May I Gently Suggest - iTunes Feed

May I Gently Suggest - iTunes Feed episodes:

• 06.25.2024

  Ruth 1-2 - Two Widows

  Naomi, her husband and two sons, move to Moab during a famine in their home town of Bethlehem. Naomi's two sons marry Moabite women. Over time her husband and two sons all perish leaving her and her daughters-in-law as widows....

  
• 06.23.2024

  Inflection Points

  Numbers 10 represents the high point of the wilderness generation. The tabernacle is finished and they have set out for the Promised Land. It all starts to fall apart in Numbers 11 with the result that that generation dies in...

  
• 06.20.2024

  Judges 15-18, Samson and Delilah

  Samson continues to ravage the Philistines and so enable the tribe of Dan to hold the territory allotted to them by Joshua. The Philistines finally discover the source of his great strength and manage to bind Samson - to their...

  
• 06.18.2024

  Ephesians 6 - To Take a Stand

  After giving advice on how to create and maintain a healthy, caring community, Paul concludes the letter with instructions for remaining personally effective in the great spiritual battle. In this, he draws on Isaiah and the Psalms to explain what...

  
• 06.16.2024

  Shavuot - Expression of God's Love

  On Shavuot God has twice appeared in dramatic fashion to give His people tools by which to live and to expand His Kingdom. The first occasion at Sinai, He gave us the Torah. The second time in the Upper Room,...

  
• 06.13.2024

  Judges 13-14, Samson

  From the tribe of Dan, Samson was born to a previously barren woman. His conception was announced by a divine messenger and his manner of life was unique. He was sent by God to deliver Israel from the Philistines.

  
• 06.11.2024

  Ephesians 5 - How to Love

  In contemporary American usage, 'love' is heavily bound up with emotion and romance. Not so in the Torah or in Paul. The command to, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' might be usefully rendered, 'Care as much about your neighbor's welfare...

  
• 06.09.2024

  Bamidbar - The Census

  It is important that the census in the wilderness emphasizes that people are to be counted by name. This reinforces that God deals with people as individuals and not as interchangeable units. In addition to the theological implications, this has...

  
• 06.06.2024

  Judges 10-12, Jephthah

  The Ammonites revive a 300 year old land dispute with Israel and invade to enforce their claims. Israel persuades Jephthah to take command and drive them out. In that process, Jephthah makes an unwise vow, the result of which is...

  
• 06.04.2024

  Ephesians 4 - Making a Community

  Paul emphasizes unity in the community. Christ gave gifts to men that those having the gifts might use them to build a strong community around the knowledge of Christ and His Kingdom. To be healthy, the members of that community...

  
• 06.02.2024

  Injustice

  As God has been driven from the public square, people have lost an awareness of both His goodness and His justice. That void is filled with covetousness, bitterness, anger and resentment. We can see this played out in all of...

  
• 05.30.2024

  Judges 9, Bramble Politics

  After the death of Gideon, Abimelech, one of his sons by a concubine, conspired to murder the rest of his brothers in order to become king. His sole surviving brother gave an eloquent parable about a bramble bush becoming ruler...

  
• 05.28.2024

  Ephesians 3 - The Mystery

  In several of his letters Paul refers to mysteries. In all cases they allude to the same thing; that gentiles are full members of the Kingdom of God and are fellow heirs. It is the case that if the spiritual...

  
• 05.26.2024

  Release

  In The Torah, God tells Israel that both the land and the Israelite people belong to Him. He specifies that there are to be several economic resets over a 50 year period. Slaves must be freed and debts cancelled every...

  
• 05.23.2024

  Judges 8, Gideon's Pursuit

  After driving the Midianites from the Jezreel valley, Gideon pursued them across the Jordan to finish the defeat. In that process he had to deal with two Israelite cities who refused to give him aid and with the tribe of...

  
• 05.21.2024

  Ephesians 2 - Fellow Citizens

  In Christ the separation and hostility between Jews and believing gentiles has been abolished. Now gentiles can be citizens of the Commonwealth of Israel and children of God. What does it mean to be a citizen of the Commonwealth?

  
• 05.19.2024

  The Kingdom has Suffered Violence

  In Matthew 11, John's disciples ask if Y'shua is actually the Messiah. This is a hinge point in the book. He explains that John could have been Elijah, but both he and Y'shua are being rejected by the ruling elites....

  
• 05.16.2024

  Judges 6-7, Gideon

  With Israel once again in apostasy, the Midianites spread across the Jezreel valley during the harvest. They plundered Israel's crops and oppressed her people. God called Gideon to drive the Midianites from the land.

