As we travel through life we often find it filled with sorrows, pain, hurt, and heavy burdens. The Bible recognizes this in Job 5:7 saying, “man is born to trouble, As the sparks fly upward.” The same sentiment is expressed in 14:1. There are two different Hebrew words used in these verses, respectively meaning trial, […]
When the Psalmist speaks of the Lord preparing a table for us in psalm 23, I believe He is thinking of all the good things God has provided for us. The moment you accept Him as your shepherd He commits to caring for you like a shepherd cares for his sheep, and He begins a […]
During the Christmas season the heart of our attention seems often to be focused on the coming of King Jesus to this earth, on the joy of birth, on the joy of new life; but unlike the first Adam who was created to live but entered into a contract with the enemy and death, Jesus […]
The Psalmists cry to the Lord in 85:6 is “Will You not revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You?” To revive is to come back to life or consciousness; to come back to health and vigor; and to flourish again. All pointing to something in the past that has died or gone […]
Being marred (which implies to be injured, impaired, imperfect, spoiled, or blemished) is in a sense being broken,( which carries with it the thought of shattered, cracked, crushed, and defeated with adjectives like “out of order”, “not working”, “useless”, Etc.) In Jeremiah 18:1-11 God sent the prophet to the potters house where he would receive […]
God had given His very nature to the man He created in Genesis 1. Like children become partakers of their parents nature, Adam (man) inherited this nature as God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” Genesis 2:7. But alas, he decided to sell that God-nature out for a cheap piece of fruit, and […]
Perhaps Psalm 23 may be the best known chapter in the Bible, portraying the restoration, leading, protection, and provisions of a shepherd. The purpose of this is to apply it to us as sheep, the recipients of our shepherd’s benefits. A later Psalm would refer to God’s people as “the sheep of His pasture” 100:3. […]
Jeremiah had been put in prison for proclaiming the word of the Lord (Jeremiah 32:2-3), and he had made it clear, that because of sin, Jerusalem would be overrun and the nation would be carried captive into a foreign land. This was what some would call “redemptive judgment” because, while it would punish sin, it would […]
This week we conclude our mini series on “Have you been robbed?” Once again we emphasize from John 10:10 that our enemy, Satan, has a threefold agenda, which is to steal, to kill, and to destroy! Robbing us of health and vitality is another of his key targets. Some physical afflictions are directly attributable to […]