Who Is This Asaph I Hear?

I read Psalm 79 today, as I do every year. After checking a note I made several years ago claiming that this couldn’t be the same Asaph appointed by David because it was written after the fall of Jerusalem, I paused and wondered, “Are you sure?”

Overcoming Isn’t What You Think It Is

In John’s first letter, he makes a striking assertion about Christians:

Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

1 John 5:4-5 (NIV)

That’s encouraging, isn’t it? If you have been reborn in Christ, then you have “overcome the world,” but what does that mean?

Who Is the Woman in Jeremiah 31:22?

Have you ever been reading a book when the author suddenly introduces a completely new idea out of the blue? One moment, they’re storming the castle, and then one of the characters starts talking about that time at band camp—probably not. It wouldn’t make much sense for a writer to completely shift literary gears unless the change somehow serves the story.

In fact, we rarely see this “gear-shifting” in other genres either. As if one moment we’re listening to Beethoven’s 5th and in the next The Beastie Boys are demanding that they have a right to party—it just isn’t done.

So why is it that sometimes when we’re reading the Bible, we abandon this sense of how a story fits together?

Does 1 John 2:3 Say We Need to Follow the Mosaic Law?

One of the most curious questions in Christianity is “Do Christians have to obey the Ten Commandments?” I say “curious” because, depending on who you ask, the responses greatly differ. Some may say we must absolutely obey them, while others might frown, think for a moment, and say that Jesus died, so the answer is “No.” An even stranger question is whether we need to obey the Mosaic Law.