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...
Pizza Delivery Faith
Numbers 14:24 “But because My servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows Me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendents will inherit it” (NIV). Observation: Israel was poised on the edge of the Promised Land, and the spies...
Penalty Box
Numbers 12:15 “So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back” (NIV). Observation: Miriam had exposed a petulant jealous streak by speaking against Moses, saying, “Has the Lord spoken only through...
Remembering Passover
Numbers 9:4–5 “So Moses told the Israelites to celebrate the Passover, and they did so in the Desert of Sinai at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses” (NIV). Observation: A year had passed...
Sky Awake … I Up Now
Numbers 7:19–23 “The offering … was one silver plate weighing one hundred thirty shekels, and one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels … each filled with fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering; one gold dish weighingten shekels, filled with incense,...