I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (Rom 12:1). Service and sacrifice is a form of worship. This verse refers back to...
In this post I talked about God’s presence being mobile. I touched on the fact that Israel believed that their expulsion from the Promised Land meant their expulsion from God’s presence as well. The vision of Ezekiel, however, made it...
Not many Christians can boast of having visions like Ezekiel’s. Even most of the heroes of the Bible themselves did not have the privilege of seeing the sorts of things that Ezekiel saw. It is usually in apocalyptic literature that we find...
It’s risky business to talk about the cross in ways that mainstream protestant-evangelicals aren’t used to. Fortunately (or unfortunately), I do this quite often. There are several dimensions of the cross and salvation (soteriology and...
Liturgy and public prayer is a huge part of modern day Judaism. Of all the formulas and prayers that are recited each day, the Shema is recited the most. The Shema is from Deuteronomy 6:4, which says, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God the...
The story of the Exodus is one of the more popular stories of the Old Testament. Not only that, but it is also one of the most important redemptive events in the Old Testament. It is during this event that God sends Moses to save his people from...
Many Christians struggle with understanding how the Old Testament and New Testament fit together. One of the particular ares of difficulty is understanding how the Mosaic Law (things such as food laws and other ceremonials laws) fits together with...
The book of Genesis is a book of origins. In fact, the titled itself, “Genesis” is the Greek word meaning “origins”. The Hebrew title of the book of Genesis is “bereshith” (ברשית) which means “in the beginning” (although there’s still quite a bit of...
Have you ever noticed that God is always choosing the least likely people to do his work in the world? The story of Saul and David (1 and 2 Samuel) is intended to portray precisely this. What’s fascinating is that the story of Saul is not really...
But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as YHWH had said (Exodus 8:15) True transformation of the heart (salvation) is never be the result of repentance motivated by selfish interest. Every...