Posts from 2022 (Page 21)

  DISCUSSION                                                                                             For the last 16 years, I have had the privilege of teaching Bible at our local Christian high school.  On the very first day of class, I have always presented the students with a syllabus.  A syllabus is simply a document that a teacher gives their students that explain what the class will be about; but it also contains a list of the expectations…

  DISCUSSION                                                                                              In the New Testament, Christians are commanded to give on the first day of the week to “…put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper…” (I Corinthians 16.1).  The idea is that when we are blessed, the first thing we should do is give back to God a portion of what we have prospered that week.  I used the phrase “give back to God” on…

  DISCUSSION                                                                                                  As the Children of Israel begin their conquest of the land of Canaan, God wanted to make sure that His people continued to be fully committed to His ways.  To ensure that, He gave specific instructions for them to not “imitate” the pagan practices of the current inhabitants.  His instructions for them were clear in Deuteronomy 18.13 “You shall be blameless before the Lord your God ”…

  DISCUSSION                                               In Deuteronomy 16, Moses explains the details concerning the Feast of Passover.  There is no way of us knowing just how long it had been from the time of the actual Passover until now, but one would assume it wouldn’t have been that long ago.  If we recall, in Exodus 12 the Passover as it happened, is when God separated His people from their captors: the Egyptians.  From that event, God…

  DISCUSSION                                    Idolatry is not a word that we would think to have to be concerned with in the brotherhood.  When we think of idolatry, our mind conjures up images of Buddha or some other powerless figurine to which mindless followers are bowing down.  Although there may be some truth to that, idolatry is much more of a threat to the believer than we might want to think.  The same was true for…

  DISCUSSION                                 If you are reading this post, I would assume you are no stranger to prayer.  Our prayers consist of many different things; expressions of gratitude, petitions for forgiveness and pleas for things we would like God to consider.  However, I wonder how many of us pray for mercy? I don’t mean crying out to God to be merciful to us, but to show mercy on others that are guilty and deserve punishment.  In Deuteronomy…

  DISCUSSION                                         Have you ever tied a string around your finger to serve as a reminder of something?  The purpose of doing this, was to have the string serve as a symbol of what it is that you were not to forget.  The reason why this strategy is so faulty is that most of us forget what it was we tied the string for in the first place.   God knows that we…

  DISCUSSION                                                                                 Although the Israelites were known for their constant complaining and their lack of faith in God to take care of them, they must have understood just how great they had it.  They had lived in the nation of Egypt and had seen all of those statutes of idols, all of those temples that had been dedicated to imaginary god. They had to notice that the entire time…

  DISCUSSION                                        The “cities of refuge” that are mentioned in today’s reading, consisted of six Levitical towns, in which a person who was guilty of an accidental homicide could flee to and find safety and refuge.  Outside of these cities, blood vengeance was allowed within the confines of the Law of Moses.  We really don’t read of any Bible characters taking advantage of such a place, but there must have…

  DISCUSSION                                                                    As the book of Numbers draws to a close, God begins to give His people final instructions as they prepare to enter the Promised Land.  His instructions are very clear; when you go into the land of Canaan…” CLEAN HOUSE”.  He wanted them to drive the Canaanites out of the land, “destroy all of their figured stones and destroy all of their molten images and demolish their high…

  DISCUSSION                                   In Numbers 31, God tells Moses that it is time for them to take vengeance on the Midianites for something that they had done to the children of Israel earlier in Genesis 25.1-17.  The Midianites had invited the Israelites to join them in worshiping their “gods”.  The Israelites that participated in this pagan worship were punished in Genesis 25; however, now in Numbers 31-32, God is punishing the Midianites for…

  DISCUSSION                                                 What is a vow?  It seems like the only time we use the word “vow”, is when we are at a wedding ceremony referring to the vows that the husband and wife make to each other.  The word simply means “promise”, and even though it is only three little letters, it is a BIG WORD!  The promises that we make to our spouses are extremely important, as are those vows…