May I Gently Suggest - iTunes Feed

Christians today do not typically observe Shabbat, believing that everything changed after the Resurrection. Some, citing Colossians 2, assert that it was nailed to the cross along with the rest of the law. Is this correct? If not, does it really matter?

There is more to the story of David and Bathsheba than you were probably taught in Sunday school. This is a complex story of court politics which will have ramifications for the remainder of David's reign.

A popular web site had an article accusing Messianics of being 'Judaizers' and heretics. The article asserted that one did not have to become a Jew to enter the Kingdom of God - which is absolutely true. It also said that the Torah had been abrogated by the Messiah - which is absolutely false. That assertion is based on a misreading of Colossians 2.

In making the Golden Calf, Israel violated one of God's clearest boundaries. Only Moses' intervention prevented their immediate destruction. The human impulses that led Israel to worship idols have not gone away; they are still very much active. The vehicle has changed but the underlying urge to get a "better deal" than God says is proper has not changed. Going to an illicit spiritual relationship...

Having gotten Israel united, David proceeded to subdue the surrounding nations. At his height David's realm extended from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River. With the exceptions of the Philistine enclave on the southern coast and Phoenicians in Tyre and Sidon Israel held sway over the entire extent of God's promise to Abraham.

Peter assures his readers that they have not been cast off by Christ and that they will be living stones in the edifice of which Christ is the cornerstone. In this he urges them to be good citizens of the places where they are exiles; both for their own good and as a witness for the Gospel.

In Exodus, Israel is told to crush olives to make oil for the light. In life adversity, being crushed, is never to be desired even though it happens to everyone in varying degrees. When the heroes of the Bible, Job, Daniel, Esther, Mordecai, Y'shua, Paul are crushed, they respond by bringing light into the world. The question they ask when faced with adversity is not, "Why me?" Rather it is "What...

After the assassination of Ishbosheth David was able to unite all Israel under his reign and move his throne to Jerusalem. When he tried to bring the Ark into Jerusalem, he did not follow God's instructions as given in the Torah. This error cost Uzzah his life.

Peter is writing to Hebrew exiles north of Israel in the Black Sea region. He assures them that they have an inheritance that for now is in Heaven but will be possessed at the coming of Christ. He also says that the trials that they are currently experiencing are to prove their faith.

In Luke 3, when baptizing in the wilderness, John addressed those coming to him as a brood of vipers; especially those who had no intention of repenting of their sins. Religious ritual without the intention of a behavior change is futile. True repentance is measured by the fruit that it produces.

With Saul's death, David was free to begin the process of becoming king. He made a number of deft political moves that first got him installed as king over Judah ruling from Hebron. In the north, Abner had installed Ish-botheth as king to replace his father Saul. Ish-bosheth, however, was not nearly so astute as was David. He alienated Abner, and so began David's moves to consolidate the nation un...

Although mostly famous for the prophet being swallowed by a fish, Jonah is about the tension between justice and mercy. Jonah wants strict justice for Nineveh and fears that God will change His mind and extend them mercy. That, indeed, is what happens and so Jonah asks God to take his life. God explains things to him through the vehicle of a tree and a worm.

Unbelievers often mock Scripture because of the instructions about how to manage slavery. Slavery has always existed and continues to exist world wide today. For example prisoners in the county jail are forced to mop the floors, wash the dishes, collect trash along the roads, etc. They are, in fact, slaves for the duration of their sentence. What God gives in Torah are rules to prevent unnecessari...

Before his final battle with the Philistines, Saul had lost all contact with God. In desperation, he consulted a necromancer who channeled the ghost of Samuel who predicted Saul's defeat and death. David meanwhile was rejected when he tried to join the Philistine army fighting against Israel. This was quite providential because he would have had a very difficult time uniting Israel under his reign...

In defending his ministry, Paul mentions a thorn in his flesh that God has not seen fit to remove. This was almost surely the 'super apostles' who have been leading astray the gentiles that Paul has brought into the Kingdom. He also says he intends to visit Corinth again and hopes that he will not have to use the authority given to him by Christ to chasten the Corinthians.

There is a liberal mantra that you cannot legislate morality. That is precisely what God did do at Sinai. What He did not do was force a heart change in the Israelite people. The Torah codified God's vision of a moral society. That vision has not wavered, Christ did not change it. Just like the Pharisees, the church today has drifted away from God's design as presented in the Torah. We can expect...

While evading Saul, David and his men lived by raiding. In this he spared Israelites and even offered them protection from rival tribes. This forms the background for his marriage to Abigail. When her husband, the fool, refused to let David and his men share in a feast, David vowed to kill him and his men to avenge the insult. Abigail's quick action forestalled that event and when Nabal died, Davi...

There seem to have been two question raised about Paul's qualifications and ministry. The first concerned the difference between Paul's letters and his demeanor in person. This might be cause to wonder if it was really Paul who had written the letters. The second concerned his qualifications. This may mean that the problem in Corinth was similar to that in Galatia where Messianic Pharisees were at...

Water figures prominently in Exodus and, indeed in the whole Bible. Beginning with crossing the Red Sea where the nation Israel is born and Egypt dies, the story goes to bitter water, then twelve springs then water from the rock and finally to Moses striking the rock and being denied entry into the Land. God uses water both to bring forth life and to destroy. In Exodus water is used to outline the...

Saul's paranoia was so severe that his own people could see it. He accused the priests of conspiring with David against him and ordered them killed. The Israelites would not do it, so it fell to an Edomite. David had to constantly stay on the move in southern Judah to avoid being trapped and killed by Saul. Yet for all that, when presented with the opportunity to kill Saul as he was relieving hims...

Paul encourages the Corinthians' generosity in setting aside an offering of grain to be sent to relieve a famine in Jerusalem. In that process he takes great pains to let them know that there will be impartial witnesses accompanying the shipment.

In 1873 Horatio Spafford sent his wife and four daughters ahead of himself to England. Their ship was struck by another and his daughters were all killed. As he crossed the Atlantic himself, he wrote the words to the hymn. This a masterpiece of beauty and sound, sturdy theology. The lessons are very apt for today's climate in the west.

As David continued to succeed in all that he did, Saul became increasingly paranoid and unstable. What began as throwing a spear at David on impulse changed into an official condemnation and edict that David be murdered. In this, Saul's own children sided with David and helped him escape. Thus began David's time in exile and the wilderness.

Paul speaks of the day to come when we will shed our earthly tent and enter a heavenly building. It is there that all of God's promises to those who trust in His Son will be fulfilled. In the mean while, we live through the trials inherent in the earthly tent, working to spread the news of His Kingdom and confident that eternal life awaits.

The Egyptian magicians are able to duplicate the first two of God's plagues, water into blood and frogs. When they are unable to produce gnats, they proclaimed that "This is the finger of God". This prefigures a nineteenth century intellectual hubris that only the things that science could not explain need be attributed to God. God responded to the Egyptians with satire - so also with the nineteen...