Tag: CONNECT THE TESTAMENTS

  • IS THIS “BAD” FROM GOD?

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 20-21; 1 Corinthians 3:1-4:21; Psalm 18:31-50 God has granted us incredible grace in the salvation that Jesus’ death and resurrection offers, but that very grace is often used as a theological excuse. It’s dangerous to say that bad things come from God, but there are times when they actually do. What makes…

  • LETTING EVIL BURN

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 19:1-20:13; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; Psalm 18:13-30 “And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying … ‘let them take to you a red heifer without a physical defect …. And you will give it to Eleazar the priest, and it will … be slaughtered in his presence. Then Eleazar the priest will take…

  • IT WILL SEEM SIMPLE IN RETROSPECT

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 17:1-18:32, 1 Corinthians 1:1-31, Psalm 18:1-12 We’re all faced with difficult tasks. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he was forced to confront their spiritual problems, which were slowly destroying God’s work among them. Paul was thankful for them (1 Cor 1:4–8), but he was also called to a high purpose as…

  • THE POWER STRUGGLE

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 16:1-50; John 21:1-25; Psalm 17:1-15 Every leader faces power struggles—from those who follow the leader and from those the leader follows. If there isn’t some sort of struggle, the leader probably isn’t doing his or her job well. It’s simple: those who make everyone happy probably aren’t pushing people to be better,…

  • A PSALM OF CONFIDENCE

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 15:1-41; John 20:1-31; Psalm 16:1-11 You are my Lord,” the psalmist acknowledges. “I have no good apart from you” (Psa 16:2). We know that God is everything we need, but somehow the details still get in the way. We want to alleviate our troubles through other means—that vacation, the position that will…

  • NOSTALGIA: MY OLD FRIEND

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 14:1-45; John 19:17-42; Psalm 14:1-15:5 Regret and nostalgia can destroy lives. They are mirrored ideas with the same pitfalls: neither can change the past, and both keep us from living in the present. When we live wishfully rather than interacting with the present, we’re bound to miss out and hurt others. Since…

  • 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…