You shall not be in dread of them

Posted on March 7, 2014 Written by Mark McIntyre 7 Comments

Moses said to the Israelites: “You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.” (Deuteronomy 7:21, ESV) Yet being in dread of the Canaanites is exactly what the Israelites had experienced. They allowed their fear to overwhelm their faith. They had ample […]

Paths of Righteousness for His Name’s Sake

In Psalm 23:3, King David writes, “he leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” While there is benefit to me in walking a path of righteousness, my benefit is not the primary purpose of God’s leading me. David points to God’s reputation and God’s purpose as the reason for the leading. […]

No king but Caesar?

Before we are quick to look down on the Jewish leaders we should stop to think about why this story is important enough to be in the Bible. It is important that it is in there because we are made of the same stuff and will fall into the same traps if left to ourselves.

Love without qualifications

We are commanded to love, that love is not to be conditioned upon any response. Can we do this?

Dealing with the tares

Jesus warned us that there would be people in our churches with improper motives for being there. The parable of the wheat and tares is one place where Jesus makes this distinction.

Fighting The Wrong Enemy

I read this morning in Mark 9:40, that whoever is not against us is for us. These are the very words of Jesus Christ but often forgotten by those that bear his name. We expend energy in fighting other believers and ignoring the real enemy. Too often doctrinal litmus tests are developed to see who […]

You are the salt – Part 2

These verses should inform our idea of what it means to be salt in the world. Do we work for economic justice? Do we work for social justice? Do we work to bring physical and spiritual healing to those we encounter? Do we proclaim the good news of Jesus?