Ezekiel 35-36, 2 Peter 1 • Key Verse: 2 Peter 1:3 Complete is a wonderful word, especially when putting together something like a computer system. Its encouraging when the advertisement promises, “Everything you need is included.” All the necessary parts are there, with no additional cables to buy. You open...
Ezekiel 33-34, 1 Peter 5 Key Verse: 1 Peter 5:7 Some things are easier said than done. One of those things is casting “all [our] anxiety on him,” even though we are told that “he cares for [us]” (5:7). We do have anxieties. Our concerns range from physical needs to...
Ezekiel30-32, 1 Peter 4 • Key Verse: 1 Peter 4:7 What will you be doing on the evening of April 15? Millions of Americans will feverishly be finishing their income-tax returns. Postal workers will be stationed at the post office waiting to collect the forms of those last-minute filers. If...
Ezekiel 27-29, 1 Peter 3 • Key Verse: Ezekiel 28:5 We live in prosperous times. Not everyone shares in the prosperity, but it is still a time of abundance. Increasingly, there is a desire to be wealthy. Advertisements are intended to create a dissatisfaction that 1 can be assuaged only...
Ezekiel 24—26, 1 Peter 2 • Key Verse: Ezekiel 26:3 Lottery tickets are sold in grocery stores, convenience food marts and gas stations. People buy the tickets even though the chances of them winning are infinitesimally small. The odds are against them, just as with all forms of organized gambling....
Ezekiel 22—23, l Peter 1 • Key Verses: 1 Peter 1:3—4 Perhaps someday you will receive an inheritance. As hard as you may try, that inheritance will not stay as you get it. Money will be spent. A car will wear out. Furniture will become scratched and dented. Dishes will...
Ezekiel 20-21, James 5 • Key Verses: James 5:7-8 The fields are about empty now, and so are the gardens. Last spring, with hope, the farmers planted their fields, as did the gardeners. Dirt was turned over, seeds sown and young plants set. Then with water, fertilizer, care and good...
Ezekiel 18—19, James 4 • Key Verse: Ezekiel 18:2 In chapter 16 Ezekiel quoted the proverb “like mother, like daughter ter” (v. 44) to tell Israel that the nation had become like the people of Canaan, giving into that heathen environment. Now he uses a proverb to drive home another...
Ezekiel 16-17, James 3 • Key Verse: James 3:2 Among the most difficult sins to remove from our lives are those we commit with our words. James makes this so clear when he writes, “If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able...
Ezekiel 14—15, James 2 • Key Verse: Ezekiel 14:3 Is there something in your house that you consistently trip over? Or perhaps it is a low-hanging light fixture that you often encounter with your head. You know it is there, but at the moment you are walking by—well, it’s like...