Bible Commentary

The New Testament concept of hope is essentially governed by the Old Testament. When fixed on God, hope embraces expectation, trust and patient waiting for fulfillment.

In recent weeks a gunman joined a prayer group and then killed several of them with his firearm. More recently in Hesston, Kan., a local Mennonite community, a gunman killed three residents and then was killed by the local chief of police to protect others from being killed. Many Christians can need protection from persons who are programmed to kill.

When we arrive at Easter every year we know the story and repeat the rituals, often without rediscovering the breathtaking reality of God’s love. On a recent Sunday my worship experience was energized by new joy as the choir sang an unfamiliar anthem based on the idea of Jesus’ suffering and death as a dance of joy!

How do you deal with failure? Are you devastated, consumed with guilt and the sense that your life will carry a negative burden and the future will never be better? Do you blame failure on circumstances or someone else? Or, do you find a way to make amends, to learn new behavior, to take responsibility and fashion positive values?

The time is the Feast of Tabernacles where water and light were significant reminders for the Jews of the time God provided direction for them when they were leaving Egypt for a new freedom in the promised land. The scripture declares that “the Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night” (Exodus 13:21).

When you celebrate the Lord’s Supper, consider that Passover in Jerusalem when Jesus was preparing to die for us. The disciples were not paying attention. They were thinking about themselves. Jesus did not condemn them or turn them away. Instead, he opened his heart to them again, loved and encouraged them and looked to the cross.

What do you need to be content with your place in life? The dictionary defines contentment as satisfied, adequately happy, being in a satisfied state, tranquil happiness. How do these terms measure up to your own definition of contentment? Probably some of them at least give consideration to how you feel when you are content.

There is a common image, even in the modern church, that the Old Testament presents God as judgmental, wrathful, just waiting to punish us when we step out of line. The idea of grace, while appearing lovely on the written page, offers all kinds of loopholes for us to get away with almost anything.

We have recently experienced Valentine’s Day when all kinds of love was being proclaimed on cards and in person. Arthur Rouner has a delightful little book titled How to Love

Erase that picture of Charlton Heston standing on a mountaintop with a stone slab engraved with the Ten Commandments held high over his head. Those ten crucial laws for living are so much more than a Hollywood production. They are the foundation defining what it means to be truly human as God intended.