Reading with M’Cheyne

Something is cooking on Ezekiel's stove (Ezek. 24:3b; cf. 11:3). It is a "parable" (24:3a) in which God's people and they are being boiled. And the smell coming from the pot is nasty! The pot is corroded (24:12) and instead of producing a tasty soup, the resulting stew is inedible. The cook,...

2 Corinthians 6 continues the flood of gospel-saturated exclamations that have been flowing from Paul's pen since chapter 2. Now he reminds his readers that the age of the gospel is here, and, more specifically, that as that gospel lays its claims on each individual, there is no time like the...

One of the common cliches of the modern evangelical church is that the church in the past has been too heavenly minded and we need to focus on creation and claiming it for Christ - whether we conceive of that as art, movies, politics or whatever. As an aside, it always interests me that such people...

2 Corinthians 4 is a particularly important chapter for those in ministry and, indeed, for every believer. Building on the argument of earlier chapters, Paul points first to the fact that his ministry is something he has by the grace of God and which is therefore powered by the grace of God. For...

In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul talks about the glory of the ministry which has been entrusted to him in a passage which draws a stark contrast between the old covenant and the new. The old covenant was indeed glorious. While Paul describes it as a ministry of death, this is not to be read as derogating...

In this chapter we have one of those sudden gear changes which are so characteristic of the Apostle Paul and which, indeed, remind us that, although all scripture is God-breathed and authored in an ultimate sense by God, this does not override the personalities of the various human authors of the...

1 Corinthians 8:5-6 "For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"--yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we...

Psalm 42:1-2: "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." Over the years I've backpacked though different mountain ranges, and I've also hunted big game, such as elk and deer. Although I've encountered many deer in my journeys...

Psalm 40:8 "I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart." What was David's motive for obeying the law of God: duty or delight? Throughout the Psalms, we read of God's commands to keep his law, to obey it diligently. We also read of the psalmists' delight in obeying the law of...

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 "I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people--not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with...