Equipping the Saints for Worshipful Service - Eph. 4:12
“They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” – Nehemiah 8:8 A man told me recently that he had stopped going to his church. Not over doctrine or anything scandalous, and not over some falling out. “I go on Sunday,”…
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. (Romans 7:15) If you are anything like me, you know the feeling, even if you have never put words to it. You swore you were done with it and meant the promise…
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? (Psalm 42:5) There is a believer I want to speak to, and you may be him or her. You are not involved in any scandal. You read your Bible this morning and felt nothing. You prayed, and the words…
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” — Romans 8:15 (ESV) I have been to court a few times in my day. Ok, more than a few times, but don’t read too…
According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. (1 Timothy 1:11) Ask most people to picture the face of God, and you will get a frown. A stern old man leaning over the banister of heaven, mildly displeased, waiting for the music to stop. Even believers carry that…
The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts. – Prov. 17:3 (ESV) Everybody wants the polishing wheel. That was my favorite station too, back when I was a young silversmith with more enthusiasm than sense. I started as an apprentice and visited Colonial Williamsburg, which really whetted…
The Virginia Creeper Trail here in Abingdon, Virginia, starts a few minutes from my door. Most mornings now, you’ll find it busy in the most gentle way a place can be busy; walkers and bicycles, a dog straining at the leash, a young couple pushing a stroller, an old man with a thermos who is…
Romans 8:1 (ESV)
The word I keep coming back to is the one in the middle.
Psalm 119:18 (ESV) The prayer is one sentence. Eight syllables in Hebrew. It appears at the top of the text, before the long work of reading begins, and it can seem like liturgical throat-clearing or a moment of piety before the real work starts. I have come to think it is the real work. Open…
1 Kings 19:11–13 (ESV) I jumped a unicycle from ramp-to-ramp as a kid enough to know that the spectacular doesn’t always come when you need it most. You pray for wind at your back. You get something quieter. Elijah at Horeb was spent. He had outrun Jezebel’s messengers, collapsed under a broom tree, and asked…