All right: here we are, three commandments into the 10 Commandments that God gave to his people from Mt. Sinai. The whole thing started with God saying, “I love you. I have proven that by saving you from slavery. Now I want you to love me in return.” But of course this led to an […]
In the bible there is a story told of woman who had a crazy husband. This man, prompted by some kind of strange new God, told his wife that they were going to leave their nation behind and migrate westward. He kept talking about how this strange new God had promised to make him the […]
Moses is a really clever guy. He loves to take old patterns and repeat them and expand them. Like all really good writers, he uses these larger meta-patterns to set up expectations in his readers. For instance, over the last few chapters we have been noticing that Abraham’s life has resembled Noah’s. Both men were […]
All right. So here we are, returning to Luke after a five week break. Which means we had better review a bit: Starting in Chapter 8 we saw Jesus’ war with Satan begin to escalate toward a crisis point: his miracles became bigger, more powerful. Then, in Chapter 9, we saw Jesus’ send out his […]
The prophet Isaiah lived about 700 years before Christ. He was there when the Assyrians came and conquered all the northern tribes of Israel, and took them away never to be seen again. His book is full of warnings to the south, to the city of Jerusalem, the last remaining tribe of Judah. He keeps […]
All right, last week the Ephesian Christians were asking, “How can we be sure we really do have every spiritual blessing in Christ? How can we be sure we really are Christians?” And Paul’s answer was, “Well, remember: you used to be zombies, animated by evil spirits, motivated by animal cravings, dedicated to destruction. But […]
Ever since Chapter 4 in the Book of Luke, Jesus has been at war with the devil, the ancient dragon, who took mankind captive. He has been casting out demons, healing the sick, forgiving sins: setting the prisoners free. He has collected some disciples; he has made some enemies. Now here we are in Chapter […]
In March of the year 1918 — almost exactly 103 years ago — the first wave of a global pandemic began. World War I was still raging. The British Empire had taken soldiers from all over the world — including from here, in British Malaya — to fight in the trenches of Europe. Now, nobody […]
All right, I have three pop quizzes for you all. Are you ready? Pop Quiz Number One: There’s a prophet who lives in the desert. Then the word of God comes to him and gives him a message for God’s people. So the prophet returns to civilization, and this is what he says: “Hey everybody, […]
Many ancient cultures believed that the foundational element of our universe is water. They did not understand that outer space is actually emptiness: when they looked up at the night sky, it seemed to them as if the earth must be floating in the depths of a great ocean. And they imagined that the ocean […]
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth — That is how Moses begins the book of Genesis. And then, as he continues, very quickly we realize that Moses likes to write in patterns of seven: God completes creation in seven days. Enoch the prophet is the seventh son from Adam. Jacob works […]
Well, congratulations, everybody: we are now, officially, half-way through the Book of Revelation. During our introduction to this series, if you remember, I mentioned that John’s visions are basically organized into four main cycles: he witnesses the events leading up to Judgement Day four times, from four different perspectives. And we have now finished the […]
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 […]
As Zechariah the Priest contemplates the first Christmas ever, he begins to realize that the Roman empire is not the enemy — he is. And then he realizes it doesn’t matter, because God is a “me for everyone” kind of God. Luke describes the prince’s birth and early years, a story featuring migrant workers, a […]
