The God Mugging

“You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride; and You dissolve me in a storm.” Job 30:22 NASB Dissolve – Ever heard the expression, “God is my co-pilot”? The truth is that God is the pilot and I am just along for the ride. That means sometimes He flies where I…

Life on the Boat

No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. 2 Timothy 2:4 NASB Entangles – Don’t be empleko, says Paul. The verb paints an important picture. It means to be braided into. Imagine you are vacationing on a…

Bank Accounts

The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 2 Timothy 2:2 NASB Entrust – How do rabbis educate? They choose students and teach the students to copy them. For what purpose? Not for creating a storehouse…

WIIFM

“Your words have been arrogant against Me,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the Lord of hosts? So now we call…

Lost in Translation

I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no savior. Isaiah 43:11 NASB I, even I am the Lord – The One New Man Bible claims to “make the Jewish roots of Christianity come to life.”[1] You might find that statement problematic just as I do, but I appreciate the attempt. Certainly…

Lima

Some photos from Lima, Peru. A library more than four hundred years old. A convent (for monks – monasteries are for nuns here). The Lima cathedral.

Living Curses

“Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker– An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’”? Isaiah 45:9 NASB Quarrels – Have you argued with God lately? Watch out! According to some…