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Real life is an endurance test

Real life–as distinguished from romanticized, sentimentalized life–is largely an endurance test, a “long defeat.” Hope based on empirical evidence of human goodness or human perfectibility is not true hope; it is only optimism or “positive thinking” and cannot stand up to the actual situation. True hope is the hope-against-hope of which Paul speaks in Romans 4:18; that is to say, it is based on a promise from a sphere beyond this one.…

The good news begins with the back story

Christopher Wright notes that nearly all Christmas renditions skip Matthew’s first sixteen verses; the geneaology of Jesus the Messiah. Maybe we’re missing something since Matthew wants to start with the geneaology? Matthew uploads the whole backstory of the Hebrew scriptures with a crafted geneaology that spans three covenantal arcs: from Abram to David, from David to the Exile, and from the Exile to Jesus. We’re supposed to have the promise to Abram that he would be the father of many nations in our mind, and that through him all the families of the world would be blessed.…

The father kept his promise

Just because the gift turns out to be a motorcar doesn’t mean we should try to argue that the original promise of a horse was only meant figuratively. A horse was meant, a horse was what the child understood, and a horse was expected. But the changed circumstances and the progress of history enabled the promises to be fulfilled in a different and far superior way, without emptying the promise either of its purpose (to give a means of transport) or of its basis in a relationship of fatherly love.…

Contracts are the arteries of business

If accounting is the life blood of business, contracts are the arteries. Contracts, whether oral or written, bind parties by agreements through which assets flow. There are vena cava contracts which supply the business with its essential funds, such as a property loan to a restaurant. Others are minor capillary contracts which perform limited support, such as an oral contract to sell a sofa at a 5% discount if it’s paid in cash.…

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.…