See you September 4 . . .
I will be away from my computer and too busy hearing the latest news about the Hobbit movies and attending Star Trek Next Generation parties this extended Labor Day weekend to blog or answer comments (DragonCon, here I come). See…
VIDEO: Reading as Late-Arrivals
In which I address two questions . . . how non-Jewish readers might approach the Hebrew Bible (Israel’s scriptures, “Old Testament”) as scripture and how Jewish readers might be open to the Yeshua story as a continuation of the Hebrew…
Isaiah 64:4(5), A Close Examination
Isaiah 64:4 (64:5 in Christian Bibles) is a good instruction in this month of Elul. Collectively as a people, all Israel (including Messianic Jews and Messianic gentiles who join with Israel in the practice) we are looking into our own…
Christians, Wake Up from Your Slumber, Part 2
When I was a kid, I got a special spy decoder in a box of cereal (I think it was Captain Crunch). It was a piece of red, translucent plastic. The box had words on it with letters in different…
Christians, Wake Up from Your Slumber, Part 1
No, this isn’t about the presidential election in America. And it isn’t about making social policy statements regarding civil unions or marriages for same-sex couples. Neither, as I will explain below, is this a “don’t be concerned with politics” message….
VIDEO: Covenants
In the ancient world, covenants were usually between kings of greater and lesser nations. In Israel’s history, God was king, so the covenants were between the people and God. The history of Israel is bound up with covenants. The theology…
Isaiah 63:9
Ponder the meaning of this for a minute. It comes in the part of Isaiah that is a communal prayer of complaint and longing for God’s Presence and Glory. It is the post-exilic community (the people after Babylon) reflecting on…
So, You Love Torah? An Idea for 2012-2013
“These words that I command you today shall be on your heart,” (Deut 6:6). A Messianic Jewish friend who I call “Benjamin from Metropolis” to conceal his/her identity reports that in Metropolis the Messianic Jews have “Shoneg” instead of Oneg….
Beleaguering God for the Promise, Without Relenting
It is a principle you learn over time. The great promises are delayed. We live in the frustration of that delay. Yet we are to remind God continually and keep after him to do what he says. He calls us…
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Lessons from the Wilderness
I am having the time of my life reading Bible Atlases (like Carta’s The Sacred Bridge and several more) and histories of ancient Israel (like The Oxford History of the Biblical World and a dozen others from widely varying viewpoints)…