Morning Musings – Page 220

Morning Musings: Hosea 12:8

July 25, 2017August 13, 2017Leave a comment

“Ephraim has said, ‘Ah, but I am rich; I have found wealth for myself; in all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity of sin.'” (ESV)

There is a great temptation in being wealthy (and if you are reading this on a computer or smart device you are fabulously wealthy compared to the rest of the world) to place our trust in our wealth instead of in God. There is a great temptation to believe that if we have enough money, we can generally be protected from whatever life may throw at us. This is a false belief. It will invariably lead to a great fall. Our only real hope is to trust in God. Everything else is transitory and will eventually fail us. He alone will stand firm.

Morning Musings: Romans 9:13

July 25, 2017August 13, 2017Leave a comment

“As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'” (ESV)

This verse has given interpreters and readers a lot of trouble over the centuries. The biggest reason for this is that somewhere along the line the basic understanding of the ideas of love and hate changed to be in line with how we think about them today. We most often think of love and hate as emotions. In the Scriptures, though, they are both decisions of the will that have less to do with how someone is feeling about the object of the decision than about their intentions toward them. More specifically, to love someone throughout the Scriptures is to choose them. To hate someone is to not choose them. The reasons for these choices may be many, but it is choice, not emotion, that is the basic idea. Read the rest…