The account of Israel’s devastating loss at Ai due to Achan’s error is one that bears repeating.  Not only was the army defeated easily by a small force from a small town, but about 36 soldiers died, and it felt as though God had abandoned the people.  After Joshua addressed the sin in the camp, and the people were prepared to follow God completely, He gave them a specific battle plan.  They were to leverage the pride of the people of Ai, luring them out into the open and then attack from the rear, then attack from the rear flanks,…

One of the benefits of reading books like Leviticus is understanding the high requirements God put in place for Him to remain with His people.  If they were to be able to keep fellowship with Him, they needed to retain His presence with sacrifices to remove sin, and also to maintain peace.

Those sacrifices, however, had to meet a certain standard to be effective.  All of the sin offerings, and guilt offers for the people, and the priests had to be perfect, or unblemished. (Leviticus 1:3, 10; 3:1, 6; 4:3, 23, 28, 32; 5:15-18; 6:6; 9:2-3; 14:10)  Even the offerings that…

If there is any one issue that I hear complaints about from young married couples more than any other, it is the issue of communication.  It is not always the failure of one sex over the other, but young men are often quite unprepared to speak to their wives in a ways that demonstrates patience toward the "weaker vessel." (II Peter 3:7)  This is made especially difficult if there is an emotional component.

What is amazing is that the bible provides several opportunities to learn how to speak to people, even women, in a way that communicates dignity and respect.  Many…

Right now, there is a lot of discussion going on in this country about the qualities that a person must possess to be an effective arbiter of justice.  Looking at a person’s past, and prognosticating what their future character might be, weighing those things next to the benefit of age and experience, all help us to decide how they might exercise their ordained authority.

Whether or not we approve of the manner in which these discussions are happening, the discussions themselves are vitally important, if we believe that God’s ways are truly better for all humans.  Furthermore, they should encourage us…

When God delivered His will to His people, He warned them not to obsess over all the details He had not revealed, but to be diligent to focus on what He had.  “The secret things belong to YHWH our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29)  However, since then, people have obsessed over the things that the bible does not reveal, and have continued to show a morbid interest into the things God chose to keep secret.  As we look at the…

It is amazing how often children, when being chided or reprimanded, will point to the actions or the errors of another child for justification of their behavior.  Somehow, in their mind, their guilt is lessened by someone else doing something just as bad or worse.  Perhaps this shouldn’t be a surprise to us, as we so often do the same.

David was certainly a man after God’s own heart (I Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22), and he was the standard by which all subsequent kings of Judah were compared (I Kings 3:3; 15:3; II Kings 22:2; II Chronicles 34:2), but he was…

When we look at God’s laws, we can see the ethical demands that He put on His people, requiring that their behavior was not damaging to others. (Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:8-10)  However, we can sometimes forget that there are two elements of sin.  There is the offense against the other human that fails to love them as ourselves.  More importantly, however, there is also the failure to love God in obedience. (Deuteronomy 6:1-8)  When we sin, we not only hurt others, but we hurt our relationship with God.

Joseph was aware of this concept when he was put in a tempting…

Self Confidence or Hunger for God? Some folks get so full of themselves that they never hunger for God. In fact, they put themselves in the place of God in order to fill their own desires. No matter how much … Read More →

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It seems to me that so much of modern concern is for niche communities or customers that we feel we must make a special appeal to every possible demographic to be relevant.  This thinking can sometimes pervade the church, and we must create a special “ministry” for every part of life.  This, of course, downplays the universal application of scripture and the nature of scripture.  However, there are certain situations to which the apostles and prophets pay attention and it would do us well to see what they say about specific modes of life.

I am not going to downplay the…

Is it just me or does it seem like we’re inventing holidays just so we have something interesting to share on social media?  My profile picture is getting stale, it must be time for a new holiday that will dictate what kind of banner I can add to my page.

It seems like they have a holiday for everything nowadays.  Most of the new ones they are introducing seems a bit silly to those people who have been around for a while and remember the way it “used to be.”  However, holidays in this country are a sign of what we…

I think we can all admit that sin is a problem, even among those who are trying to obey God.  The question comes down to how do we keep it from happening so often, and to such a great extent.  The good news is that we have a few examples in scripture of how people sought to prevent breaking of God’s law, and how that ultimately worked out.

The solution employed by the Pharisees was to extend what constituted sin outward from the actual command to prevent any real transgression.  Many bible scholars and preachers have referred to them building a…

When we consider the kinds of mothers that are celebrated on days like today, we might not think of those who gave their children up for adoption.  However, one of the best examples of loving, godly motherhood did just about the equivalent of that.  She even did so after a great deal of prayer for a child.  Her name is Hannah.

When we consider what qualities reflect our modern values of motherhood, they are hard to identify in Hannah.  She was the second wife of a priest in Ephraim and was treated terribly by her rival, specifically because for a long…

There are often two song books in most congregations.  I’m not talking about the supplemental book of “new” hymns that the younger people sing, but the older disciples aren’t so sure about.  I mean that there are the songs in the book that we have available, and the songs that we know.  Those two catalogues are often very different from one another.  A good brother Ethan Longhenry wrote not long ago, “Do you want to understand the theology of a group of believers? Consider not only their song book but the particular songs they frequently sing!”

When we are choosing…