My God will hear me (Micah 7:7). Five small words — but they teach several crucial lessons. As Micah determines to look to the one true God as his only hope and sufficiency, waiting on his perfect timing and perfect answers, he confidently asserts: “my God will hear me.”
Can We Limit God By Our Free Will?
How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert! They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel (Psalm 78:40-41). This passage has been misunderstood by some to support the idea that men and women have an autonomy which God cannot violate and that we, therefore, have the ability to “limit” (as per the KJV) God’s interactions with his creation. It is thought that we have a “sacred free will” which God can not, or will not, violate.
Bone of My Bones, Flesh of My Flesh
The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man (Genesis 2:20-22) What a precious scene!
Is the Song of Solomon Relevant Today?
Throughout much of church history there has been great confusion, and even tragic error, regarding the interpretation and use of the Song of Solomon. While some Jewish leaders have been on record discouraging it from being read by any man under the age of 30, Christian leaders have been almost as obvious in their discomfort with the book. One Christian forefather Origen even suggested that it should not be read by anyone who has not first completely crucified all his carnal, fleshly desires.
Your Job In Trials: Trust God
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless” (Genesis 17:1) Genesis 16:16 concluded by specifically stating that Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Abram’s child Ishmael. Now the very next verse, in Genesis 17:1, frankly dates the next narrative as being when Abram was 99 years old — a period of 13 years! Did Abram go 13 years without even hearing from God? It certainly seems possible. Abram had to live by faith during a painful time of waiting and probably
How God Calls Abraham, and Every Believer
Now the Lord said to Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1) How does Abraham go from idolatry to being a believer in the one true God? God speaks to him! This in a nutshell differentiates Abraham’s story from that of his father Tera who was a Babylonian idolater (Joshua 24:2). God is the one who initiates salvation, God is the one who calls Abraham out of pagan darkness into the light of His truth. God’s redemptive work, like the Creation itself, begins with God
I Will, If the Lord Permits
…I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits (1 Corinthians 16:7). Even the best of desires may not be brought to fruition here on earth. Even our best kingdom visions may never be fulfilled. And even our best plans may never come to pass. Here even the apostle Paul himself admits that his plans are fallible and must therefore be flexible. “I have made my very best plans,” Paul says, “and am operating according to them to the best of my ability—but all the while in the recognition that my plans may not be God’s plans.”
Is Suicide An Unforgivable Sin?
It is important to know that every sin leads to Hell — even a sin as seemingly “small” as eating one bite of a forbidden fruit. There is no sin which, in the eyes of God, is “forgivable” in the sense of being too small or petty for God to care about.
It’s Better to Die Than Hinder the Gospel
I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting (1 Corinthians 9:15). What is the ground for Paul’s boasting? It is the “gospel of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:12). The gospel of Christ is centered on Jesus Himself—His perfect humanity, His full deity, the salvation that He perfectly fashioned on the cross. When Paul glories in the gospel, he is glorying in the good news of Jesus Christ, not just of “salvation” as though separate from Christ.
Dining With Jesus Every Day
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20) When we open the door of communication with Jesus, Jesus himself describes this event as being like dinner with a dear friend. Do you come to your dinner table with a to-do list of things to cover in conversation? Are you nervous or hurried when you sit down to have dinner in your home with a dear friend?
Is Theology Really That Important?
Why should I be concerned with doctrinal nuances? Isn’t that stuff just for preachers? This is a common question, or at least a common attitude, with which I have come into contact as a pastor. The richly diverse and meticulous language of Scripture, and a careful theology of Scripture, is often seen more as professional jargon for clerics than every day food for the souls of every day people. But nothing could be further from the truth.
The Spirit of Adoption, Not of Fear
You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15). Paul is intent on telling Christians something the Spirit of God does do, and something the Spirit emphatically does not do. Paul insists the Spirit of God does not bring a slavish fear but rather an affectionate crying out to God as our Father.
Is Your Life the Same As the Unsaved?
In several places in Scripture Paul gives us a list of the kinds of sins that characterize the unsaved, along with the admonition not to tolerate these sins in our own lives as professing believers (1 Corinthians 10:7-12; Ephesians 5:3-7; Colossians 3:5-9). It should be incredibly sobering to us if we are regularly participating in the exact same sins that have brought others under the wrath and judgment of God!
A Tale of Two Wisdoms
…it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 2:6-7). Put simply, there are two wisdoms, Paul says: human wisdom, and divine wisdom. They are not the same. They are not even similar. They are not coming to the same conclusions about God, life, priorities, joy, fulfillment, or meaning.
Loving Your Wife Like Christ Loves
At a recent men’s meeting, I shared the following devotion. I share a brief outline from it with you in hopes that all husbands everywhere might be stirred up to, or renewed in, their determination to love their wives with Christ-reflecting purity and power. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her