giving ⁽⁸⁰⁾

Psalm 126, Isaiah 12:1–6 Around Christmas, joy is used a lot. Many Christmas songs use the word, a lot. What is joy? Without defining it, we leave it to the world to define it for us, which is dangerous, for the world misses so much…

Numbers 6:22–27, Luke 10:3–12, John 14:25–30, John 20:19–28 (read online ⧉) The Levitical or priestly blessing has been a mainstay for the Jews and Christians for millennia. The pronouncement of blessing, protection, acknowledgment, grace, favor, and peace pretty much sums up what a life with…

1 Samuel 2:1–10, Job 36:1–4, 2 Peter 1:3–8 (read online) Knowledge is power, so it is said. One of the great gifts of the Enlightenment was indeed the removal of knowledge from the monopoly of the church. Knowledge, when freed from the shackles of human…

Colossians 3:12–17 οἰκτιρμοῦ (oiktirmou) :: mercy and concern with sensitivity and compassion χρηστότητα (chrēstotēta) :: giving to or providing for a person as an act of kindness ταπεινοφροσύνην (tapeinophrosynē) :: humble attitude and without arrogance πραΰτητα (prautēta) :: gentleness of attitude and behavior / not…

Lamentations 3:16–33, Job 2:11–13 James 1:9–18 Wikipedia summarizes Nathan Robinson’s take on platitudes as: “A platitude is even worse than a cliché. It’s a sanctimonious cliché, a statement that is not only old and overused but often moralistic and imperious. ... [they] have an aphoristic…