He is my Song

I have always read the Bible pretty methodically from the time I was born-again. Every year I set myself up on a rigid reading schedule and I have disciplined myself to read through the whole Bible every single year since. I would encourage every Christian to do this. However, there's another way to sit with a verse from Scripture that most don't consider: slowing down enough to think on every single word . The Hebrew word for "meditate" in Psalm 1:2 and Joshua 1:8 is hagah   (הָגָה)  and it doesn't mean sitting cross-legged, emptying your mind and humming.  I know a lot of people have explained this Hebrew word by using the illustration of a cow chewing it's cud. However, at  its root, hagah means to mutter, growl, or moan; it's a low, repeated sound. It's the same word used for a dove's low moaning cry (Isaiah 38:14, 59:11) and for a lion growling low over its prey (Isaiah 31:4). In other words, when the Bible talks about meditation, it referenc...

One morning while my husband and I were praying, he said something that stopped me:  "Although we don't have strength, we do have praise." That's Habakkuk 3:17-19 in a nutshell. Let me back up and set the scene, because it's easy to read past it. Fig trees barren. Vines empty. Fields producing nothing. Flocks and herds are all gone. Think about what that actually meant back then. No grocery store to fall back on. The fig tree and vine weren't nice-to-have, they were food, income, and trade. No olives meant no oil, no cooking, no lamps. No grain meant no bread. And the flock was the last resort - you could at least sell or eat them if everything else failed. That's gone too. There's no Plan B in this verse. No Plan C. Everything Habakkuk had to lean on had already fallen out from under him. That's where he's standing when he says "yet." And here's the part I want to major on: praise doesn't show up after things get better. It s...

For a long time I believed the only suffering a Christian was really called to was persecution - the cost of naming Christ in a world that hates Him. Jesus said it plainly: "If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you" (John 15:20). Paul said everyone who wants to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). That kind of suffering is real.  But I've come to believe there's another suffering required of us - one with a different aim entirely. Not suffering for the sake of the gospel going out, but suffering for the sake of us being made into something . Conformed. And I now believe that kind may be the most painful, and the most meaningful, tool the Lord uses on His own children. Even the SON Learned Obedience This is the verse that undid my old framework: "Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:8). Sit with that. The eternal Son - sinless, perfect, needing no correction - le...

  I remember it vividly. We were at a Bible seminar and at the close of the service, some of the alumni had gathered together to catch up. I inquired about a certain fellow student and was informed that they had “left the faith”. I was shocked and asked what had happened. With one of the saddest expressions I had ever seen, the forlorn alumni responded, “They are going to a Baptist church now.” (Note: At that time, for those who were labeled as “full-gospel,” leaving and attending a denominational church was akin to leaving Christ Himself.) Yet, I remember standing there, stifling a baffled laugh because I could not understand how going to a Baptist church was considered “leaving the faith”.        Please understand, I am not one who relishes in calling out people and organizations, nor do I feel qualified to do so.  However, I will call out the doctrine that is erroneous to help people think for themselves and hopefully escape out of the snare that is set ...