Verse for the Week

For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ~ John 6:40

What is God's heart? What is his inner desire? What does He want? Jesus, the Son of God, was in a position to know the answer to these questions. In fact, the reason he came into the world was to bear witness to the truth and show us the Father's heart. The above verse puts it as succinctly as any in the New Testament. The next question is - how will we respond to God's will?

Verse for the Week

Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame;they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. ~ Psalm 25:3 (ESV)

Can words comfort a grieving heart? What solace is there for loss? The families of the slain students have filled the past week with all the various arrangements that must be made to fill in the hole left by the loss of their loved one. Some items, like funeral arrangements, are obvious. Other things, like canceling health insurance or getting someone to drive the second car back home will trickle in, one at a time, reopening wounded hearts for weeks to come. Is there any refuge from this kind of soul-storm? My belief is that preparations made before the storm work best because the winds of despair lay bare the foundation already in place. On what does your life rest?

Verse for the Week

Then he said to me, "Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger? ~ Ezekiel 8:17a (ESV)

The Lord has shown Ezekiel the idol worship of the people through a vision. Ezekiel has seen the leaders burning incense before the engravings of animals, women involved in the rites of an agricultural fertility god and men worshipping the sun. The people have broken covenant with their God. Then God asks him, "Is this a trivial matter?"

We might ask ourselves the same question. Is it a small thing, a light thing, a trivial thing for us to turn our hearts from God to serve other things? Where is God's place in our lives? How do we respond to his claim on us?God does not consider it insignificant to be supplanted by lesser things. It makes him mad.