1. Many who were forgiven did not come asking for forgiveness When you scan the Gospels, this surprising pattern emerges. * Paralytic lowered through the roof (Mark 2): They came for physical healing. Jesus’ first words? “Son, your sins are forgiven.” * Woman caught in adultery (John 8): She didn’t confess,
I. When Scripture speaks of riches The Bible does not borrow the language of wealth merely as metaphor. Instead, it deliberately reaches into the world’s most concrete images of abundance—overflowing storehouses, multiplied harvests, unfailing provision—and then amplifies them to a scale the human imagination struggles to fathom.
(The Refrain That Frames Ezekiel) The book of Ezekiel is structured like a prophetic drama—full of symbolic actions, divine visions, enacted parables, and repeated refrains. Among these refrains, one stands out as Ezekiel’s signature diagnosis of Israel’s condition: “For they are a rebellious house.” Hebrew: bêt-merî (“household
When Jesus looked at the crowds in Matthew 9:36, He was moved with compassion because “they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” The phrase in Greek paints a picture of people wounded, scattered, thrown down—lives without guidance, protection, nourishment, or direction. And then—immediately—Jesus
There is a strange and unsettling scene near the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus imagines people standing before Him at the final judgment, proudly reciting a list of spiritual achievements: “Did we not prophesy… cast out demons… perform many mighty works in your name?” (Matt. 7:22)
I. 2 Samuel 13 & Psalm 78: A Shared Anatomy of Desire, Deceit, and the Testing of God There are stories in Scripture where the inner life of a character reveals everything: their desires, their demands, their distortions. 2 Samuel 13 and Psalm 78 are separated by centuries and genres,
I. 📜 Jeremiah 52:33–34 — Redundancy as Revelation 33 Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king’s table. 34 And for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king according to his daily need, until the
I. The Sons of Jesse (Oldest → Youngest) 1. Eliab 2. Abinadab 3. Shammah • Also spelled Shimea, Shamma, or Shimeah depending on the passage 4. Nethanel 5. Raddai 6. Ozem 7. (Unnamed as he may have died by the time lists were compiled) 8. David Notes * 1 Samuel 16 & 17
Hetaíros appears three times in the Bible, each time translated into English as “friend.” Matt. 20:13 - The Kingdom of Heaven parable: the Workers in the Vineyard Matt. 22:12 - The Kingdom of God parable: the Wedding Banquet Matt. 26:50 - Judas’ betrayal of Jesus Original word:
A. O' LORD, You are righteous in all Your ways; Justice and mercy flow from Your throne. B. You forgave all of my trespasses and iniquities, My sins that outnumbered the stars in the night. C. Teach me to walk in the paths of Your heart, For Your mercy
Of all the things I have ever learned, this one may be the most important. Reflections on forgiveness most often focus on the interpersonal dynamic: someone wronged me; I am called to forgive them. But Scripture consistently frames forgiveness on a vertical axis before the horizontal one. In other words:
I. Dysphemisms in Scripture and What They Teach Us A dysphemism is the intentional use of a harsh, crude, degrading, or shocking expression in place of a neutral or pleasant one. In Scripture, dysphemisms are never accidental. They are surgical tools—used to awaken, warn, confront hypocrisy, expose sin, and