God’s love, to and through us The calling to a deep, pure and sincere love 1 Peter 1:17-23 1 Peter 1:17-21 – Overview: Peter here lays the groundwork, the foundation for everything worthwhile and enduring in the Christian life. Let’s quickly survey that foundation laid for us:
2 Samuel Series From defeat of Absalom, to reconciliation, to rebellion, to order 2 Samuel 19-20 Mercy prefers to deal with the needy in terms of what is needed rather than what is deserved. - D. Edmond Hiebert Mercy imitates God and disappoints Satan. – Chrysostom The immediate context of chapters 19-20 is the rebellion […]
2 Samuel Series The Lord ordains the defeat of Absalom 2 Samuel 17-18 From our scripture reading this morning, even that greatest Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar learns that it is God who ordains kings and kingdoms, and he is able to bring low or exalt whom He alone ordains. And human pride, while opposed to God, […]
2 Samuel Series A House Divided 2 Samuel 15-16 Abraham Lincoln, in 1858, a few years prior to the outbreak of the Civil War presciently opined regarding the schism forming in the state of the union over the issue of slaver, that, “A houses divided against itself cannot stand.” John Blanchard observed, “A home with […]
2 Samuel Series We look at outward appearances, God looks at the inner person 2 Samuel 14 Have you ever entered into a relationship (any close relationship, not necessarily a romantic one) with someone because too all outward appearances, they looked good, they were an attractive personality, their situation was appealing? Only to find out […]
Resurrection Sunday! The first evidence of resurrection & the first sighting of Jesus Matthew 27:57-28:10 We as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have by a convinced faith, bound our lives, our eternal futures, and our hopes to the recorded and well attested historical facts regarding the crucifixion, true death, burial and then the stunning […]
Palm Sunday, March 30th 33AD The Triumphal Entry, what’s it all about? Zechariah 9:9, John 3:1-7 What images or impressions are painted in your mind by Palm Sunday, the day of our Lord’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on that donkey? No one who has been in church for more than a few years misses the […]
v1, The news of general Abner's death crushed Ish-bosheth's hope of continuing his father, Saul's reign. It also gravely shocked the Israelites who lived north of Judah and who were attached to Ish-bosheth’s reign. Bad news can greatly affect and dishearten us. V2-3 here the writer wanted to make the very sharp point that Baanah […]
v1, is the summation, the result of the war initiated by the hubris of Abner and Joab in 2:8 through 32: There was a long war between the house of Saul (Ish-bosheth) from Israel and the house of David from Judah. Overt hostilities resolved when David became king over all Israel (5:3), but antagonism continued […]
2nd Samuel – God’s shepherd: King and mercy-bearer, David David anointed king in Judah, civil war breaks out 2 Samuel 2 Chapters 2-4 record the tension and positioning of two rival men, two lineages, two different spiritual directions. Ish-bosheth, the surviving son of the deceased Saul, the Saul who was judged by God as disobedient, […]