It is the holiness of God that defines His character, and all of His other characteristics. This holiness is what sets Him apart from His creation and what makes Him completely unique from anything and everything else. It is this understanding that He is transcendent or set apart from His creation that we must keep in view as we explore all the other attributes that make God who He is; it is literally the starting point for or understanding of His person.  While all of the attributes of God are woven together so that none can be taken without all of them falling apart, it is His holiness that bonds them together. This is the reason that when given that view of angels around the throne in Isaiah 6, they are crying that He is "holy, holy, holy". It is the holiness of God that manifests itself in the actions that He takes in the world such as His mercy, righteousness, and judgment. If the holiness of God is what He is, then we could say that the love of God is who He is. It is...

If you have ever read through the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, you have probably found it somewhat depressing. After all, when the author starts out of the gate telling you that everything is meaningless you can’t help but calling the local Party City to order balloons for the pity-party that is getting ready to ensue.   Life Is Meaningless? According to Ecclesiastes everything in life and even human existence itself is “vanity’ . The Hebrew word used here is ‘Hebel’ has  been treated in many of the major translations as vain / vanity and by a few others as meaningless or pointless. The concept of  Hebel  can be explained by the analogy of making it one’s life purpose to building a sandcastle on the beach. That would be pretty dumb, right? But, in a sense, that is exactly what the author and many of us do. Maybe not literally, but we consume our life’s with temporary things that have no eternal significance. While the ...

As we look at Jeremiah as a whole we see a number of different narratives that play out, and a number of different sins that are to be judged, but the over arching theme of the book is a theme of judgement.  If we were to look for somewhere to find this theme in all of its glory, we need look no farther that chapter 7. It is here that we can find every hope that the people of Judah had dashed to pieces like a piece of china on a tile floor. It is chapter 7 that really sets the tone for the entire book when Jeremiah gives not a ‘feel-good’ sermon, but a sermon of coming judgement. One of the main issues that Judah had against them could almost be considered was a problem that would haunt the Pharisees in the gospels. They thought that their religion was enough even without the fruits of religion. It is the same religion that the New Testament writer of James, would call worthless. (James 1:26)   Judah had even got steps beyond this treating the Temple as some type of ‘good...

Amos and Micah prophesied in the 8th century BC, and for this reason are considered contemporary prophets though their focuses and locations were separate. Due to being in a similar time period, we can find many parallels in the messages that these men bring, while also seeing a few very evident differences. While Amos can be seen exhibiting a microstructure of sort1, Micah has no real structural theme2. This makes sense when we consider that the bulk, if not all, of Micah’s words were directed to the people of Judah, Amos prophesied oracles to much of the surrounding area.      In viewing the similarities of Amos and Micah, we can first see that they both focus on those that oppress the poor. Both books take focus early in the writings to speak God’s hatred against oppression and those that are doing the oppressing. Micah speaks of those that spend their “down time” laying in their beds, plotting and thinking of ways that they can carry out their oppression. (Micah 2:1-2...

“I can truly say, that I bear you upon my heart and in my prayers. I have rejoiced to see the beginning of a good and gracious work in you. And I have confidence in the Lord Jesus, that He will carry it on and complete it and that you will be amongst the number of those who shall sing redeeming love to eternity. Therefore fear none of the things appointed for you to suffer by the way. But gird up the loins of your mind, and hope to the end. Be not impatient, but wait humbly upon the Lord. You have one hard lesson to learn, that is, the evil of your own heart. You know something of it, but it is needful that you should know more. For the more we know of ourselves, the more we shall prize and love Jesus and His salvation. I hope what you find in yourself by daily experience will humble you, but not discourage you: humble you it should, and I believe it does. Are not you amazed sometimes that you should have so much as a hope, that, poor and needy as you are, the Lord thinketh of you? But...

