Keeping the Faith; Never losing Hope; Always Loving

Numbers 27:21 “When direction from the Lord is needed, Joshua will stand before Eleazar the priest, who will use the Urim—one of the sacred lots cast before the Lord—to determine his will. This is how Joshua and the rest of the community of Israel will determine everything they should do.” This is the scripture where [...]

Mark 7:9 “Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition.” This piece of scripture in Mark 7 is in the middle of an encounter that Jesus is having with the Pharisees. In this encounter, Jesus calls the leading religious leaders and thinkers of the day hypocrites. [...]

Mark 5:7 “With a shriek he screamed, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? In the name of God, I beg you, don’t torture me!” This is such a weird story and encounter that Jesus has with this man and the ensuing conversation and reaction with the people of [...]

Mark 4:40 “Then He asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” This is the tail end of a scene where the disciples and Jesus are sailing across the lake and a huge storm comes up on them and Jesus decides to take a nap. The disciples are afraid and freaking [...]

Acts 28:22 “But we want to hear what you believe, for the only thing we know about this movement is that it is denounced everywhere.” Why do the jews want to hear what Paul believes? Have they not read his letters? Has he written the Romans yet? Did his letter to them not get to [...]

Acts 27:20 “The terrible storm raged for many days, blotting out the sun and the stars, until at last all hope was gone.” It’s hard not to read this verse and hear psalm 23 in the background or to hear the Israelites crying out in Egypt or to hear the voice of the Christians in [...]

Psalm 22:30 “Our children will also serve him. Future generations will hear about the wonders of the Lord.” This is the psalm that Jesus quotes on the cross (“why have you forsaken me”). It is also a psalm that speaks of a place of restlessness, fear, insecurity, uncertainty. In many ways you want to say, [...]

Acts 25:18-19 “But the accusations made against him weren’t any of the crimes I expected. Instead, it was something about their religion and a dead man named Jesus, who Paul insists is alive.” I wonder what accusations Festus expected; it seems that Festus was surprised that it was about their religion. It’s pretty weird that [...]

Psalm 25: 4 “Show me the right path O Lord; point out the road for me to follow.” In this Psalm David is talking about a number of different qualities that he is using to describe the nature of God. One of the those is this guidance; this cry for God to show David the [...]

Acts 20:21 “I have had one message for jews an greeks alike—the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus” Here Paul is saying his goodbyes to the folks in Ephesus. In his goodbye, Paul lays it on the line what the message of the gospel [...]