Pathway Weeklies

John of the Cross said, “Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent.” The Thessalonians had endured some stiff suffering because of their commitment to Christ, so Paul writes to strengthen and encourage them. They were “pressed out like grapes,” but they did not whine (see 1Thessalonians 1:6)! It may surprise you to hear where their afflic...

[Photo credit: Sue Carroll on Unsplash] John Newton, the great hymn writer, once said, “If the Lord be with us, we have no cause of fear. His eye is upon us, His arm over us, His ear open to our prayer—His grace sufficient, His promise unchangeable.” The psalmist knew this calming truth about God’s favor when he penned the Psalm 91. Let’s look carefully to see the ways that God cares for us amid s...

“To err is human, to forgive divine,” is Alexander Pope’s 18th century immortal, heroic couplet from an “Essay on Criticism.” It referred originally to the way writers sometimes overly praise or harshly criticize other writers, but it has come to mean that every human being makes mistakes. The point is that we should be forgiving of those who blunder, since God shows His divine mercy in forgiving ...

A funny cartoon caught my eye because an overweight, unkempt man was lying on a couch with all sorts of junk food wrappers and empty beverage cans on the floor. The caption read that he had achieved his daily goal of taking zero exercise steps. “Under-motivated” would be a good way to describe the man! If you have ever found it extremely difficult to dedicate yourself to a consistent spiritual rou...

Sabbath performance was one of the three “most important badges of Jewish life” (NAC). Jesus shows in this passage that He was going to challenge any other oral tradition that had grown up like weeds and choked God’s intent with the giving of the law (12:3-6; “have you not read?”). We currently practice a laissez faire approach to our worship, but there remain unspoken customs in many of our churc...

“He had it all,” as we say, “then lost it all.” Humanly speaking, Saul had everything that people prize in a leader. He was kingly in appearance, a strong military strategist, and popular with the people. He fits a common leadership misconception; namely, that leaders are born, and their charisma wins the approval and following of their people. My how things never seem to change! We often choose o...

What would you wish to write if what you penned were the last words you would ever put to paper? Well, Hannah was not an author, per se, but the last words we ever hear/read from her lips are recorded in 1 Samuel 2, and they speak to this very day! Hannah’s song is 112 words in the Hebrew language and, by comparison, Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address is 272 words. Hers is an “emancipation procla...

Never give up the resurrection facts, but also make sure to abide in their truth! I recall a precious woman, who knew in detail the facts about Jesus’ life and death, but she did not believe that He was raised from the grave. She did believe, like so many others in our generation, that Jesus was a good teacher but not a risen Savior and Lord. I am in full agreement that facts about Jesus are criti...

The truism says that the journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step. We will quickly recognize that Israel fell into subjection to her enemies, not because the enemies were more powerful, but because the nation, step by step, had distanced itself from the Lord (6:1). This sometimes proves to be the case in our own spiritual lives. It often is not the godless enemy outside our door that overt...

“For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another” (Psalm 75:6-7). We likely find comfort and calm when the Scriptures speak of God’s mercy and love, but become unsettled where God exercises judgment according to His sovereign will. The account of the commander of the Lord’s army provid...