I’ve spent quite a bit of time recently reading and researching for my upcoming series on the Personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit. One of the books I’m reading is Elmer Towns’ excellent book, The Ultimate Guide to the Names of God. It is chock full of great thoughts. Three of Dr. Towns books have been combined into this Ultimate Guide: My Father’s Name, The Names of Jesus, and The Names of The Holy Spirit.
In his book A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, Phillip Keller talks about the day he bought the first sheep for his own flock. He recounts how his neighbor handed him a knife and said, “Well, Philip, they’re yours. Now you’ll have to put your mark on them.”[1]
Have you ever been tempted to do something wrong? Do you feel in those times like God is testing you? Or maybe you realize your temptation comes because of something…
Atheists and agnostics often claim that if there were indeed a God who is both all-good and all-powerful, He should abolish all evil immediately. If you’ve ever wondered why doesn’t…
Two men have been sent by Joshua to secretly check out the city of Jericho to get a feel for what the Israelites would face when they got there. Unfortunately, either they weren’t very good at covert operations, or they just stood out as “not one of us,” and the king of Jericho found out about them. He sent soldiers to the house of Rahab, where he had been told the men were staying.
We find the story of Tamar in Genesis 38. As the chapter opens, Jacob’s son Judah has married a Canaanite woman named Bath-shua, with whom he had three sons, Er, Onan and Shelah. Er, the oldest son, married a Canaanite woman named Tamar, but he died before they had any children. Genesis 38:7 explains, “But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.” The exact nature of his wickedness is not given.
Okay, here’s a pretty random thought that’s not connected to anything I’ve written lately, but I’ve had it on my list of potential articles for several months. The question comes…
What are the commonly misunderstood verses about Jesus? Some Bible verses are not as easy to understand as others. Peter once said of the apostle Paul, “His letters contain some…
“The LORD is my shepherd [Yahweh Rohi]. I lack nothing” (Psalm 23:1) Philip Keller gives us a beautiful description of what the shepherd means to the sheep. He explains, “[David]…
God was incredibly gracious to the Israelites in making His presence known to them. Just a few familiar examples are the pillars of cloud and fire by which He led them out of Egypt and through the wilderness (Exodus 13). When He appeared on Mount Sinai to Moses, we read, “the glory of the LORD [YHWH] settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD [YHWH] called to Moses from within the cloud” (Exodus 24:16)
