Romans 3:3: “Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?” (NIV). Observation: Paul’s letter to the Romans is a clear-eyed assessment of the depraved spiritual condition of all men, both Jews and Christians. Spiritual darkness is universal without faith in...

Psalm 101:2: “I will walk in my house with blameless heart. I will set before my eyes no vile thing” (NIV). Observation: In this brief psalm David beautifully expressed a heart set on pursuit of God alone. He promised to sing of God’s love and justice (v. 1) and to...

Psalm 78:61 “He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy” (NIV). Observation: Psalm 78 begins with parables designed to recount the relational history of God and the Israelites. He blessed and established the nation even as...

Matthew 28:1 “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb” (NIV). Observation:  At week’s beginning the two Marys had for the second time gone to Christ’s gravesite. Arriving after a great...

Psalm 51:4 “Against You, You only, I have sinned.” Observation: David’s adultery with Bathsheba had resulted in her pregnancy (see 2 Samuel 11, 12). In an attempt to cover his sin, David called her husband Uriah from the battlefield for a home visit, hoping it would...

John 20:22--23: “He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.’”Observation: Mary had been first to arrive at the tomb. Finding it...

Jeremiah 23:2--3: “’You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,’ declares the LORD.”  John 19:10--11: “Pilate said to Him, ‘You do not speak to me? Do You not...

2 Kings 24:13: “And he carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the kings house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord.”   Observation: The king of...

Jeremiah 18:3--6: “Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. Then the...

Jeremiah 13:1--7: “’Go and buy yourself a linen waistband . . .  but do not put it in water. . . . Take the waistband that you have bought, . . . and . . . go . … hide it . . . in a crevice of a rock.” . . . After many days . . .  “take from there the...