Posts

Welcome to my little corner of the web!

Bozrah vs. Basra: A Tale of Two Cities, Not Dickens, Just History

Image
I’m not sure why I’m writing this. It just came to my mind… maybe God wanted me to explain to those who don’t understand… I don’t know… it’s all God, THAT I do know. Someone was doing some serious thinking about this topic. So, with God’s help, here is your answer. ✝️ Some people hear ‘ Bozrah ’ and immediately think of the modern city of Basra in Iraq. But that is not it. These are two very different places with very different histories. The ancient Bozrah was in Edom, in what is now southern Jordan, known in Scripture as a center of Edomite civilization . The Hebrew word Bozrah ( בֹּצְרָה , boṣrah ) literally means “ sheepfold ,” which hints at the pastoral life of the Edomites, who were shepherds and herders of the rugged, rocky land. Basra, Iraq, by contrast, is a major port city on the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf , founded much later in the 14th century CE, famous for trade and culture, and it does not appear in the biblical narrative . Though the names sound simi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Beyond Any Earthly Father

Image
  How do you gauge God’s love and your earthly father’s? Do you see God’s love enough in your earthly father? God love for us is nothing like the best earthly father’s love anyone could receive. He’s so much Better. God’s love is light years beyond that in scope. Think about it carefully. Maybe your father tried, maybe he stumbled. Maybe he was present, maybe he was absent. Maybe his love came in flashes, sometimes warm, sometimes harsh, even too harsh, or even inappropriate. Sometimes it was so quiet you wondered if it was there at all. Maybe he gave what he had, but it was never enough, never steady, never complete. And in all that, the heart begins to form expectations, patterns, ideas of what love really is, what care feels like, what attention looks like. But God’s love is not measured by human limits, not weighed by past experiences, not shaped by human failure. Do you see God’s love enough in your earthly father? Perhaps there are glimpses. Perhaps moments when car...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Hard Question

Image
Behind the Promised Land Why didn’t God give Israel empty land instead of land already filled with people?   There are moments in Scripture that people read quickly, almost like they are trying to move past them before the weight settles in. The entry into the land in the Book of Joshua is one of those places. It does not read like a children’s story. It reads like something that presses on the conscience, something that makes a person stop and ask the question I ask so plainly: why didn’t God just give them land that wasn’t already occupied? Because if God is God, if He is able to form the earth, to stretch out the heavens, to call a people out of nothing, then surely He could have pointed to an empty place on the map and said, “there… go there.” No conflict, no loss, no bloodshed, no wrestling. Just inheritance. And yet… that is not what He did. So we slow down, and instead of rushing to defend or dismiss, we listen carefully to what the text actually reveals. Long before Joshu...
Post a Comment
Read more

He Shouts Over You in Joy

Image
  Can you hear it? Not a gentle hum or lullaby, but a roar, a cry of triumph, a sound that shakes the very heavens. That’s the voice of God over you, His people. Zephaniah 3:17 says: “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will exult over you with loud singing.” Zephaniah 3:17 doesn’t whisper it politely; it declares it: He rejoices over you with singing. And the Hebrew expression carries this sense: He is in your midst , not distant, not removed. He is mighty and actively saving , not passive, not watching from afar. He rejoices over you with real, expressive joy , not hidden, not restrained. His love brings stillness , settling what is restless. And His rejoicing rises in a loud, ringing cry , not soft, not quiet, a joy that is heard, expressed, alive. In this, we see Him as יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת (YHWH Tseva’ot), The LORD of Hosts , the victorious, militant, triumphant Warrior...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Colors of Holiness

