Category: daily meditations

THE STORY OF JESUS: Psalm 74 “They burned every place where God was worshiped…” (Psalm 74:8) I’ve watched debates where the Atheist walk all over the Christian. It can be very difficult to hang on to faith when the attacks come. In Psalm 74 it went further; God attackers were killing believers. The nation of Israel was devastated,…

THE STORY OF JESUS: Job 35-37 “One who has perfect knowledge is with you.” (Job 36:4) Who is this Elihu, that he claims to have perfect knowledge? As I read through what he said, I wondered whether it was God speaking. Was God using Elihu – this unknown stranger – to challenge him? Much of what he…

THE STORY OF JESUS: Job 32-34 “For God is greater than any mortal.” (Job 33:12) In all these speeches, this idea is what comes out again and again. No matter how hard we try, we cannot reduce God to a system of thought. God is greater than any of us, and greater than any of our minds….

THE STORY OF JESUS: Luke 6:1-11 “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil?” (Luke 6:9) Often the focus of a law is on what you cannot do. There are laws against being bad, but what about laws for being good? The religious leaders of Jesus’ day only saw what God’s laws…

THE STORY OF JESUS: Luke 5:33-39 “No one after drinking old wine wants the new for ‘The old is better.’” (Luke 5:38) The issue in this section is the matter of fasting. To fast is a religious act, an act of devotion or piety. ‘Religion’ is how people act out their relationship to God. Ever since the…

THE STORY OF JESUS: Luke 5:27-32 “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32) The problem in this passage is that tax collectors were bad people. They were Jews who collected taxes from their own people for the Romans. So long as they paid Rome, they could collect as much as…

THE STORY OF JESUS: Luke 5:21-26 “The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” (Luke 5:24) God authorized Adam and Eve to represent Him on earth (Genesis 1:26-28). This is God’s kingdom: God-like humans ruling for God on earth. But they forfeited that authority, surrendered it to Satan. As a result, this world has become…

THE STORY OF JESUS: Psalm 73 “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure.” (Psalm 73:13) How do we feel when non-believers or bad people seem to do OK. Or even worse, they seem to prosper and be happy?!? In this psalm Asaph shares his honest struggle with following God. He still struggles, so is following…

THE STORY OF JESUS: Job 29-31 “I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer.” (Job 30:20) This is one of the hardest parts of life in this sin-messed world. When we turned from God, we lost our connection to God. We cannot see God, or walk with God in the garden (Genesis 3:8) And when…

THE STORY OF JESUS: Job 28 “The fear of the Lord — that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.” (Job 28:28) Job is trying to figure out how God and suffering (evil) relate. For many people, the fact of suffering and evil prove there is no God. But Job knows that without God, there is…