Category: CONNECT THE TESTAMENTS

  • CRY OUT LIKE THE PSALMIST

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 13:1-33; John 18:25-19:16; Psalm 13:1-6 We often read the very bold psalms of the Bible without really reading them. We’re used to their cadence, their cries, and their requests. They seem appropriate in contexts where war, death, and enemies or mutinous friends were a daily reality. For that reason, these cries don’t…

  • IN THE MOMENT OF WEAKNESS

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 11-12; John 18:1-24; Psalm 11-12 All leaders have their moments of weakness. But without such times, they wouldn’t stretch themselves (and that would mean they weren’t really in God’s will). It’s not that these moments shouldn’t happen, but we should turn to God when they do. Moses dealt with more than his…

  • JESUS CHRIST (MEANT TO BE) THE SUPERSTAR

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 10:1-36; John 17:1-26; Psalm 10:1-18 Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, is certainly incorrect (and rather heretical) in its portrayal of history, but it got one thing right: Jesus is meant to be the celebrity. He—no one else—is the Savior, the Christ, the Lord.And that’s why the celebrity pastor movement is…

  • PROFOUND AND CONFOUNDING

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 8-9; John 16:5-33; Psalm 9:8-20 God’s provision in our lives is often hard to see. There are times when we follow His commandments and we’re able to visibly see His work. Such times are profound to the believer but can be confounding to the unbeliever. The ancients practiced remembering these events. They…

  • THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 7:48-89; John 15:1-16:4; Psalm 9:1-7 Jesus isn’t simply a high priority or even the highest priority of our lives. He is the source of life. In the Gospel of John, Jesus teaches the disciples that they need to depend on Him for their very lives—both in the present and for eternal life.…

  • CONCERNING KNOWLEDGE AND EATING MEAT

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 7:1-47; John 14:1-31; Psalm 8:1-9 It’s easy to equate knowledge with faith and then look down on new believers. Although we might not voice it, those who are less knowledgeable in their faith can seem weak. And sometimes, instead of practicing patience, showing love, and speaking carefully about the hope within us,…

  • SIGNS AND SATIRE

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 6:1-27; John 13:21-38; Psalm 7:1-17 The images of judgment in Psa 7 are sometimes hard to take. We are so acquainted with a God of love that it’s difficult to understand a God who blinds eyes, hardens hearts, and “has indignation every day” (Psa 7:11). While these passages paint a picture of…

  • ODDITIES THAT MAKE SENSE

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 5:1-31; John 13:1-20; Psalm 6:1-10 Some of the Old Testament laws seem so odd they’re difficult to understand. It’s easy for us to see why, in a day before medicine, God would send people with “a rash … a fluid discharge, and everyone … [who had touched] a corpse” outside the tribe…

  • A PRAYER FOR GUIDANCE

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 3:40-49; John 12:20-50; Psalm 5:1-12 When we feel downtrodden, it’s easy to lash out at those around us. Too often, caught in the injustice of our circumstances, we might begin to feel an unhealthy amount of self-justification. It’s difficult to see where the lines of right and wrong fall when anger and…

  • IT MAY SEEM BLAND

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 3:1-39; John 12:1-19; Psalm 3-4 Let’s just admit it: genealogies and lists, like the one in Num 3:1–39, are the most boring elements of the Bible. But they do something for us that other formats cannot—they give us a sense of history and lineage. With a genealogy, we can do more than…