promise ⁽⁷⁴⁾

Genesis 35:9–15, Genesis 37:1–2 While the “rest of the story” appears to mostly be about Joseph, it is incredibly important to understand that from a familial perspective, this is the continuing story (in comic book terms, the “origin” story) of Israel, both the man (born…

Psalm 127, Ruth 4:9–17, Hebrews 3:1–6 If we were to judge life by Psalm 127, it would seem that God does everything, yet we know that it isn’t the case. “Unless God builds the house” is more along the lines of God building up or…

Psalm 91, Exodus 32:7–26, Matthew 18:1–9 The Israelites had escaped the Egyptians. God’s promise to Moses (“You will worship me on this mountain.”) fulfilled. And they wandered away. That the Israelites wandered away probably didn’t surprise Moses all that much. He’d already experienced difficulties at…

Psalm 43, Jeremiah 38:1-28, John 15:17-16:2 Life is not always easy. There are those that just seem determined to oppose you even if it is to their advantage to support you. Pride, jealousy, greed, and envy can lead anyone to make poor decisions regarding others.

John 14:15–21, John 15:26–16:11 There are two types of “good life.” There is the world’s version of the good life. There is God’s version of the good life. In some ways, they overlap, but let’s be honest with ourselves, we want them to overlap far…