There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 1 John 4:18 NASB Perfect love – We have a serious problem with perfect. Since Parmenides, our idea of perfect has been a negative concept, that is, freedom from any defect…
Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word: “Your brothers who hate you, who exclude you for My name’s sake, . . . Isaiah 66:5 NASB Tremble – Not very often, but when it happens—watch out! That’s my advice about ḥārēdim, the Hebrew word translated “tremble.” It’s only used five times, but…
I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. Psalm 34:4 NASB Fears – Have any of your really bad dreams turned out to be real? Do you sometimes feel as if you are living in a nightmare? Even a cursory look at human history will convince you that…
But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; they turned aside like a treacherous bow. Psalm 78:57 NASB Turned back – Don’t be mistaken. This Hebrew word is not שׁוּב (šûb) (re)turn. šûb is “turning back” to God. Jeremiah uses this Hebrew verb in seventeen different ways, all connected to returning. But Asaph doesn’t employ šûb. …
Why should I fear in days of adversity, when the injustice of those who betray me surrounds me, Psalm 49:5 NASB Why – This question in Hebrew begins with the combination of a preposition and an interrogative: la-mah. It seems insignificant to us, but it has important implications in Hebrew. Literally, “until what” brings into view…
One of my readers replied to my recent article about “Losing.” I thought it was insightful enough to be widely published. Here it is: All the goings-on in the States reduces the society to the non-society of suspicion, slavery, spies, and policing, as you so well said. It is a repetition of pre-war and WWII…
However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you: Deuteronomy 28:15 NIV Curses – I’m writing this in April. You’re reading it in July. Hopefully what I have to say no longer applies,…
“Riposo a casa” said the banner hanging from the balcony on Via Goito in Parma. “I rest at home.” The world on hold. Annoying, disturbing, disruptive, perhaps deadly, we experienced the results of a pandemic of fear. Isolation is not a fundamental human condition. In fact, enforced isolation is a method used in torture. Brené…
Come and hear, all who fear God, and I will tell of what He has done for my soul. Psalm 66:16 NASB Who fear God – Although you won’t see it in the English translation, this phrase (“who fear God”) does not contain God’s name. It uses the word ʾĕlōhîm, the general classification of “god.” Perhaps that’s not…
Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. Exodus 2:23 NASB Cried out– Do you suffer from the Egyptian disease? Does the Church in the…
