relationships ⁽⁶²⁾

Deuteronomy 30:1–5, Jonah 2:2–9, Isaiah 44:24–28 Have you ever recognized that there is an implied title and character of God that gets missed? Restorer. We use Healer, often, which is close. Another word could be Reconciler. We don’t use Restorer or Reconciler, because in most…

Isaiah 30:8–17, 1 Thessalonians 2:2–12 “To make Christlike disciples in the nations.”—Church of the Nazarene Mission Statement “Iron sharpens iron and one person sharpens another.”—Proverbs 27:17 Discipleship is not a program, nor is it a class. It is a lifestyle. If we are not careful,…

Joshua 7:3–15, 1 Thessalonians 4:1–12 The pivotal character in the book Dune at one point talks about having a “stamp of strangeness” put upon him. This stamp was definitely a different context, yet “stamp of strangeness” was and is exactly what God does to us…

Lamentations 3:25–33, Matthew 13:3–9 For there to be a harvest, there needs to be seed and sower. God’s love is both faithful and abundant. All too often, however, we treat God’s love as scarce. There is a concept called the “scarcity mentality.” This mentality is…

Genesis 29:21–30:24, Genesis 35:16–20 Jacob’s family relationships (as we read yesterday) were already a mess. His Uncle Laban did not help relational stability by setting up his own daughters to have discord in their marriage. The consequence is that sister wives fought over their husband.