We’re hearing a lot today about “the rule of law”, which reminds me how different the Ancient Near Eastern understanding of “law” was from our own. In fact, we are closer to the understanding of the Jews in the first century than the Jews in the first century were to their ancestors just 500 years…

As Christians we know what Scripture says: God has demonstrated his love for us in a profound way, for “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). That is, God has definitively proven his love for us. Even though we were sinners, that is,…

In a recent article we saw Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, go to Samaria for a healing from the Lord. Though he worshiped other gods and though he had brought harm to God’s people, including capturing a young girl as a slave for his wife, the young girl’s faith in the Lord was…

When folk hear the phrase “church discipline” a whole host of things may come to mind. For many, they think of a formal process that is really designed to remove a person from a church as quickly as possible, with little regard for actual growth and maturation and repentance in the person being disciplined. At…

Throughout the story of the Old Testament and God’s direct dealings with the nation of Israel are these one-off, seemingly isolated stories of God dealing directly and personally with foreigners. From the beginning of the story of Israel when God rescued them from Egypt, “foreigners” have been counted among God’s people. The “mixed multitude” that…