Throughout the book, Isaiah encourages Israel with the hope that God will eventually put to right the wrongs the people are suffering...
If, like me, you’re a lover of Handel’s Messiah, then you can’t read Isaiah 60:2-3 without hearing it in your mind sung by a deep bass voice: “For, behold, darkness shall cover the...
Psalm 72 is identified as “psalm of Solomon” (72:1). This means either that it was composed by Solomon or in his honor. This psalm is a prayer for the king of Israel, a...
God's restoring work involves human beings both as recipients of grace and as participants in the work.
Full Christianity: Doing, Thinking, and Being (Click here to read) In this daily reflection from The High Calling Mark Roberts considers how...
In the first two chapters of Ephesians, Paul paints in broad strokes a picture of God's saving, unifying work in the cosmos...
Overview: Advent is a time of spiritual preparation, anticipation, looking for God’s coming into our experience as...
Gifts. Perhaps most of our concern, energy, financial resources at Christmas involve the selection, purchase, and giving of gifts. Often this concern...
Overview: Sermon explores possible implications of Christmas for work. Does the Incarnation influence, shape our understanding of the purpose or manner of...
Isaiah paints a picture of the values that must characterize the people of God.
Isaiah 42 begins the first of the so-called “Servant Songs” of Isaiah.
Psalm 29:2 summons us to “worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.” How do we do this? What does this...
In many churches today, there is a time in the worship service for the Passing of the Peace. The person leading worship says something like, "The peace of the Lord be with you."...
The next section of Acts moves the Christian community, by the power of the Spirit, across cultural barriers as the gospel of...
Nearly thirty years have elapsed between chapters two and three. John the Baptist reveals Jesus’ true identity as the Son of God...
In Isaiah 49, the Lord speaks to his Servant, sometimes pictured as Israel, and at other times pictured as an Israelite who...
I waited patiently for the LORD to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. Psalms 40:1 When I first read Psalm 40:1, I was immediately reminded of how hard...
Undeniably, there are times when obeying God is hard, times when we’d much rather follow our own will than his. Even Jesus knew that experience as he wrestled with his Father’s will in...
In the opening paragraph of 1 Corinthians, Paul lays out themes that he will address in more detail in the body of...
According to the conventions of ancient letter writing, a greeting was followed by a section in which the author praised the recipient.[7]...
We will return to the conventional term “disciples” momentarily, but the term “friends” captures the essence of John’s depiction of the disciples...
In contrast to the arrogant pride and self-sufficiency that will bring us down or the exploitation of the poor in order to...
The LORD is my light and my salvation—so why should I be afraid? The LORD is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble? Psalm 27:1 Back in the 1990s...
In Psalm 27, David's poetry reflects his own struggle with fear. In the first verse, he asks "Whom shall I fear?" The...
Paul states in thesis-like fashion what he is trying to accomplish by writing 1 Corinthians.[8] “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters...
Justice is not merely a secular issue, as the prophets see it. Micah’s call for justice in Mic. 6:8 follows from an...
Transcript In the book of Micah, the people of Israel ask God what he wants from them. They wonder if he desires burnt offerings, a sacrificial lamb, or precious oil. God answers that...
The Psalter says a good deal about workplace ethics. Psalm 15:1 and 5 say, “O Lord, who may abide in your tent...
Paul reminds the congregation in Corinth that most of them do not come from the ranks of...
The Sermon on the Mount opens with the beatitudes—eight statements beginning with the word blessed.[1] This word affirms a state of blessing that already exists. Each beatitude declares that a group of people...
In the time of Isaiah, the Israelites were doing all sorts of religious activities, such as offering sacrifices in the temple or observing the required fasts. But God was not pleased.
Bob Walker on Looking to the Interests of Others at Walker Mowers (Click to Watch) .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height...
When we refer to someone as a Pollyanna, we don’t usually mean it as a compliment. Pollyanna-ish people always look on the bright side, so much so that they seem to ignore genuine...
Following the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells his followers that people who receive these blessings matter: You are...
Salt had a wide variety of uses in the ancient world. It was a preservative, a purifier, and even an ingredient in fertilizer. But in this passage, Jesus emphasizes the usage of salt...
We've been learning a lot of different things about work. To recap, God is a worker and part of his design for...
Share the flavour of life, O people, life in the kingdom of God.
Moses concludes with a third speech, a final appeal for obedience to God’s covenant, which will result in human thriving. It reinforces...
Paul introduces the metaphor of a building under construction in order to make a new point—do good work. This point is so...
When I was a boy, my friends and I would play a game with our imaginations. We asked each other questions like...
Jesus makes a startling statement in Matthew 5:20. “I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you...
Some of the instructions in the holiness code seem relevant only in Israel’s ancient world, while others seem timeless. On the one hand, Leviticus tells men not to mar the edges of their...
When life is easy, we tend to get caught up in trivialities: worrying about our appearance or passing on the latest gossip...
When I was a young child, I suffered from terrible nightmares. Every couple of months, I’d start crying out in my sleep...
In this passage, Paul offers a definitive statement of what it means to be a leader.
Not only are we to ask God for our daily provision, but we also are warned against stockpiling material wealth and other...
Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last. Luke 23:46 Today...
The opening verse of Romans announces Paul’s own vocation, the work that God has called him to do: proclaiming the gospel of...
Given that our judgment is false and hypocritical, how can we ever find righteousness and justice? This...
In the previous section we looked at Romans 3:22–26 and highlighted the righteousness/justice that God gives us in salvation. Now let us...
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
