waiting

  Back in March, about the time the COVID lockdowns began, one of the ladies in my Bible study shared this verse with us. She'd received it as a verse of the day from a ministry she subscribed to.
  Interesting, maybe a bit chilling.  What's going on here?

"With authority"

"But they were amazed at His teaching, for He taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes."  Mark 1:22

  When we first read Jesus' teachings in the New Testament,

Puppies and Sippy Cups - Not

  When Jesus spoke to the crowds, He used images they knew to make His points.
  Sheep and goats.  Houses and storms.  Bread and wine.
  If He were addressing today's preschoolers, He may have referred to puppies and sippy cups.  
  People do that.  We are

Love, Holy?

Is God Male or Female?

Somehow this has been a controversial question all my life.
i'm not sure why.

Confusing Verse: Burden or Load? Help or Not?

  Translations can keep us from understanding what God's Word has to say to us.

Where should Jonah go?

If you don't want to do it, what's next?

It wasn't hard to find that ship to Tarshish, though.

We are terrible at interpreting His sovereign plan as it unfolds.

Like Ancient Times

 One of the blogs i follow shared an interesting article.
  Within my lifetime, i've seen various religions elevate previously minor holidays to compete with Christmas, and even an entirely new cultural holiday during the same time of year.
  Please understand me carefully:  i do not object to this completely.  In many respects, the American Christmas is a cultural celebration, not a celebration of Christ.  i had this brought home to me in watching the first-season Andy Griffiths episode, Christmas Story.  Throughout the series, the people of Mayberry will unabashedly sing hymns and carols, but it seems to be just what's done, with no sign of actual love of God.
  It is appropriate that other cultures fit in too.
  Anyway, back to this article.
  Theophilus on Dover Beach shared from a Touchstone Magazine article.  It seems that, while yes, the Romans did indeed invent their solstice holiday as a response to what the Christians held significant, this didn't work as we've been thinking.
  The earliest Christians had attempted to calculate the date of Christ's birth.  As people will, they got it wrong.  They did not make a holiday or holyday of the date, but it was still significant to them.
  And at this point the emperor stepped in and invented the holiday celebrating pagan gods.  Not just any pagan gods - the ones of Rome.  He also wanted to bring people away from other religions, not only Christianity, but also the popular Mithras cult from Persia, supposedly elevating the solstice also.  This was in the mid to late 200s AD.

http://masstraveljournal.com/places/boston-cambridge/when-christmas-was-banned-boston
http://theweek.com/article/index/222676/when-americans-banned-christmas
http://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/christmas/ban.shtml
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/1544080/posts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Invictus

What is Hard for God?

God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.          Oh yeah, let's have those too; like an afterthought


The Lord has bared His holy arm In the sight of all the nations, That all the ends of the earth may see The salvation of our God.           Like taking off the suitjacket before doing heavy work