Isaiah 12 is a short but fitting conclusion to the section pointing to Israel’s choice between trusting God or trusting Assyria. This chapter comes directly before the second section of the book’s first unit, where we see several judgments towards various nations. 1 Even before the judgements begin to come, we see a promise and anticipation of the song that the remnant will sing with joy over their salvation. (Isaiah 12:4) Even amid coming judgement, Isaiah gives a song of praise, pointing us to a God that will comfort and is worthy of trust. It is interesting to note that the references to ‘that day’ prior to this text are days that bring fear because of not trusting in God (cf. 2:20; 3:18; 4:1; 7:18, 20-21, 23) , but chapter 12 brings us a day of hope. A hope that is found only when the focus has been turned back to Him for help, and not looking for it in other places or other people. This hope is ultimately in the coming Messiah which brings us circling back to the beginning to...

It is easy, especially in an election year, for us to feel the tension between religion and politics. It seems that each election cycles this tension gets more and more intense as the temptation to bring the political world into the church context becomes more and more appealing. In my area of the world, in 2016, it was not uncommon to see churches in the area that I am living to hold different political events and rallies, all taunting the need to save the US from sure destruction. However, much it may seem, this is something that is not new. Each generation of Baptists have had to struggle with how to relate to the political culture around them. 1 Baptist come to this with an especially interesting perspective for a few reasons, but their belief in individual soul liberty is the major the theological driver. Soul competency speaks to the ability for all humans, regardless of race, creed, or religion, ability to be individually accountable and responsible to God. B.H. Carrol s...

No matter what way you slice it, our definition of success is different than God’s definition of success. The problem that we run into with success, as with many other areas, is that we seem to lay our definitions over God’s Word. As churches, we often turn to different gimmicks to get some type of visible results, while the scriptures are clear that God will and is building His church. (Matthew 16:18) As individuals, we are constantly seeking steps into a so called ‘victorious’ Christian life, and quickly forget how Christ measures success in this life. CS Lewis emphasized this when he said, “It is not [our] business to succeed.” 1 This increasingly true with those that would proclaim that we can live a “victorious Christian life” over sin and become what is deemed a Spirit-filled Christian. While the fact of the matter is that this concept is not only foreign to scripture but has disastrous effects on the lives of believers. This mindset will inevitably lead to one of two desti...

The apologetic and rhetorical function of Luke 24 can is summed up by the understanding that, “Luke's use of the Old Testament is best summed up as a prophetic and Christological use—all of the Scriptures point to Jesus and must be fulfilled by him”. [1] This prophetic and Christological explanation of the scripture that this couple of disciples knew was the whole point of Jesus conversation with them on the Road to Emmaus. It is said that beginning with Moses, or the Torah and following the paths through the prophets He interpreted the scriptures to them those things that were about him. (Luke 24:27) Ultimately, we can see this same apologetic theme played out again and again in the book of Acts, Luke sequel to his gospel. Peter walks through the scripture of the Old Testament showing Christ (Acts 2:14-41), Stephen does the same before the Pharisees (Acts 6), and Philip will preach Christ from Isaiah to the Ethiopian Eunuch. These accounts of Jesus throughout the Jewish scri...

Ms. Clara walks into her emptied closet, her ‘war room’ has been made ready for the battle to begin. If you have seen the movie War Room, you will likely remember this scene. It depicts a ‘prayer warrior’ and often will bring someone to our mind that we know personally. We all have that person that we think of that seemingly know how to really “Get a hold of God”. They have their list of answered prayers as proof of their accomplishments. However, if we are completely honest, looking at our own lives our batting average in the ‘prayer closet’ doesn't seem so hot, so anytime we feel that we need prayer, we must shop around for the right person to pray for us. The danger with this thought process is it will often cause us to give up praying ourselves in lieu of someone who can do it right. The problem is that this is completely foreign to the Scripture.   “Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the ...

To be honest, I was surprised at the frequency of the word “immediately” in the book of Mark. It is interesting how many times it comes up when you are looking for it, especially in the first chapter. Craig Blomberg mentions in his book Jesus and the Gospels , that the word “immediately” (Gk. euthus) is used forty-two times in the book of Mark and that, “at times [it is] virtually equivalent to little more than “the next important thing I want to tell you is…”   (Blomberg p. 142) The word in Mark gives us a view of Christ as God’s Servant, and at other times “immediately” gives us the view of how He served. We see no delay, no reluctance in the mission to be about “His Father's business”. (Luke 2:49) The “immediateness” of the ministry of Christ in Mark lines up with the prophecy that Isaiah gave about the Servant of God when he said that the servant would set “His face like a flint” to the task. (Isaiah 50:7) The first instance that we find the word in the book of Mark is re...

