Read Reflect Really, I don’t even remember exactly when I first heard these words but what I cannot forget is the manner in which they pierced my soul: “when others are in the wrong we demand justice but when we are wrong we seek mercy.” How true! Whether it’s my boiling reaction to extreme Islamist […]
Read More justice, patience, mercyRead Reflect The story is told of an illiterate woman who a couple of years after hearing and believing the gospel and experiencing the goodness of God in a multiplicity of ways, genuinely asked her well-educated daughter in their local language: “I hear us speaking all the time of us serving God but really, come […]
Read More grace, thanksgiving, unfathomable loveRead Reflect Today’s reading in the last chapter of the first book of the major prophets is echoed in the final chapter of the entire Bible. Not surprisingly, the book of Revelation substantially draws imagery from the book of Isaiah. After many years of many people trying to convince me of the rich benefits of […]
Read More blessing, God’s purposesRead Reflect In the days of the Book of Kings, the three powers that governed were prophet, priest and king. It was a really good thing when all three worked together well; the kind of relationship that appears to exist between the prophet Isaiah and king Hezekiah as contemporaries during the eighth century B.C. When […]
Read More prayer, prophecyRead Reflect Welcome to one of the darkest periods of not only Judah’s, but all of history. The irony is that Judah’s most evil king ruled the longest – from age 12 for 55 years! Even King David, the “measuring standard” of good kingship, ruled only 40 years. Every conceivable evil, from idolatry (vv 3-5) […]
Read More inconsistency, good, evilRead Reflect What a breath of fresh air – a story in the Book of Chronicles that ends well! As I write this I too am faced with a ‘Sennacherib situation’—something that threatens one’s very existence, essence and well-being. How many times do we feel we don’t deserve such a difficult situation because, like Hezekiah, […]
Read More trust, faithRead Reflect Answered prayers, healing, health, wealth and fame. God made Hezekiah extremely rich (v 29a) and a resounding success – “In fact, everything he did was successful!” (v 30b) Hezekiah ‘had it all,’ it seems. So everyone thought; but God doesn’t stop there. For God, ‘the matter of the heart is the heart of […]
Read More success, repentance, prideRead Reflect Hailing from a subregion of the world that has had its share of horrible political upheavals and atrocious civil wars, I recall my shock when one local missionary I was traveling with, upon hearing me cursorily mentioning the name of a particular military dictator, actually say something to this effect: “I hope he […]
Read More sin, grace, repentance, forgiveness, restorationRead Reflect The Book of Nahum is the seventh book of the 12 minor prophets of the Bible. For those who understood that the Prophet Nahum’s name actually means “comforter,” the melancholic tone of the visions and oracles herein must have made them wonder what there was to be comforted about. But it all depended […]
Read More peace, choicesRead Reflect You know how evangelicals are supposed to love the whole Bible but certain books and verses are really, really, really loved? Well, while growing up in Scripture Union circles one of such verses dearly loved was “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31, KJV) How true, how profound, […]
Read More God’s support