SCRIPTURE: 2 Timothy 2 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. [2 Timothy 2:3] This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. [2 Timothy 2:8-9] The good news sure comes packaged in bad news – suffering, chained like…
Author: Norm
fanning the gift into flame!
SCRIPTURE: 2 Timothy 1 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. [2 Timothy 1:9-10] The message of good news goes back to God’s…
a faith that struggles
SCRIPTURE: Lamentations 5 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: Remember, LORD, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace. Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. We have become fatherless, our mothers are widows. [5:1-3] Jeremiah holds their suffering before God’s eyes, and tells Him to remember! Not just retain the memory, but let…
worse than Sodom?
SCRIPTURE: Lamentations 4 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: The punishment of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment without a hand turned to help her. [Lamentations 4:6] Sodom (and the neighbouring town of Gomorrah) were symbols of excessive sin and immorality. They were cities in Abraham’s day that were so bad, that God ‘comes…
out of the dark, into the light
SCRIPTURE: Lamentations 3 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The Lord…
everything falling apart?
SCRIPTURE: Lamentations 2 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: All who pass your way clap their hands at you; they scoff and shake their heads at Daughter Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?” [Lamentations 2:15] Its hard to imagine the horror of the destruction that the people of Jerusalem experienced;…
regret, dying on the inside
SCRIPTURE: Lamentations 1 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: See, Lord, how distressed I am! I am in torment within, and in my heart I am disturbed, for I have been most rebellious. Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is only death. [Lamentations 1:20] Jeremiah speaks for himself and for Israel, regretting how they have rebelled against God, and experiencing the misery…
poetic, prophetic truth!
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 91 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. [Psalm 91:1] This psalm gives great hope to those who are abandoned or assaulted; it encourages them to trust God though trouble. The analogy of a mother hen and her chicks is used to describe how…
so much for our security measures
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 90 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death— they are like the new grass of the morning: In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered. [Psalm 90:5-6] God is eternal, enduring, everlasting, like the mountains. We are finite, short-lived, here today and gone tomorrow,…
He is the One
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 89 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them. [Psalm 89:9] The psalmist affirms God’s power over all creation, and also the power of the sea. He then describe how David’s heir (the messiah) will also have this power assigned to Him. I will set his hand over…