-23, St. Matthew tells us that the birth of Jesus Christ fulfilled what Isaiah said in 7:14 that they shall call his name, “Immanuel” which means God with us.  Read More

Hymns are a great way to pray. Our hymn for today is #338 Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. Read these verses as a prayer:   Read More

This Psalm wins the award of being the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament. And that is just referring to direct quotation, not to mention the allusions to it. That alone should tell us that this Psalm has an important spot when we want to talk about Jesus Christ in the Old Testament.  Read More

Exodus chapters 20-40 are not often described as the most engaging reading in the Bible. But think about it this way. God in these chapters is making it possible to become present for his people in a tangible way.  Read More

“And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night.  And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens, and to give light upon the earth.’  And it was so.  And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars...  Read More