No Curtain Calls

Galatians 1:24 “And they praised God because of me” (NIV). Observation: In this opening chapter of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he said he was “astonished” (Gal. 1:6) that people he had only recently had a hand in bringing to Christ are so readily abandoning the...

Are We There Yet?

Deuteronomy 2:5 “Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on” (NIV). Observation: Israel had begun their desert wanderings under God’s specific direction. In Deuteronomy 2:4, He had said they were about to...

The Contortionist’s Trick

Deuteronomy 1:31 “There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son” (NIV). Observation: At the edge of the Promised Land, Moses began summarizing the reasons for the Israelites’ long desert exile…until all in the previous generation had...

Edges of God’s Best

Deuteronomy 1:3 “Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded concerning them” (NIV). Observation: Forty years of wandering in the desert had ended, and Moses was proclaiming God’s precepts to the Israelites. Key enemies had been defeated, and it...

Billionaire’s Vanity

1 Corinthians 13:3 “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing” (NIV). Observation: Paul opened the chapter by saying, “Now I will show you the most excellent way,” and in the first three verses he...

Jet Ski Competition

Mark 4:9 “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Observation: Jesus was teaching at the seashore. As the crowd grew, He moved His venue from the shore to a boat put out a short distance into the water. Presumably from there, both visibility and acoustics would be...