Image
  When God spoke to Moses about the Tabernacle and the garments of the priests, He was speaking a language of color, a living language. Every thread, every stone, every shimmer was meant to tell us something about His holiness, His covenant, and His presence among His people. Scarlet first. It burns like life itself. The priests wore scarlet in their garments, and the Tabernacle curtains carried it too. Scarlet whispers of sacrifice, of life poured out, of sin covered. On the breastplate, the stones Odem and Nofekh shine red, echoing the same truth: holiness demands life, obedience, and the courage to step into covenant faith. Scarlet calls us to remember the Lamb, whose blood redeems, and to carry His life-giving presence in our hearts. Blue lifts the eyes upward. It is the color of Heaven, of divine law, of authority beyond what we can touch. The priests wore it in the fringes of their garments; sapphire on the breastplate reflects it, sparkling with heavenly wisdom. Blue ...
Post a Comment
Read more

God’s Covenant, Man’s Hatred

Image
From the moment Israel walked out of Egypt, carrying the covenant of God and the weight of His promises, they faced relentless opposition. Not for conquest, not for ambition, not for political power, but for obedience to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The nations around them did not know the One True God, and ignorance swiftly became contempt. Scripture does not soften this reality. In Genesis 12:3 , God tells Abram, “ I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse .” The Hebrew barak, bless, is not casual favor; it is kneeling, aligning one’s heart with the chosen of God. The word ’ arar , curse , signifies binding enmity with enduring consequence. This is covenant language: to hate Israel is to provoke divine justice. Yet time and again, humanity, even those claiming faith in Yeshua, has ignored this covenant, twisting it into justification for hatred and violence. Throughout the ages, Israel’s rebellion against God has been relentless. From the wild...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is Your Church as Empty as Bottled Water?

Image
B y my beloved spouse "Ironbutterfly" True Story: For six months, I drank nothing but “bottled water” thinking it was better than the tap water. After that time, my kidneys were hurting. The more bottled water I drank, the more my kidneys hurt. A doctor told me to get back on tap water, and within a day or so, my kidneys were back to normal. This put into mind what happens in the church. ✝️ ✝️ ✝️ ✝️ ✝️ There is a quiet hunger in the hearts of many who attend church. They go week after week, sit through the service, sing the songs, hear the messages, and yet leave feeling a subtle emptiness that cannot be ignored. This emptiness is not loud or dramatic. It is persistent, growing, and often misunderstood. People do not leave because they reject God. They leave because the nourishment they are seeking, full, living truth, has not been given to them. Think about water. Natural untouched water carries minerals that sustain life. It strengthens, restores, and builds health. N...
Post a Comment
Read more

Time of Silence in Heaven

Image
    Revelation 8:1 records a moment that stands o ut starkly in the vision of John: “When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” This is remarkable because heaven is the place of ceaseless praise, of unending worship. Angels, elders, and the redeemed continually declare the glory of God. Yet here is silence. Not absence of God, not a pause in His activity, but a precise, deliberate stillness. Heaven itself holds its breath. The timing is specific: about half an hour. Revelation does not often give such exact durations. The detail signals intentionality. This is not incidental or symbolic of human perception; it is an actual moment in the rhythm of heaven’s activity. The pause follows the opening of the seventh seal, marking a transition in the heavenly sequence. Each previous seal brought events, judgments, or proclamations, every one accompanied by noise, movement, or announcement. The seventh seal, however, introduces silenc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cheapening God’s Love - The Sin the Churches Don’t See

Image
  You ever walk into a church and feel like something’s… off? Like the words coming out of the pulpit are soft, polite, comfortable, but when you listen closely, they’re twisting God’s love into something you can package and swallow without ever changing? That is blasphemy. Not the screaming kind, not the obvious kind. The subtle, sneaky, spiritual kind. Yeshua calls it out, too, in Matthew 12:31-32, every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit? That one has no forgiveness, not in this age, not in the next. The Greek, blasphemía , isn’t just “saying something bad.” It’s vilifying, misrepresenting, treating the holy as worthless. And what does that look like in our churches? “God loves you, so don’t worry about sin.” “Do whatever feels good; He’ll forgive you.” That’s not love . That’s a lie dressed in comfortable words, a mask covering the fire of His holiness. Even in the Torah, they knew the weight of this. Leviticus 24:16, blaspheme the Name, t...
Post a Comment
Read more