Our highest aim, as things stand, is that on occasions, we, in the guise of one exceptionally called an exceptional prepared, may pass through the holies place and return to the mundane alive with news of peace with the Holy One. So, the problem remains how God’s presence can walk among his people. The problem that remains is how God ‘s presence can rest and remain among an unholy people.
The complaint is often made that religion causes wars. It divides people, we are told, and they fight over whose God is right. As many wars as I have seen and read about, in the end, few of them appear to be over who is the true prophet, or which is the true God. We […]
There is a meme going around that shows a Bible page with a highlight of Deuteronomy 28:43-44, which reads: “43 The stranger who is among you will rise above you higher and higher, and you will go down lower and lower. 44 He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he will be the head, […]
What people have called for 200 years “Liberal” and “Conservative” theology, then, are not extreme ends of a pole, but two variations of the same heresy, that stand apart from and against an orthodoxy that holds the Cross of Christ and the Teaching of Christ in balance and in tension with each other.
The definition we have of “Apostle” is “one who was with us from the beginning” who will “bear witness to His resurrection”. (Acts 1:21-23) Since “Apostle” carries the idea of “one who is sent” there is an idea of being commissioned (Matthew 28:18-20) This are qualifications that Paul recognized himself unqualified to fill. Mary Magdalene, […]
Matthew 2:7-12, 19-23 The people of God arise from faith in the promises of God. God’s promises are certain. They are also tenuous, thin, fragile, and delicate. Like a thread connecting two things, the connection is a thin as it is real. As God’s promises are, so also are His People. The whole of Matthew […]
Two or three times in as many years, I have had conversations about Jesus’ parable in Mark 12 of the vine growers. The argument posited to me ran like this, “Doesn’t this parable prove that in Messiah, God was taking His Kingdom from Israel and giving it to the gentiles? Look at what Jesus says, […]
The Bible uses this phrase to encompass the land’s needing to be cleansed because of the sins of the people, the ecological effects of not keeping the LORD’s commands, and very specifically, for the weeping of the land that has soaked up the blood from the slaying of innocent people. It is the cry that […]
I have been posting these notes from my studies in the Torah in preparation of addressing an issue so horrible I hate to even speak of it. However since the issue has come up in the news and on my newsfeed twice in one month I feel like I should say something. In a news-piece […]
Deuteronomy 22:13-21 A New Bride Accused This text is often described in terms of what should be done in the case of a woman who is married and found not to be a virgin. In fact, it is about what to do when a private matter is dealt with in a public and inappropriate way. […]
