Paul’s strategy for spiritual battle ends with a call to intercede for one another in prayer (Eph 6:18). It’s a humbling thought… to realize that we are dependent not only on God, but on each another-even to the point that, while being accountable for our wrong thoughts and choices, we cannot take credit for the […]
Have often wondered what the Apostle Paul has in mind when he talks about putting on the whole armor of God (Eph 6:11). Is he talking about what we need to do in the course of any given day? Or is he emphasizing what we need to believe about who we are and what we […]
What can we do to resist the devil? Do we have the authority to order him out of our lives? Can we “pray hedges” around our homes and children that he and his demons are afraid to cross? The questions are important. If we answer them with either undue alarm or too much confidence we […]
Few disagreements continue on the basis of 100% error. From the beginning, our spiritual enemy told a half truth (Gen 3:5) and ever since we have been unintentionally, falling into his example. Sometimes the art of telling half-truths is intentional. But more often it reflects the limitations of one point of view. Monologues tend to […]
It takes effort to be at peace with ourselves, with our God, and with others. That may be one reason the New Testament author of Hebrews encourages us to work to rest in the living Word of God. Used to think that the reference to the Word of God as a two-edged sword referred only […]
Over the past decade, there has been growing controversy about “a new way of doing church.” Many of our sons and daughters are forming or joining congregations that don’t look or sound like our kind of church. Yet, they are likely to tell us they are just trying to be authentic followers of Jesus, and […]
In an earlier post I mentioned that a first meaning of words translated “obey” in the Bible is “to listen” and “to be attentive, as one listening for a knock at the door.” As I’ve thought about the relationship between listening and obeying, I’ve imagined hearing a knock at the door in the middle of […]
One of our goals at RBC (the publishers of Our Daily Bread) is to attach authority to no more or no less than the necessary implications of the Bible. I don’t find that easy to do. Seems so hard to avoid reading more into the Bible than out of it (by treating possible implications as […]
In my last post I said that I find it interesting that Job shows up in the time of Abraham, apparently outside of Israel, with such Jesus-like social conscience. Find a similar description of an ideal woman that comes from a time when men were expected to rule their homes, and when daughters and wives […]
As Satan gloats over the progress of his rebellion, God asks, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” (Job 1:8). So I find myself absorbed in the memoirs of Job. What made him such a […]
