Devotional Thoughts
Cheering for the opponents
Last month, Grapevine Faith defeated Gainesville State School 33-14 in their football game. But that’s not important. What’s interesting is that half of Faith’s fans, parents & cheerleaders spent the game cheering for Gainesville – the other team!
Prayer: Sodom and Bowling Pins
Last night, I bowled. Despite bowling poorly and narrowly escaping asphyxiation from nearby smokers, I had an enjoyable evening. At one point, a conversation turned to the remarkably universal practice of waving, shouting or wiggling oneself at a just-released bowling ball in the attempt to make it move where you want it. A friend confessed to me that as a child she would actually pray for the bowling ball as it rolled down the lane. Is that a good prayer to pray?
Punctuating God’s Word
The story of the receding floodwaters in Genesis 8 hangs its suspense on the question of when the dry land becomes dry enough. As Noah sends a raven and a dove, the tension heightens and the reader with fresh eyes wonders, “Will the ground ever be dry enough to live on?” In the NET Bible, the climax is written this way: “He waited seven more days and then sent out the dove again from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there was a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak!” (Gen. 8.10-11). The sentence ends in a way that is (unfortunately) uncommon in English Bibles: with an exclamation point!
Characters in Absalom’s Coup
This post continues the previous one by describing the characters in II Sam. 15.13-19.8. No story would be worth reading without characters to move the plot along; this narrative has quite a variety of them!
Literary Observations on Absalom’s Attempted Coup
In a recent Sunday School class, I was placed in a small group of students and given a passage of Scripture to work through, finding lessons to share with the class. I’ll spend the next few post in sort of mini-series on literary aspects of the story of Absalom’s attempted take-over of his father David’s kingdom as recorded in II Sam. 15.13-19.8. Please take the time to read that passage before you finish this article.
God makes empty things full
That’s what the book of Ruth teaches. I learned and was edified as I was recently doing some outside reading on literary analysis of the Bible (reading a Biblical narrative and studying the literary features like character, plot, setting, etc).
What Pastors Should and Shouldn’t Do
I’m not a pastor. But I can tell you what a good pastor does and doesn’t do. Because, (1) the Bible describes such things and because (2) we can all distinguish between good and bad kings, even though we’re not kings.
Overview of Matthew
On Sunday, my pastor preached an overview of Matthew 1-20. This sermon simply and clearly walked through the major sections, explained the purposes of each and gave an excellent summary of that portion of the book.
Which election is the most important?
Today is “Election Day” – the day that most US citizens cast their vote (this year, for the highest office in the country). For some people, it’s a huge deal: they revel in the thought that the fate of the nation rests in the votes of the people! For others, it’s not so weighty, but it’s great that Starbucks is giving free coffee and Krispy Kreme free doughnuts to voters. For some of us, it’s really a stress-free day, since we voted absentee two weeks ago! But all in all, there are very few Americans who will not be immediately affected by tomorrow’s elections.
Bauder: “God does not need fundamentalism”
I enjoy reading Kevin Bauder‘s articles in “In the Nick of Time” – they are consistently thoughtful, clear and appropriate.