Pathway Weeklies

We presently live in a dreadful and dramatic global era! Turmoil and uncertainty leave every person—at least those who are even remotely aware of the world today—with some concern about where culture is heading. Words like “injustice,” “war,” “crime,” and every dread known to humankind, seem to be prevalent and spreading like a bad virus. What hope may we have for our world today and in the future...

Airliners have black boxes onboard that record pilot conversations when a crisis strikes. In some cases, loud audible gasps or shouts have been made to express the emotions that those individuals feel. Picture your most desperate cry for help in a moment of crisis, the words you used to express your despair, and you will be able to identify with the message of Psalm 70. This hymn has a bit of an a...

It has been said, “Letting yesterday affect today will only destroy the excitement of tomorrow.” Well said, but let’s add a prophetic tweak to the axiom. Ezekiel encountered some leaders who were living in their failed past, and it was ruining the prospects for God’s future. He denounced their flawed leadership. Most of us will know of a church ministry where the members lived their present within...

How do you handle life’s testing times? Perhaps you worry. Maybe you even lash out at those you love. Others will deny the situation and seek to avoid confronting the trouble! I read numerous accounts of people on social medial who refuse to face their troubles and eventually find that they are overwhelmed by the results. The psalmist pens Psalm 112 as a reminder that our troubles provide us with ...

“False Confidence” could be the rubric that Jeremiah might place on the marquees of many contemporary churches. The people in Jeremiah’s day believed they were safe because the Temple, God’s dwelling place, was in their midst (HCBC). Many contemporary congregations hold to a similar belief about their own physical locations and the traditions associated with them. Let’s ask the Lord to open our ey...

(“Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem”—Rembrandt, 1630) Sisyphus, the Ancient Greek mythological character, was required continually to push a heavy boulder up the side of a mountain, only to have it roll back down. I suppose that he is remembered most for his misery! Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, as he is often nicknamed, served the Lord in the latter days of the Kingdom of Judah, an...

“If a spring has not been opened in a soul, a spring of living water from God’s own Son, no waters can flow and there is no life in you.” G.V. Wigram (1805-1879), wrote the English theologian and an early leader among the Plymouth Brethren. He echoes what Christ had taught: Living water must spring from within the well of one’s own heart or a person will die of spiritual thirst. Let’s examine anew...

A Bible commentator catches my eye when he writes, “Affliction either drives one into the arms of God or severs one from God” (NAC). This perspective often proves to be true, but thankfully Peter opens our eyes today to a useful aspect to affliction that we may have failed to consider. He shows us clearly how we sometimes interfere with God’s good work in us when we are experiencing bad things in ...

Words are cheap, or so the expression goes, so Christians will choose to show their genuine faith by staying committed to Christ. This introduction encapsulates the point of our focal passage today. The recipients of the Hebrews letter had been tempted to pull away from Christ, so the writer encourages them to remain steadfastly committed to the Lord. The writer uses the symbol of a veil beyond wh...

God does not lose those souls He has saved (1 Peter 1:4, “kept in heaven”). There can be no more powerful statement than the one with which this devotional begins. It was written because the first readers of Hebrews needed to remain steadfast in their commitment to Christ. Since then, this chapter has created libraries full of commentary based upon a flawed interpretation of verse 6 and the phrase...