KINSMAN REDEEMER. WHAT’S THAT?
Kinsman Redeemer. That’s not a term you hear used in today’s language at all. Perhaps you’ve never even heard of the term. It is a concept found specifically in the Old Testament but appears in the New Testament though only as a backdrop of a bigger picture. In fact, it may actually be lost among other “Christianese” and theological terms that we are more familiar with. I’ve been writing a commentary on the book of Ruth recently though for school…
HARVESTING SOULS
Growing up on a small farm in Illinois, I grew to love working with my dad in the fields whether that be in the spring doing tillage & planting or in the fall harvesting & doing fall tillage. I enjoyed being in the tractor and in the field. I still love it to this day and treasure the few opportunities I get to do it yet. There is just something about the smell of freshly tilled earth or freshly cut…
THE FAMILY & THE CHURCH
I found it interesting this week that in the course of a couple of days I ran across two articles addressing the importance of the church. This past Sunday, I preached from Isaiah 1. My sermon was titled: “State of the Nation Address”. What do these have to do with one another? After all the church is a New Testament entity, and Isaiah is a book of judgement and prophecy written to the nation of Israel. They seem unrelated, until…
IS GOD’S WORD ENOUGH?
Early this week, I was perusing Facebook. Perhaps wasting time would be a better description of it. I usually do a quick scroll through the latest updates until I see something that catches my eye which may be a video or something happening in the life of a friend or a quote. That was what I noticed the other day, a quote by pastor and author David Platt. What if we take away the cool music and the cushioned chairs,…
WORSHIP
This semester for school I am doing two Old Testament survey classes. I have been reading through the first half of the Old Testament & reading a couple of textbooks that offer comments and information on that biblical reading. Last week, I was reading through the textbook portion dealing with the book of Numbers. I read this at the end of one of the paragraphs dealing with Numbers 7:1-10:10 and the offerings the tribal leaders were bringing for the tabernacle.…
“I AM WITH YOU”
Michelle and I were reading from our devotional book the other night before we went to sleep. In the course of the few pages, we read Jesus’ words to the disciples in Matthew 28:20. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:20 NET I like this verse generally as it is a part of the great commission given by Jesus. This verse came alive for me though during one of my Biblical Greek…
HAPPY HOLIDAYS! NOT WHAT YOU THINK.
Some years ago, there was a shift from the usual greetings of Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to a generic phrase of “Happy Holidays”. For some it was a move to be politically correct. It only angered others for various reason which we won’t get into here. Many Christians hold very tightly to the holidays of Christmas and Easter. And yet as tightly as we hold to them, I think we have forgotten holidays of even greater…
THE JOY OF BEING WITH DAD
With the heat, there has been a number of pictures of snow circulating Facebook recently warning about complaining of the heat. On a morning back in April there was a fresh snowfall had fallen from the night before, and it covered the driveway and walkways. I remembered pausing the night before as I went into the house and heard the frogs croaking while the snowflakes were falling. I found it rather strange to see and hear those two things happening simultaneously. I…
THE DOMINO EFFECT OF “I WANT”
The following is not original to me, but the message is convicting. I remember so often as a child telling my parents that I wanted something and then convincing myself mentally that I needed it. The problem that I had and that others do as well is that we are very good at convincing ourselves. And we convince ourselves that this thing will satisfy us. Of course, there is only One who can. Read the following to see how this…
LEARNING TO COUNT
Over the course of the last year, my son has been learning to count and identify numbers. He gets better at it each day. His sister has been trying to copy him so she repeats certain numbers after him and is starting to identify a few herself. Through this process of his learning, my wife and I have been working specifically on his identification of numbers. It was easy for him early on to count one through ten by memory. …
THE PARALYZING “IF”
Every been mentally arrested by the “ifs” in life?
GETTING PERSPECTIVE
2 Corinthians 4:7-18 My wife and I were out on our deck last night enjoying a small camp fire and the quiet of the night. It was a good pause to the busy Monday we had and chance for us to catch up on the days events. After we spent some time talking and watching the flames dance in front of us, we turned to June 17th in the devotional. See we’ve been reading through Paul Tripp’s book “New Morning…
How Would You Answer?
I recently did a case study for my seminary class. Below is the situation: A Sunday School class has as its lesson Luke 2:41-52, Jesus in the Temple as a boy. The teacher, following the background and explanatory information in his teacher’s quarterly, is trying to help the class understand this story in its historical context and original setting and the fact that Luke (who alone among the Gospel writers tells this story) seems to want to underscore Jesus’ heritage…
Starting Something New
I have enjoyed writing for many years now. Recently I have been submitting articles to the local newspaper for the “Clergy Comment” section. And I have been doing a number of blog posts for my seminary classes I am taking as part of the homework assignments. From those things and encouragement from others, I decided to try the whole “blogging” thing out and make a go at it. We’ll see what happens. Should be interesting. My goal though is to…