When the Nation of Israel followed God’s commands to observe a year of Sabbath rest every seven years and an additional year known as the year of Jubilee every fifty years, God provided so much on the sixth year that it sustained them for three.
What does the year of Jubilee picture for us? Is there a greater meaning than just God’s provision for our physical needs? What is true biblical prosperity and what can help us experience it?
In the book of Isaiah, God said we were created for His glory. One definition for bringing someone glory is to give others the right opinion of that person. How do you look to others? If you claim to be a follower of Christ, do you live in a way that brings Him glory? If, like me, you believe you could do better, here are four ways we can better give others the right opinion of God.
Also, read about what often happens when we try to share our faith with those closest to us and how to keep an eternal perspective instead of being offended by a common reaction.
How well do you handle “waiting on the Lord”? Do you have an “I’m waiting … I’m waiting …” while you drum your fingers on the table attitude? Or do you ever find yourself thinking, “I’ve prayed, but nothing seems to be happening!”
Why does God allow us to wait, anyway? Can “waiting on the Lord” be a good thing? Can we learn to trust Him … really trust Him as a result? And if so, how? See today’s reading from Psalm 27.
Also, read about God’s leadership qualifications (*hint: we’re all leaders, even as moms and dads), why we can’t approach God based on our own good works, and why knowing God’s attributes or character qualities is so important to our walks of faith.
Is the desire to know the secret things about the future, our lives, or those close to us wrong? Is it permissible for Christians to visit people who claim to know things we don’t? Or are there secret things that God has not revealed and that we are forbidden to seek apart from Him and His Word? And is it possible that Satan and his demons use people who claim to know those secret things to deceive us by sounding religious or harmless?
Animal sacrifices, circumcision, murder, the blood of Christ … why does the Bible talk so much about blood? Throwing blood on the altar and sprinkling it on the priests and the people seems so foreign to modern sensibilities.
And what about the different kinds of laws? Leviticus talks a great deal about the ceremonial laws including the blood sacrifices, but what about the moral laws having to do with sexual sin? Why does one set of laws still apply and the other doesn’t? It can be so confusing!
In today’s post, I’ll try to dispel some of the confusion.
The Parable of the Sower may be the most important parable that Jesus taught. This is what He said about it, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?”
As you read it, you might ask yourself, “Do the cares of this world like worry and anxiety, the need to get ahead or something else weigh me down? Have I drifted away from my relationship with God? Or worse, am I hard-hearted toward Him?
In today’s post, we’ll see how the Parable of the Sower can help us better answer those questions and show us where we need God’s help to grow and change. Perhaps, even to understand and receive the gospel for the first time.
Have people close to you ever thought you were crazy? Have they accused you of being a fanatic or turning away from your family traditions? Or have you ever had to choose between honoring Christ and honoring those traditions?
And what about outside the family, maybe in the workplace or at school? Have you ever been subjected to belittlement or persecution because you took a stand for Christ?
Why does God allow His children to experience rejection and persecution, anyway? Could there be a purpose to it?
And from our Old Testament reading about the sacrifices required for a leper, what do sacrificed birds, blood, water, and other rituals have to do with our relationship with God? Why was it important enough for God to record it in His Word?
Read about these and other subjects in today’s post.
Plagues and epidemics have been part of human history since the fall of man. Of course, the latest one is COVID-19 and all of its variants. But there is a plague that is even more contagious and disfiguring, the plague of sin. Paul warned us about contagious sins. We can pick them up from others and, worse yet, we can be carriers spreading them to those around us.
Have you allowed yourself to be exposed to some contagious sins? Are you protecting your family from over-exposure to them? Or worse, could you be guilty of spreading contagious sins to others?
Through the centuries, Christians have been burned at the stake, sawed in two, and crucified. They have been shot, fed to lions, and forced to choose between their faith and their freedom. Many were gassed along with the Jews for harboring their Jewish neighbors. These were people who were committed to their faith.
But according to Voice of the Martyrs, “More men and women are being persecuted today for Jesus than at any other time in human history. Millions of Christians face intense persecution and risk their lives for the sake of the Gospel.”
The Bible teaches that in the last days, evil, including every kind of persecution will continue to grow. But here in the US, we often feel somewhat insulated from all this. Most of us, probably, can’t imagine beheadings or people being burned alive here. But what if we were faced with the choice to stand up or betray Christ in the face of intense persecution? Would we be as committed to our faith as other believers around the world or as Christians in times past?
And I wonder, are we as committed to our faith as many of our Muslim neighbors are to theirs?
God has always taken sin seriously, both in the Old Testament and the New. As God led Moses to begin the system of temple worship, two of Aaron’s sons attempted to carry out their new priestly duties with sinful, perhaps prideful, attitudes and were killed instantly. The text says they “offered profane fire before the Lord.”
In the book of Acts, Ananias and Sapphira lied to Peter about their offering and dropped dead. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul said some believers had died prematurely because they failed to take seriously Christ’s sacrifice. Jesus Himself called us hypocrites when we fail to examine our own lives instead of pointing out the wrongs in everyone else’s.
These were intended to be strong warnings to the people of their day and ours. And speaking of warnings, Proverbs has plenty of them, too. Today’s reading exposes an invitation that is repeatedly sent out to us all. But it’s one to which only a fool RSVPs.
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