Ezra 7:10: “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” Something I always admired about the Jewish rabbis is that they always prepared their hearts for prayer and for worship. They did not just dive into
Jeremiah 3:14: “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:” There is a very interesting play on words in this verse with regard to the backslider. This verse
Song of Solomon 2:4 “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me [was] love.” I remember back in the eighties we would sing a little song using this verse. We would sing it over and over and everyone would put their arms over their heads and form a
James 5:16 Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. This morning during my first bus run I was waiting for a light when I noticed a middle aged woman trying to help an
1 Corinthians 2:2: “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” I recently read where the Dalai Lama spends up to six hours a day in study and meditation. Ha, what an amateur. I spend that and more in study, mediation on the Word of God
Deuteronomy 32:15: “But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked. Thou are waxen fat and thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness, then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation.” In the Jewish work Genesis Rabbah 77:1 we find that the word Jeshurun is a reference
Song of Solomon 1:7-8: Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest [thy flock] to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by
There’s a Hebrew word “Yada” ידר that is rendered as “knowing” and it is also used (though not always) to indicate a sexual relationship or intimacy, ie: Gen.4:1 Now Adam “knew” Eve his wife, and she conceived…So “Yada” means an “Intimate knowing” You don’t love someone for their looks, their clothes, or their fancy cars…but
Ecclesiastes 6:9: “Better is the sight of eyes than the wandering of the desire, this is also vanity and the vexation of the spirit.” One of the stories from Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales” is entitled “The Pardoner’s Tail” In this story he makes reference to an enigmatic old man who is unable to
I Samuel 15:23: “For rebellion [is as] the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness [is as] iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from [being] king.” “Lizard’s leg and owler’s wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble, Double,
