“As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Do you have a friend? I don’t mean an acquaintance. I mean a real, genuine, honest-to-goodness friend. Someone you could call in the middle of the night with anything and they’d be there in an instant if you needed them? We live today in a culture where this kind of deep, soul-level friendship is a rare thing all the while people hunger for relationships. This story may be just the antidote we need for this poison. Read the rest…
“And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.’” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Consider the disciples’ reaction here. Jesus had just made His famous declaration that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle (almost certainly a real camel and a real needle rather than some gate) than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. They understood Jesus rightly to be saying that rich people can’t get to heaven. And now that I have you hung up just like they were, if for a different reason, let me explain. Read the rest…
“As soon as Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, ‘Abner, whose son is this youth?’ And Abner said, ‘As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.’ And the king said, ‘Inquire whose son the boy is.'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
One of the questions that quickly comes to the mind of the perceptive reader here is how chapters 16 and 17 can be harmonized. One seems to say one thing and the other another thing. This is the kind of apparent conflict that gives critics of the Scriptures plenty of ammunition to fire away at its credibility…or so they (and sometimes we) think. But, while this is yet another place where things are harder than usual to understand at first glance, a little bit of thinking reveals that it does not pose nearly the challenge that it seems.
“And when the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel, my lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my lord working salvation himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Abigail was scrambling. She knew that if she didn’t come up with something really good and right on the spot her husband, possibly her older children, and most of the servants under her care were toast. When she heard word that David was coming for war, she put together a generous gift, road out to meet him well before he arrived, and made her pitch. Read the rest…
In this third part of our series, Gravity: Overcoming the Weight of Our Stuff, we talk about another way to reduce its pull on us. Once we know who is the real owner of the stuff we normally call “ours,” what comes next? Simply put: We have to learn how to use it like He would. To find out how that is and what we should do about it, keep reading.
Zero G’s
We recently watched the Oscar-nominated film, The Martian, starring Matt Damon. It really was a great movie. It’s about a team of astronauts who have established a little outpost on Mars. During their research, however, a wild storm moves in and they have to abandon the post, at which point they decide to begin their year-long return to earth. In the chaos of trying to get on their escape vessel as the storm rages around them, however, Matt Damon’s character gets separated from the group. Presuming him dead, the group’s leader makes the agonizing decision to return without him. I’ll stop the synopsis there so as to not give anything away if you haven’t seen it, but needless to say, the film includes quite a few scenes of the astronauts doing life on their enormous ship. With the exception of a section of the ship in which they have somehow simulated gravity, all the movements about the ship take place in the weightlessness of space. In order to film most of the scenes the actors were put on wires or else pantomimed being weightless in outer space while balancing on one foot. Read the rest…
The Nexus 