Sam Hardman You who are both David’s Son and David’s Lord, how greatly we need Your mercy! The inclination of our hearts to twist Your word in devilish self-service – to exonerate ourselves while we judge others – is so strong and deep. How often we linger in disobedience when we long since should have …
Sam Hardman “…have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living….” (Mark 12:26-27) Resurrection – …
Sam Hardman In politics we have the Right and we have the Left. We have the Conservatives and we have the Liberals. And so often people think that what we really need is a Moderate – someone who can find the right balance and bridge the gap between Right and Left. I have often heard …
Sam Hardman Someone recently asked me about the short and rather shocking account at the end of 2 Kings 2 (vv. 23-25), so this is an attempt to summarize how I think this passage is to be understood, based on the insights of recent biblical scholarship. It’s one of the strangest stories in Scripture, and …
Sam Hardman How grim the world often seems, O Lord. Violence and oppression prosper in the hand of the wicked: Brutal murders of Your sons and daughters – princes and princesses in Your kingdom – in lands far away while the world looks on – or looks away – in silence. But truly not in …
Sam Hardman This is a prayer of devotion, posted here with the goal of encouraging suffering Christians to let the hard things they are dealing with drive them to Christ. Suffering and Glory O Lord, You have said that our sufferings in this present darkness are not worth comparing with the glory to come. This …
Kevin Steyer In response to my recent blog post on Ecclesiastes, a friend of mine suggested a connection between the message of Ecclesiastes and the fact that it is followed in the Bible by the Song of Songs, with its emphasis on “finding him whom my soul loves.” Her point was that Ecclesiastes, in agreement …
A Brief Thought on Ecclesiastes and the Song of SongsRead More »
Sam Hardman O Lord of the harvest, You have planted us in your garden not to be barren, but to bear much fruit. Yet we resist your cultivation. We see the Pruner’s saw and shrink from painful cuts, unwilling to yield to loss of branch or limb – believing the lie that fruit-laden branches may …
Kevin Steyer Over the past few months, our Wednesday evening Bible studies have been in the book of Ecclesiastes. It is a book with many recognizable phrases. Among these are: “all is vanity,” “there is nothing new under the sun,” “He has made everything beautiful in its time,” “cast your bread upon the waters,” and …
Sam Hardman I’ve written in a prior post that what we call the “Triumphal Entry” of Jesus into Jerusalem is better thought of as a provocation to the powers of darkness to launch the onslaught that would lead to the cross than as an act of triumph. It is indeed a true presentation of the …