Recently I’ve been diving into studies on the ancient Jewish context of the Old Testament, especially the Torah. We often read the first five books of the Bible in a bit of a vacuum. We read them (and in the case of Leviticus, we skim them) in order to make it through a yearly Bible reading schedule. We engage with the action-packed stories, but our eyes tend to gloss over at the more difficult passages that depict parts of ancient near-eastern culture that are entirely alien to us. As I have read about the patterns of Jewish life in ancient Israel, some things have stuck out to me like signal flares begging to be seen.
Two Dangerous Words
Two of the most dangerous words in a believer’s vocabulary are words that don’t seem so dangerous: status quo. A dictionary definition of status quo would be “the existing state of affairs.” Now that doesn’t seem so harmful. What on earth is so dangerous about the way things are? “Status quo” for a Christian becomes […]
I Surrender… Some
Imagine if you will the words to a familiar hymn, with a slight twist… Most to Jesus I surrender; most to him I freely give; I will ever love and trust him, in his presence often live. Much to Jesus I surrender; humbly at his feet I bow, worldly pleasures mostly forsaken; take me, Jesus, […]
Craving
You’ve all experienced it before (especially you ladies who have ever been pregnant): You’re at home, work, school, the sofa (or wherever), and all of sudden, like a mental-emotional ninja, you get a….. craving! The day was going quite calmly until you suddenly had an overwhelming desire for some random food (or non-food item that […]
How to Shop at Walmart
The following are several unwritten rules that I have observed as an employee at Walmart. These rules explain how many people think they are supposed to shop at Walmart. Assume that anyone wearing blue is an employee. Assume that every employee knows (or should know) everything about every minute detail about all of Walmart. Play […]
Total Dependency
You will understand that God is all you need when God is all you have. In Jeremiah 42, the people left behind after Babylon took most of Judah captive come to Jeremiah seeking God’s will. They had just been betrayed and their leader assassinated, and many of them wanted to go to Egypt to seek […]