How Suffering Can Make You a Better Person
Why doesn’t God immediately judge the wicked and rescue His people? The Scriptures make it clear that there’s a long purpose at work. He acts so that He might show mercy, in the end, upon all who will embrace His son. This pattern is summarized in the book of Genesis....
Psalm 10: What You Need to Know
It’s oftentimes hard to get to church. I remember that when our 7 kids were small, Sue and often I found it difficult to get all those little shoes and socks matched up on Sunday mornings. It wasn’t always easy to get everyone in the car on time to leave for church....
Psalm 145: Why This Famous Mnemonic Can Help Calm Your Emotions
I learned my first Latin paradigms years ago with a nonsense phrase: OSTMUSTISNT. I put the words endings I needed to remember together in a made-up word. Whenever I need to remember those endings, I simply recall this nonsense word. Students have always used mnemonic...
How to Know if You’re Worshiping the Right God
Worship is a central, universal part of the human experience. From our hearts, we know that there is a God who should be worshiped. Pagan worship typically leads to license and debauchery. It’s no wonder that in most paganism sexual immorality is associated with the...
Psalm 84: What You Need to Know
Have you ever noticed how hard it is for us to be in the presence of God? This world completely dominates our senses; that’s part of why we need specific places of worship. The very sign of fallenness takes place when people allow themselves to be overwhelmed by the...
Why Beauty Can Mature and Increase Your Faith
My mother was a great cook, but of course when I was a child I didn’t always appreciate the food she served. I remember one meal in particular when I was about 8 years old. My mother brought the food out to the table, and among the other dishes was a plate of zucchini...
Psalm 23: What You Need to Know
I associate Psalm 23 with an uncle who passed away when I was a child. He was a World War II veteran and he was, as we used to say, shell-shocked. He had a terrible nervous disorder. Doctors were unable to control his blood pressure and he died unexpectedly one night....
How is God Like a Shepherd?
The notion of the Lord as our Shepherd and we His people as His sheep is a common idea in Scripture. Most of these shepherd images may be grouped into one of two contexts. God Brought His Flock Out of Egypt First, the Lord is the shepherd who brought Israel His flock...
Psalm 24: Who is the King of Glory?
Psalm 24 is called a Psalm of Ascent. It leads us upward to the hill of the Lord, to the high place where the temple is built upon a rock. Pay attention to the ways in which you, the reader, are led upward toward the throne of God as you read this Psalm. After the...