give (173)

Ian

Unbridled Prayer

Psalm 102; Matthew 6:7–15; 1 John 5:12–15 (read online ⧉) Prayer is mysterious. Prayer is powerful. Prayer is…confusing. The psalmist’s opening is the simplest and purest, hear and listen to me (yes, they are different). The psalmist is miserable. The psalmist wants things to stop…

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Ian

Unyielding Prayer

Psalm 39; 2 Samuel 12:13–23; Luke 18:1-8 (read online ⧉) It’s hard to grasp why God would appear to condemn an innocent child to die. How it occurs is a mystery. We can infer that David understood that the child would die and that God…

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Ian

A Time of Distress

Deuteronomy 4:25–31; Jonah 2:1–10; Matthew 9:35–38 (read online ⧉) Moses is not all that optimistic about the future spiritual health of the people of Israel. He’s downright pessimistic about what paths they will follow away from God. There is something in today’s opening verse that…

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Ian

Ways of Speech

Psalm 1; Exodus 13:3–8; Hebrews 1:1–4 (read online ⧉) There is no one way that God speaks, and no one person by whom God speaks. The author of Hebrews recalled all the prophets that we have in the Scriptures. In addition, there were the Jewish…

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Ian

Roads and Gates

Psalm 113; Matthew 7:13–23; John 14:1–7 (read online ⧉) “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” is often presented in the same vein as “…the narrow gate.” Yet, “the way” isn’t the same. The Greek ὁδός (hodos) is a relatively generic term that…

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