Category: Judgment

9/20/2025 1 Comment

Understanding Hate

The topic of hate is quite prevalent in our society. I decided to do a study on the word and see what Scripture has to say about it. First, though, let’s define the term. Whether used as a verb or a noun, hate basically means “to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest.”[1]

In the Old Testament, there are two Hebrew words: śānē’ and śin’āh, used a total of 148 and 17 times respectively, with the English words hate and its variation 107 times, combining both words. The other English words used are foes, enemies, malice, adversaries, dislike, enemy, unloved, abhor, am not loved, shunned, detest, hostile, malicious, not loved, not, refuses, and a total of three untranslated words.[2] In the New Testament, the Greek words apostygeō and miseō are translated as hate 39 of 40 times and once as detestable.

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7/1/2025 0 Comments

What Matters

Angel serves as an elder at Waymaker, a church that began thirty years ago. He is one of the most faithful donors. If there is a men’s breakfast, count on him to be there. If the church needs workers for onsite repairs, he helps. Often, the pastor calls on him to pray over the offering. He leads the security team at the church, but his team has a high turnover rate.

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5/16/2025 1 Comment

To Be Entrusted

Padel Code

Beth* walked off the court before our game started, sat down by the chain-link fence, and sobbed. Then she grabbed her gear and left the pickleball courts. Candace caught up with her and tried to comfort her. While that was going on, Jimmy (who was going to be her partner) came over and explained what had transpired. He commented to her that he did not enjoy playing with her in a previous game because she was too loud and excitable. Beth was already aware that her behavior might be too much for people, so Jimmy’s words increased her insecurity and hurt her feelings.

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4/8/2025 0 Comments

Self-Righteous

Meditation
Deuteronomy 9:5,6--You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

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1/28/2025 0 Comments

Shooting from the Shadows

When I asked West Point classmate Greg, if he had ever been shot from the shadows, he wrote:
I was thinking back to a time in a position of supervisory responsibility for 50 federal employees in eight different locations, enabling almost 5,000 other federal employees. We were working hard to meet tasks and missions professionally. We even received an award for excellence at the Executive Building next to the White House.

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11/19/2024 0 Comments

Hidden Things

Jesus performed many miracles in the cities He walked, which should have authenticated His message, and yet most of those He encountered would not repent of their sins. Their hardheartedness kept them from recognizing the hand of God’s Son at work and connecting their need to listen to Him. He criticized them for their attitude and warned them of God’s impending judgment (Matthew 11:20-24).

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6/23/2024 2 Comments

Bad Company

Judas Iscariot had a great life going. Selected by Jesus, the world’s only perfect leader, he joined a team of eleven others to follow God’s Son. We don’t know much about Judas, but John 12:4-6 is revealing.
Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot (who was about to betray Him), said, “Why wasn’t this fragrant oil sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?” He didn’t say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of the money-bag and would steal part of what was put in it.
Was Judas a rebellious, immoral man? Or was he a confused follower who occasionally stole money for his pursuits? Why would he betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver when he could have prolonged their time together and continued his successful pilfering?

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4/18/2024 1 Comment

Diatribe

Joshua 22:15-16--They went to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and told them, “This is what the Lord’s entire community says: ‘What is this treachery you have committed today against the God of Israel by turning away from the Lord and building an altar for yourselves, so that you are in rebellion against the Lord today?’”

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11/20/2023 1 Comment

Karma

Brita angrily kicked the wandering Cocker Spaniel, who dared to enter her front yard. Her neighbor, Betty, viewed the mean action with disgust. Two weeks later, when Brita broke her leg after slipping off her front porch, Betty noted to her husband with some satisfaction, “That’s karma. She’s getting what she deserved.”

Karma is a Hindu concept that views one’s actions as bringing upon themselves good or bad results either in their present life or in a reincarnation. It is a cosmic reward or punishment principle based on a person’s deeds. In The Logic of God, Ravi Zacharias explained, “Hinduism has two nonnegotiable beliefs: karma and reincarnation. No Hindu will trade these away.”

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7/26/2023 1 Comment

Dried Up

The earth is tilting? What?
Pumping groundwater appears to have a greater consequence than ever previously thought. But now—thanks to a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters--we can see that, in less than two decades, Earth has tilted 31.5 inches as a result of pumping groundwater. This equates to .24 inches of sea level rise.[1]
I’m unsure of the science of tying the earth’s tilt to pumping groundwater, but I know God is sometimes the primary cause of disasters and climate change.

