Psalm 23: The Lord is My Shepherd [Video]
The trouble with having so many different Bible translations is that it makes it difficult for people to memorize scripture together. Psalm 23 might be an exception to this difficulty. Nearly everyone has heard the beautiful King James Version of this Psalm, and...
Psalm 24: Who May Ascend? [Video]
Psalm 24 is shorter than some the Psalms we’ve previously looked at in this series, and it has a fairly discernible structure. It begins with an echoing of the creation story from Genesis 1, (Psalm 24:1-2), moves on to talk about integrity, purity, and idolatry (Psalm...
How do you know you’re a Christian?
There is no prescription for how you’re supposed to feel when you decide to put your trust in Christ. When I was about nine years old I presented myself to my church for baptism. A well-meaning person in the congregation asked me later, “Well, how did it feel?” I...
Blessed Assurance: Am I Truly Saved?
My father was an amazing man. He died in 1986, and I miss him terribly. He was quiet, introverted, full of wisdom, and not at all ostentatious. Dad told me something that surprised me one time when I was in my late 20s. I had just received my doctorate, and I was...
Psalm 73: Renewal Through Worship [Video]
Psalm 73 has elements of thanksgiving, lament, and even complaint. At one point, the Psalmist is frustrated and angry, and unable to understand why the Lord allows the world to go the way it goes. He is envious of evildoers—the powerful, the rich, and the mighty—those...
A Moment with Lou Gehrig and Shakespeare
Your choices have a lot to do with the shape of your own heart and mind. Will you choose to live this moment, or will you merely endure it? Will you seek to maximize the opportunity in every second that is yours, or will you let life simply pass you by? At this very...
Psalm 32: Confession and Forgiveness [Video]
I hope our ongoing study of the Psalms has been beneficial for you. The Psalms are, of course, the hymn book of Israel. They represent collections of prayers and thanksgivings that cover many topics. Psalm 32 is remarkable in a number of ways. It’s not,...
God’s Love: More Than a Feeling
In scripture, the love of God is understood primarily in two ways. Neither of them has much to do with what we commonly think of as emotionally based love. He is a God of relationship and covenants. First, scriptural love is associated with the idea of covenant...
Psalm 36: The Righteous and the Wicked [Video]
The writers of the Bible often compared and contrasted the righteous man and the wicked man. Indeed, we must choose daily which of these images we want to emulate. But what about our children? How does one begin to teach a child to choose right from wrong? How...