You better check yo self before you wreck yo self – Ice Cube (1993)   Not that long ago a conversation with a friend that brought these song lyrics up as an explanation for a section of scripture in the book of Psalms.   “Be still and know that I am God.” — Psalm 46:10   This in one of the very well known (as well as misapplied) sections of scripture. Very often, this verse of scripture is used as a source of encouragement of hope. It is likely that a walk-through Hobby Lobby will spot this phrase or verse somewhere. But unfortunately, it is another verse that have been pulled as Voddie Baucham has said, “kicking and screaming out of its context”. It often tends to find itself shoved onto church signs, bulletins, and social media posts If we are going to take the Word of God as an actual word from God, we must read the bible how it is written. “Be still” is not an encouragement to Christians, it is an intense warning to the nations, to ...

I ’m not going to lie. I hated English class. Being home-schooled  by a grammar Nazi pretty much instilled this disdain  in me from an early age. I mean really, who cares about verb-tense, or prepositional phrases? Well, all this changed around 10 th grade for me. I began to gain an appreciation for the things I had been taught and the way I had been taught them. English became enjoyable (except diagramming , ugh) to study and understand. Grammatically speaking every sentence should have a noun and a verb. For example, the word Christian is a noun. A Christian is a person who follows Jesus. Follow is a verb. Jesus used verbs all the time. Verbs like love, come, rest, learn, hear, etc. But somewhere along the line, we tried to make Christian an adjective instead of being about verbs. “There is no such thing a Christian Democrat” “I love Christian comedy!” “There is no such thing as Christian *Insert Noun*” These are all phases that we have heard at some point, ...

My kids have recently become astonished with rainbows. Not that they are drawing them or that they are collecting them, but they are amazed when they see them in the sky. They have also been determined to find out what was at the end of a rainbow (which was an interesting and frustrating conversation with a three-year-old). Many will know the story of the rainbow. Chapter 9 of the book of Genesis, a conclusion to the narration of the flood, gives us this promise. Starting from verse 8, He says, ”And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;” However, in verse 13 we see the sign of this covenant. The Bible says, “I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.” This gives us the understanding that we have been given the rainbow, as a sign that God would never again pour out his wrath on the world in the form of water. What we need t...

We all read our Bibles with admiration and respect for it's characters, but if you met a man like Jacob today, odds are you probably would not like him. Jacob was a backstabbing, conniving, opportunist if there ever was one. He was all about Jacob, all of the time. The bad news is that we are all much like Jacob in this way. We tend to be selfish and self-serving every day in every way. The good news is that even though this was the case with Jacob, we can see from the scripture that Jacob is the one that God had chosen to bless.   If we were to start in the Genesis account of Jacob, would find a man that had tricked his brother, and was running away from the family drama that he just had created. On his skedaddle from his brother, Jacob stops to rest, laying his head on a rock near a place that would later be called Bethel.  Now keep in mind, Jacob was not running towards God, or even looking for God, but (SPOILER ALERT) God was looking for Jacob. Jacob saw a visi...

“SIX INCHES!” This was the standard rule for members of the opposite sex through most of my childhood and into my teenage years. Touching was prohibited, which left even a handshake or high five with a girl seem oddly inappropriate. The basis for this was from a passage of scripture in 1 Corinthians chapter seven, and as far as verses that were to be memorized, it ranked right up there with John 3:16. This verse reads, “Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.  Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.” (1 Corinthians 7:1,2) The reasoning that was given for this statement was that since committing fornication requires touching, Paul is saying that the best way to avoid fornication is unmarried people to keep from touching each other. But the question that a study of the text, in context, brings is, “Did Paul really say that it is good for a man not to touch a w...