Psalm 65:3-4, “When iniquities prevail against me, you atone [ἱλάσκομαι/כָּפַר] for our transgressions. Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!” Notice the transition into verse 4, “Blessed is the one…” We move almost …
Mark 10:49, “Take heart, rise, He is calling you.” A quick study shows that the Greek words translated “take heart,” appear in the NT only in relation to Jesus, specifically in instances where Jesus enters in to and meets someone in the midst of their darkness, fear, or suffering (Matt.9:2,22; 14:27, Mk.10:49, Acts 23:11). …
Mark 5:21-43 Notice the way that Jesus penetrates into the heart of hopelessness in the story of Jarius’ daughter. At first, Jarius comes to Jesus and asks for help because his daughter is dying, and Jesus agrees to go, v.24. When they draw near to the house, they find out Jarius’ daughter has died (v.35). …
Mark 6:56, “…they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored Him that they might touch even the fringe of His garment. And as many as touched it were made well.” So too, as many as reach by grace from the grave of sin to touch by faith even the fringe of the garment of …
Mark 2:11, “I say to you, rise, take up your bed, and go to your home.” Jesus does not say to the paralytic, “you are healed of your paralysis,” or “I take away your disability,” rather, He COMMANDS the man to do what is—for him in his disabled state—impossible (ie, “rise, take up your …
Jeremiah 4:30, “O desolate one, what do you mean that you dress in scarlet, that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, that you enlarge your eyes with paint? In vain do you beautify yourself.” Isaiah 60:9, “…the Holy One of Israel…He has made you beautiful.” Like painting makeup on a corpse, any and …
Matthew 15:30, “…they put them at His feet, and He healed them.” Matthew’s language in this section is almost a verbatim reproduction of Isaiah 35:5-6a where YHWH’s coming to His people brings about miraculous healing. And yet, in both Isaiah and here in Matthew, the sort of healing that is recounted—and especially the way …
Ephesians 2:4-5, “But God…because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our sins…” On this Good Friday, as the world scrambles for answers, divides against itself, bows down to it’s own word as law, and numbs its mortal wounds with palliative distractions, may the Lord grant …
Matthew 4:16, “…and to the ones sitting in the region and shadow of death, on them light shone.” If Death is associated with “shadow,” then what can it mean that a light has shone into that shadow? When you shine light into a region of shadow, what happens? The shadow disappears. Shadow cannot exist …
1 John 5:1: “Everyone believing that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God…” Here John says that everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Notice that verse 4 of this chapter explains that everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. Therefore, we can …
Isaiah 16:10-11, “I have but an end to the shouting. Therefore my inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab, and my inmost self for Kir-hareseth.” Consider the complexity of what we might analogically call God’s “emotional life.” In perfect and holy freedom He acts only in accordance with His will and rejoices in …
Romans 8:23, “…we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” As I read Romans 8:18-25 this morning, I was struck by what a primary role HOPE plays in the Christian experience under the curse of Genesis …
Song of Songs 8:6, “…love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD.” During the “poetry” section of my morning readings, I’m working through Song of Solomon (or Song of Songs, which I like better). There’s long been debate on …
Psalm 25:7, “Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me. For the sake of your goodness, O YHWH!”
Mark 15:15, “…and having scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.” Isaiah 53:5, “…and with His stripes, we are healed.” There is no God like YHWH
Micah 2:13, “He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate, going out by it. Their King passes on before them, YHWH at their head.”
Psalm 138:2, “I…give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.” Because of His steadfast love and faithfulness, YHWH exalts His Name and His Word above all else–and this exaltation climaxes in the crucified and risen Christ.
Philippians 3:12, “I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me His own.” May we seek with everything in us to gain, to know, to be found in, and to be forever with Christ, BECAUSE He has already made us His own.
1 Corinthians 15:55-57, “‘O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” In Jesus’ death and resurrection, our sin was slain, the …
Ephesians 2:1-3, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience–among whom we all once lived…” This was or is true of us all.