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6/12/2023 2 Comments

Ordained

Klaus Schwab, a German engineer, founded the World Economic Forum (WEF) on January 24, 1971.[1] About 1000 companies fund this international non-governmental lobbying organization. They are somewhat famous for their annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Switzerland. It is a dangerous organization committed to an ideology that the globalized world should be managed by a “self-selected coalition of multinational corporations, governments and civil society organizations (CSOs)” through initiatives like the “Great Reset” or the “Global Redesign.” They are not transparent with their finances. Nor are they shy about advocating pandemic lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and a strong collectivist ideology that scorns individual sovereignty and advocates eliminating many citizen rights to enforce their enlightened views.[2] Schwab and his cronies are openly hostile towards Christianity and are not shy about espousing a utopian, depopulated earth where they rule and control in godlike fashion.[3]

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11/23/2022 0 Comments

Beating Mediocrity

Janet has her own cleaning service; for years, she had no trouble gaining enough clients to run a successful business because of her work quality. As her business expanded, she hired another worker, and that’s when the problems began. When Janet cleans a room, it is immaculate, but with her new employee Justin, it was not the same. She showed him the cleaning materials to use and demonstrated what “right looks like.” At first, she thought his cleaning lapses merely required on-the-spot corrections. But Justin’s work continually languished. He responded with excuses when she would point out deficiencies rather than learn and improve. After three frustrating months, she had to let him go.

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8/31/2022 1 Comment

Wrong

Janice* called me.  Her voice conveyed discouragement, confusion, and a hint of controlled resentment.  After listening to her, I felt saddened and angry.

Several leaders—male and female from various churches in other states and a school, all tied to a nationally-known pastor and speaker told Karen she was not a Christian.  One of those pastors refused to baptize her. Janice shared the statements they leveled against her. They judged a woman suffering from post-traumatic stress (PTS) from their presumptuous and self-righteous position, causing grave damage to a young Christian struggling to grow in her faith.  Now she was uncertain of her salvation.  She felt unsafe and criticized in churches—where she should be most safe and find compassion—not condemnation.

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5/7/2022 0 Comments

Buried Like a Donkey

Meditation
Jeremiah 22:18,19--Therefore, this is what the Lord says concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: They will not mourn for him, saying, “Woe, my brother!” or “Woe, my sister!” They will not mourn for him, saying, “Woe, lord! Woe, his majesty!” He will be buried like a donkey, dragged off and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem

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3/24/2022 0 Comments

Believing Gained by Reading

Erwin introduced me to Rojan* an 80-year-old doctor born in Peru. We listened to him as he explained that there is no such thing as hell and that when he dies, he will simply decompose and return to the earth—body, spirit, and soul. There is no afterlife he said. Implied in his words were his belief that there is no God and no accountability for us in how we live. He was firm in his convictions and seemingly unconcerned of a finite life.

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2/10/2022 0 Comments

The Bad Leader

We have all experienced them—leaders, who exhibit selfishness in the midst of a crisis. One of the reasons why I believe the Bible is the greatest book on leadership is the plethora of examples of good and bad leaders. So let’s look at a man who shows us what not to do.

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1/6/2022 1 Comment

Tell the Righteous!

Meditation
Isaiah 3:10-11—Tell the righteous that it will go well for them, for they will eat the fruit of their labor. Woe to the wicked—it will go badly for them, for what they have done will be done to them.

God’s word to Isaiah challenged me to study the word righteous because it is in that context that things go well for people. What I found was staggering in some ways. But before we look at the signs and fruit of righteous living we should understand 14 lessons that teach:

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12/31/2021 0 Comments

Finding Stasis

Meditation
Daniel 5:26-28--This is the interpretation of the message: MENE means that God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. TEKEL means that you have been weighed in the balance and found deficient.PERES means that your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

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12/16/2021 0 Comments

Nahum--Pronouncing God's Vengeance

Nahum, the only person with that name in the Old Testament, prophesied against the nation of Assyria particularly against its capital city Nineveh—located about 220 miles north of modern Baghdad in Iraq.[1] But unlike when Jonah brought God’s warnings against Nineveh and the city repented, Nahum’s audience was proud and perversely wicked—completely unwilling to listen to God and therefore destined to experience His wrath.

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8/28/2021 0 Comments

Withering

The Hebrew word navel, basically means wither or lose heart. It is used twenty times in the Old Testament. The word describes Moses in Exodus 18:18—warned about wearing out from trying to judge the people alone. Eleven times it refers to plants dying. Isaiah uses it to show people withering from sin (Isaiah 64:6). When you think of the condition of the world right now does it feel like it is withering? Such a thought should not be surprising for God warned us that this would happen.

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