Category Archives: Scripture

Compared to Christianity, Judaism, in particular, Old Testament Judaism, is a very physical faith. Just read through the Old Testament Law in Leviticus and Numbers and see how many “things” are to be physically done. Sacrifices. Offerings. Feasts. Festivals. Judaism in the Old Testament was so physical, so worldly, that one of their yearly festivals involved spending a week in tents to remember their forty years wandering in the desert.

Paul writes the epistle to the church at Philippi when he is in chains (Philippians 1:7). The end of Acts describes the multi-year imprisonment Paul experienced, beginning in Jerusalem and ending in Rome. During most of this imprisonment, Paul was relatively “free.” He was allowed to have friends visit him, to care for his needs, and help him in his ministry. From prison is where he wrote a large number of his epistles, ever being the apostle and minister.

The first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles are names. Names and names of names. They can be hard to read especially if we don’t know how to pronounce the names. It can seems like a worthless list genealogy which has nothing to do with our faith.

Why are you a Christian? And not, why do you believe Jesus to be real, but what led you to know Christ? For most of us, it was a relationship with someone – like a parent, a friend, or a classmate – who introduced us to Jesus.

In 2 Kings 18, Hezekiah becomes king of Judah. As far as the “good” kings of Judah go, Hezekiah is one of the best: “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done” (2 Kings 18:3). Many of the good kings had encouraged the people to return to right worship of God in the temple and tore down the altars to Baal and the poles of Ashtoreth, but all had failed to remove the high places where sacrifices and offerings were made (at this time, sacrifices were supposed to be made in the Temple).

November brings posts and words of thanksgiving; people expressing what they are thankful for. In years of abundance and good health, we can make a list with numerous items. In years of drought, of poor health, and fatigue, that list can barely be counted on one hand. But those are probably the years we need to make the list more than ever.

First, we have an Israelite girl who was captured by a band of raiders and is now serving Naaman’s wife. The text tells us she was a “young girl,” which seems as though to imply that she was still a child, and probably prior to puberty. Where was this young girl’s parents? Were they too carried off by raiders or were they killed? What was it like for her to serve these foreigners who did not worship her God? How much of her God and culture did she remember?

The second to last story we have of the prophet Elijah is one where he calls down fire on one hundred soldiers. The king of Samaria (that is the ten northern tribes of Israel), Ahaziah, is injured after falling through his roof. He sends some messengers saying, “consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury” (2 Kings 1:2).

All living believers today were baptized into the baptism of Jesus. But what does it mean to be baptized into the baptism of Jesus versus the baptism of John?

Reading the Bible as a woman can sometimes be lonely. The stories are full of men, good men and bad men, men fighting for power, men abusing power. When we do find women, they are often there because men are abusing and using them. They are on the outside looking in, and they are not their own.