As a child I never attended church, so I had no Sunday School from which to learn the Bible. Nonetheless, somehow (from popular culture I suppose), I knew the story of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt to Canaan. So, while I had a rough idea of how the Lord brought His children out of bondage, it was not until I was an adult believer that I knew how He got them there in the first place. If, like me, the Exodus story is all you know, then you would not realize that what Moses led was actually a return to Canaan. It makes me wonder, why did God do it this way? In other words, if He wanted His people to prosper as a great nation Israel, why did He have them first serve in bondage in Egypt. Clearly, it is by His hand, for Jacob is reluctant to respond to Joseph's call without the Lord's blessing for the journey at Beersheba. Moreover, despite the bondage, look how they prospered--the seventy souls Jacob took to Egypt became 180,000 within 215 years. The means and methods the Lord employs to see His will be done are beyond my understanding. But this I know: He loves me and not a hair will fall from my head without His accounting for it.  Read less

In vain are my efforts to build up the house of my own design. Turning inward, I drive myself forward like a dog, seeking a God of my own design who only helps those that help themselves. I justify the efforts of my own design upon the mouths of my children that "I" must feed; believing that they are my burden rather than my reward from the Lord. And of course, I cannot sleep. I do not sleep.  Read less

The officials of the "city of oppressors" are arrogant and treacherous, but the Lord "does no wrong". In "every new day he does not fail" to "dispense his justice". The faithful should be hopeful, for the Lord declares "wait for me". He will "purify the lips of the peoples".  Read less

The gullible, those easily duped by falsehood, lack sufficient experience or sense to discern what is true from what is true-sounding. We are all gullible as children for lack of experience. Some of us remain gullible as adults, despite our experience, for lack of sense. To wit, a gullible adult may be convinced of the existence to flying pigs, despite never having experienced one, because he lacks the sense to see that such a beast is unlikely. But what of the opposite case--the adult whose experience and sense has hardened into intellectual obstinance. It is true that he is not gullible; but neither is he teachable. To wit, observe the division between those who summarily dismissed the Truth as the mad ravings of a demon-possessed carpenter from those still supple enough to wonder, "can a demon open the eyes of the blind?" Even as I write this I wonder where I am on the tension line between the gullible and the teachable. If the Lord were to show me a flying pig would I believe or try to gouge out my lying eyes?  Read less

Through Christ the shepherd alone are we free pass in and out of The Pen. He is the Gate through whom our entrance brings salvation and the freedom to pass. Without Him, we are subject to Thief, who comes to The Pen only to steal, kill and destroy. The arrangement is however, exclusive. Christ is THE Gate, not A gate. To insist otherwise, or to bridle at the affront to our humanism ("I just think there are many ways to Heaven, it's only fair") is to miss the point of His purpose. If indeed the gates were many, why did Christ alone pay the ransom? How have these other supposed gatekeepers laid down their lives for the flock? They haven't, for they are only "hired hands" who care "nothing for the sheep". Could it be that some deny the divinity of The Gate because a lifetime of captivity has ingrained a preference for that damnable Pen?  Read less

The common law categorized the act of fornication as "criminal conversation". The phrase seems inapt today, as the behavior described is neither criminal nor (primarily) a conversation. Yet, here in the story of Dinah and the massacre of the Hivites we see the phrase as metaphorical bookends. Dinah did not issue forth from her mother's tent to engage in sex with Shechem. Her recorded motivation is to "visit" the women of the land. Perhaps lonely (she was Jacob's only daughter), she sought companionship and commune--a conversation. Schechem, whose "heart was drawn to Dinah" did not observe the custom and law of the times; he took what he wanted, seeking not permission beforehand but forgiveness anon. The result: murder. Thus, the ultimate consequence of Dinah's "conversation" was the ultimate crime.  Read less

What sustained Paul through the travails he describes here? Whipped, beaten, imprisoned, chased and all the while suffering with anxiety for the Church. Here, he reminds the Corinthians that his ministry to them was done for free. Though a stipend was deserved, he waived this right to deny the Enemy the argument that he lived from them. And yet, when their heads are turned by smooth talking super-apostles he is not enraged by their disloyalty to him; he is concerned for them, for the consequences of their apostasy. For, "just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning," the minds of the Corinthians are at risk to being "led astray" from the "sincere and pure devotion to Christ". Here then we see a man of flesh whose will has been forged by the Spirit into iron.  Read less