“Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love!” (Psalm 31:16 ESV). David requested God’s help based on God’s attributes rather than on his own worthiness. He didn’t negotiate with God, offering to make a sacrifice or some other payment. No, he based his supplications on God’s ability and willingness to
“Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods” (Ezra 8:21 ESV). As Ezra prepared to lead a remnant of the Israelites from the Ahava River near Babylon back to Jerusalem,
“You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness” (Psalm 30:11 ESV). David knew what it meant to mourn a loss or grieve a disappointment. He had sat weeping in sackcloth to express his repentance for sin, crying out to God for forgiveness. David knew
“And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia” (Ezra 6:14 ESV). When the Jewish exiles first returned to
“Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord…” (Ezra 4:1 ESV). After 70 years of exile in Babylon, the Jews were allowed to return to the land of Judah by the Persian king, Cyrus, who charged them to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV). It is God’s plan that the “word of the cross” should enliven human hearts, yet it is also that which certifies that others are already
“For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Corinthians 1:17 ESV). Perhaps more than any other epistle, Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was corrective. He had heard that there were divisions
“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them” (Romans 16:17 ESV). The apostle Paul gave two instructions concerning those who cause divisions and upset people’s faith: First, watch out for them. Literally, keep an eye out
“This same Hezekiah closed the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works” (2 Chronicles 32:30 ESV). King Hezekiah prepared Jerusalem for an impending siege by the Assyrians, by closing the “upper outlet of the waters
‘I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”’ (Romans 15:20-21 ESV). The apostle Paul had a gospel