Tag: Morning Musings

Morning Musings: Proverbs 31:30

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“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

We live in a day in which the physical is everything.  Spiritual matters are forgotten or ignored.  We apply this trend not only to things, but to people.  We are told over and over again–mostly subliminally through the images we are surrounded with on a daily basis–that how we look is the most important thing about us.  Sure, we throw a bone at the idea that the inside matters, but this is routinely just lip service.  What the Scriptures proclaim, though, is something different. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Proverbs 31:10

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“An excellent wife who can find?  She is far more precious than jewels.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

The Scriptures are often pegged as being anti-woman.  They create a world in which women are expected to be submissive to their men, serve their men, support their men, and basically go with and do whatever they say.  They are not to have any roles in the church, but are to be there and be silent.  They aren’t seen as leadership material at all either.  At least, that’s how the narrative often goes.  And then you actually read what it has to say… Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Revelation 7:9-10

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“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

This is really an incredible picture, and a challenging one for the modern church.  John hears the sound of the famed 144,000, but when he turns he sees a great multitude of people from every nation, tribe, people, and language gathered before the throne of God and giving Him praise.  What John sees here is a picture of the church universal gathered for worship. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Revelation 6:9-10

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“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.  They cried out with a loud voice, ‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

This verse has long been really encouraging to me during times of loss.  We have to be careful crafting doctrines from a single verse, but the picture John paints here seems to suggest pretty clearly (especially when paired with Jesus’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16) that those who have died before us are in some sense aware of what is happening here on earth.  They may be dead and gone, but they are still somehow able to see and know what’s going on here. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Revelation 4:9-11

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“And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.  They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

This, as with much of the book, is a somewhat bewildering picture.  John describes a scene that is hard to imagine (which probably just means it was equally hard to describe).  He describes creatures that would be terrifying to behold.  It is a picture of God in His throne room, seated on His throne.  It is a picture of Him being worshiped by the heavenly host.  It is a picture of continual worship of the God who is on His throne. Read the rest…