Waiting for an Answer Habakkuk 1:12–2:1 I will take my stand at my watchpost. Habakkuk 2:1 Habakkuk has gone as far in his reasoning as he can. Now he needs to know more if he is to make progress. So he waits to see what God will say to him. This is worth looking at…
Judgment Nahum 3:1–7 Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts. Nahum 3:5 This is a dreadful thing. It is terrible to have the great God of the universe say, “I am against you.” But it is not only to Nineveh that he speaks those words. He speaks them to all who sin…
Here is a statistical history of the volume of SJC cases in the history of the Presbyterian Church in America.
If power is given by God, then we know it can be good. Yet to experience the benefits of power, we must think of it differently from the world around us.
A Mighty Ruler Micah 5:2–5 From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel. Micah 5:2 The prophecy of a ruler becomes quite personal. For the issue is not merely whether the one born in this small Judean town so long ago really was a great ruler, but whether…
Early modernity lost the Creator by looking for him in the creation and trying to control him with magic, even under the guise of “modern” Newtonian mechanics.
Wideness in God’s Mercy Jonah 4:1–11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city? Jonah 4:11 God asks Jonah a final question with which the book closes. God said: “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished…
Prayer from the Depths Jonah 2:1–9 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish. Jonah 2:1 Jonah’s prayer has four characteristics of all true prayer. The first is honesty. He acknowledged his trouble and that it was God who had caused it. Then there is penance, which means “confession,”…
October is a milestone month for First Presbyterian Church in Ocean City, New Jersey.
Ironic Conversions Jonah 1:1–16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly. Jonah 1:16 Jonah 1:16 seems to mean that the sailors were converted. It means that in an ironic way God was already accomplishing his purposes in spite of the prophet Jonah’s stubborn rebellion. The fact that the sailors were saved is evident in practically…