Perhaps you’ve passed over Obadiah more times when flipping through your Bible than any other book in Scripture. It’s a third of the way through the Minor Prophets and it’s only one chapter consisting of only 21 verses. But if…
About one hundred years before the northern kingdom was carried into exile by Assyrian armies, and just two years before the earthquake, the Lion roared from Zion. Yahweh raised up and sent his prophet, Amos of Tekoa, into the northern…
At the start of his ministry the Lord Jesus used just two verbs to summarize the good news of his kingdom: “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Paul condensed his ministry in a similar way: I testified “both…
In reading the Minor Prophets, you might at first be overwhelmed by the sheer proportion of material concerning judgment: judgment against Israel, judgment upon neighboring nations, and judgment condemning the unrighteous. How should conscientious readers navigate the many passages of…
God frequently called the prophets to physically demonstrate the truth that God had for his covenant people to learn. Hosea was no exception. When God told Hosea to marry “a wife of whoredom…
As a believer, if I always entertained thoughts and engaged in deeds that are suitable to one who enjoys life in Christ, then self-control would not be an activity with which I would need to be concerned. However, undergoing regeneration…
What is it to be gentle? Everyone has an image in their mind’s eye or an idea. But it’s probably best to start with the One we ought to model and so ask, what did gentle look like on Jesus?…
Just as the root of Christian living is the work of God’s Spirit in our hearts, goodness is the chief attribute of the Spirit’s blessing in our relationships. Along with patience and kindness, goodness is a social grace, a virtue…
A vivid lesson on kindness found throughout Old Testament scripture is how frequently kindness is expected as a matter of reciprocity. Abimelech expected kindness from Abraham in return for having shown kindness to Abraham: “God is with you in all…
Of all the words that have lost meaning in modern culture, faith must be near the top of the list. Today faith is considered a generic attitude of openness and trust. Even many modern Christians boast of having no shared…
