“The heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9 Sick – The Big C. Health issues today seem to revolve around the fear of Cancer – the Big C. No matter how tiny the infection, cancer is lethal. It is literally cells of the body destroying themselves…
“For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from him;” Psalm 22:24 Hidden – Sometimes when we read the Old Testament we run across verses that simply shout the story of Jesus. This Psalm is one of those passages. It describes the passion of the Christ…
“For then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.” Job 22:26 Lift up – Faces don’t lie. We might hear lying words, but we rarely see lying eyes. If you look carefully, most people reveal all you need to know just in the face. It’s a natural reaction. You…
“Those who recline on beds of ivory and sprawl on their couches” Amos 6:4 Sprawl – Before television and print media, spoken words had to communicate visual images. The prophet Amos chose some very picturesque words to create this scene. He wanted to impress upon the people of the kingdom that their pursuit of pleasure…
“Who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number” Job 5:9 Number – Do you remember when you first learned about the mathematical concept “infinity”? It was so cool to imagine that no matter how big a number you can think up, there is always one more. Numbers just go on and on to infinity. …
“I will strip her naked and expose her as on the day when she was born. I will also make her like a wilderness” Hosea 2:3 Naked – Hosea, the prostitute’s prophet. One of the strangest stories in the Bible. If ever a man was asked by God to live out the role of humility,…
“Great wealth is in the house of the righteous, but trouble is in the income of the wicked.” Proverbs 15:6 Wealth – The world places considerable emphasis on wealth. Everywhere we see the results of trying to accumulate fortunes. The sight is not always pretty. When Saddam Hussein was captured, he had $750,000 in cash…
“Talitha kum!” Mark 5:41 Arise, little girl – When we read this story, we may be surprised that Mark and Luke include the Aramaic phrase in their Greek texts. This is not their usual practice. In fact, there are only a few occasions where Aramaic is transliterated into the New Testament. We see it when…
“For we also were once foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.” Titus 3:3 Deceived – Have you noticed something important in Paul’s list? The first three words are all about mental processes, not about behavior. This is the third…
“For we also were once foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.” Titus 3:3 Disobedient – What is the essential characteristic of disobedience? Did you say, “Not keeping the rules” or something like that? Did you think that disobedience is…
