Joel 2:12-32 Summary: Joel opens by describing a devastating locust invasion. His ministry is to explain to God’s people why this has happened. In short, the destruction of the locusts is a picture and warning of the ultimate destruction that will come upon Israel on judgment day if they do not return to the Lord […]
Hosea 2:2-23 Summary: Hosea’s most distinctive feature is not only that he uses the metaphor of adultery to describe sin, but that his very own marriage to an unfaithful wife, Gomer, becomes a living picture of Israel’s infidelity to God…and a picture of what sin does to the heart of God. Equally so, Hosea’s faithfulness […]
Ephesians 3:14-21
2 Corinthians 3:7-18 Summary: Not the most straightforward of passages, Paul is talking here about how God progressively revealed his glory in history; first with the law of Moses and then through the incarnation of Christ (the glory of the law being ‘set aside’ for the ‘greater glory’ revealed in Christ). And God’s zeal to […]
Luke 24:13-35 Summary: To these devastated disciples who had lost all hope that Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus could have revealed himself in a dazzling display of resurrection glory. Instead, he chose to make himself known to them through relatively ordinary means: by explaining the scriptures and in the breaking of bread. Through two millennia […]
Genesis 11:1-9 Summary: The confusion of languages at Babel is often thought of exclusively in terms of judgment. And it is. However, read in the light of Genesis 1:28 and 9:1 (God’s command to fill the earth), it is also a means for accomplishing God’s purpose. An array of cultures and languages is in keeping […]
Ephesians 1:15-23 Summary: At the heart of Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians is his desire that their hearts would catch up to their heads–that they would grasp more deeply the hope and inheritance that belong to them in the gospel. Coupled with this prayer is an extended discussion on the power of God exerted in […]
Psalm 67 Summary: Psalm 67 is a prayer for the fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abraham way back in Genesis 12:1-3, “I will bless you…and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” God’s plan with Israel from the very beginning was to use her to bring all the […]
Revelation 5:1-14 Summary: We’re returning for one more week to the theme of our Lenten Series on Christian character development inspired by N.T. Wright’s book, After You Believe. One way to think about the development of our character is that it is preparation for our eternal vocation as royal priests. Revelation 5 is a vision […]
1 Corinthians 12:12-21,27 Summary: Paul’s metaphor of the church as the body of Christ is familiar and straightforward; nevertheless, it is also deeply profound. Just like a body, the church needs lots of different people who do lots of different things–all of which are important. Which also means that regardless of what we can or […]