The Book of Genesis tells us that God tested Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son Isaac on a special mountain God would show him. And Abraham did it! He went to the mountain, prepared the altar and the wood, bound his son upon it, and reached for the knife. But that is when […]
Once upon a time in the west — in Europe and America — church membership was the norm. If you were a Christian, you were baptized, you made vows of faithfulness to one particular church, and then your name was entered on a roll, a list of who belonged to that local church. But over […]
The story of Naomi is almost finished. In Chapter 1 she came home from exile angry, wondering if God was on her side. In Chapter 2 she learned that God had been on her side the whole time. In Chapter 3 she learned that God does not need her help. She finally came to true […]
Bong-bongggg… Last week, on “Echoes of a Far-Off Country”: Mordecai: “How can I save my people from Haman’s law of genocide when I am not allowed to repeal Haman’s law…? I know! I will write a new law that is the exact opposite of Haman’s law, giving my people permission to defend themselves if attacked.” […]
Is This Friendship? One bright spring day the leader of the Republic strode confidently across the square. He was on his way to the Senate where he would give a speech prior to his departure, for he was leading the armies east to engage the enemies on the eastern front. He had already proven himself […]
In the bible a story is told of a man who was commissioned to be a High Priest. As a priest, he had two main responsibilities: first, to protect the temple that God had placed under his care, so that unbelievers would not come in and bring disorder into it through false ideas and false […]
After Moses led the people of Israel out of their slavery to the Egyptian empire, through the Red Sea to the shore on the other side; after he sealed them as “holy to the LORD” and counted them; after he made a set of silver trumpets to help coordinate their movements; then he led them […]
At the beginning of the Book of Genesis, in the first moments after God first created the heavens and the earth, the writer — Moses — tells us that the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And what […]
Way back in Book 2 of Genesis, Moses told us about how God planted a garden in the east, in the land of Eden, a safe space walled off from the untamed wilderness outside. And he told us about how God placed Adam there to work it and take care of it: it was Adam’s […]
This is now the third sermons in our Bible Overview series. Three more to go after this, and we will have travelled through the entire bible! That hardly seems possible. But, once we realize that the bible is actually one huge story made up of six repeating smaller story cycles, the big picture begins to […]
Before we get started today, I have to apologise to you all and correct something I got wrong in the Second Episode of this series: In that sermon, when Mordecai was introduced, I said that the building permits for the temple and the city of Jerusalem had been revoked about 60 years before the Book […]
After the people of Israel escaped from slavery in Egypt they lived for two years at the foot of Mount Sinai in Arabia, while God prepared them for life in their new their homeland. Then, two years, two months, and twenty days after they left Egypt, the cloud of God lifted from over the tabernacle […]
We’re going to begin here with A Brief History of the Satan. And some of you are going to say, “well, hold on! That’s bad grammar. It should be ‘A Brief History of Satan’”. And I’m going to say, “yes, if ‘Satan’ is a name”. And it is a name; or, I should say, it […]
So Titus is trying desperately to put the churches on the island of Crete back together. They started off well enough: Jewish-background Christians and Cretan-background Christians worshiping together, learning how to overcome their cultural differences, the Cretan-background Christians especially eager to learn how to live godly lives like their Jewish-background brothers and sisters. But then […]