  
• 05.14.2024

  Ephesians 1 - The Guarantee

  In this introduction, Paul writes of the glory and power that God exhibited in raising Christ from the dead. He also writes of the spiritual blessings and the inheritance that await believers. The Spirit being the guarantee of the inheritance...

  
• 05.12.2024

  Elastic not Plastic

  Fashionable intellectual belief is that reality is plastic, that is it can be formed into whatever people desire it to be. That is the basis for all of the 'isms' from the 19th and 20th centuries. In contrast, God tells...

  
• 05.09.2024

  Judges 4-5, Deborah

  The Canaanites held the fortress city of Hazor and controlled the Jezreel valley which was ideal chariot country. Israel was mostly dismounted infantry. So the problem was how to overcome the tactical advantage of the Canaanite army. In this, God...

  
• 05.07.2024

  While We Wait

  At the end of the Olivet Discourse where Messiah tells His disciples that even He does not know the timing of His return, He recounts three parables all having to do with our behavior while He is away. The Parable...

  
• 05.05.2024

  Dominion

  God designed humans to exercise dominion over the earth and all its creatures. That design feature also drives people to try and dominate each other, often in inappropriate or harmful ways. What does God have to say about the proper...

  
• 05.03.2024

  Resurrection

  Christ rose from the grave on First Fruits and so became the first fruits from the dead. There are a number of other resurrections in Scripture. What makes that one special?

  
• 05.02.2024

  Judges 3, To Teach War

  Having failed to follow God's commandments and destroy the inhabitants of the land, Israel would never fully enjoy peace. They intermarried, followed other gods and reaped the consequences. Since they would not know peace, God set them up to study...

  
• 04.30.2024

  Matthew 24, The End of the Age

  In a private conversation on the Mount of Olives, the disciples ask Y'shua about the signs and timing of His return. Most of His answer is in the negative; listing events that will be disturbing but are not signs of...

  
• 04.28.2024

  Learning Liberty

  When God brought Israel out of Egypt, He did not take them directly to the Promised Land. Instead He began a process of teaching the former slaves how to be free. The first stage of the process took 50 days...

  
• 04.25.2024

  Judges 1-2, Disobedience

  Judges begins with Israel failing to obey God. They were instructed to wipe out the inhabitants of the land yet they took Adoni-bezek captive and humiliated him. This sets the tone for the entire book. Israel was not willing to...

  
• 04.23.2024

  The Wedding Feast

  The Parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 21 and the great feast in Luke 14, while similar, were given to different audiences for different purposes. The emphasis in the Matthew parable is on the Second Coming and the final...

  
• 04.21.2024

  Hijacked by Evil

  As we prepare to celebrate Passover, it is well to reflect on God's appointed times as, among other things, a mechanism to keep our history fresh in our minds. In the west today, our history is under systematic attack. The...

  
• 04.18.2024

  2 Peter 3, As a Thousand Years

  One of the beliefs of those against whom Peter is warning is a lack of historical perspective. Their attitude seems to be that, since God has not moved within living memory, He is unlikely to care much about what people...

  
• 04.16.2024

  Who Sits Where

  Introduction, parable of the laborers in the vineyard and the parable of the tenants. In each of these the question concerns eternal rewards and placement within the Kingdom. The disciples were curious as to what their reward would be. The...

  
• 04.14.2024

  The Space Between the Words

  Biblical leprosy is regarded as a spiritually caused disease infecting those who's behavior and speech damages the community. Over and over in Scripture one is urged to listen. Listen to God; listen to one's neighbors. On social media today, the...

  
• 04.11.2024

  2 Peter 2, They Promise Freedom

  In describing those who creep into the congregation and lead others astray, Peter says that one of their lures is the promise of freedom. This has always been the case with sin. In promising freedom from the restrictions of God's...

  
• 04.09.2024

  Esther 8-10 The Aftermath

  After the execution of Haman, the problem of his decree that all Jews be killed remained. Since that edict could not be changed, Esther and Mordecai got the King's permission to send a second decree to the effect that the...

  
• 04.07.2024

  Profane Fire

  During the consecration of Aaron and his sons as priests before God, Nadab and Abihu offered profane fire before the altar and were themselves consumed by fire from heaven. Most commentaries focus on speculation about the two men's motivation in...

  
• 04.04.2024

  2 Peter 2, False Teachers

  The first paragraphs in the chapter parallel Jude speaking of false teachers who infiltrate the body and entice the gullible into some sort of sexual sin. Their motivation is greed either for money or for influence.

  
• 03.31.2024

  Ordination

  There are ritual elements in the ordination of the High Priest that are repeated only by the procedure to cleanse a leper. That leads to some profound insights into God's plan for the redemption of His creation. (Inspired by Rabbi...

  
• 03.28.2024

  2 Peter 1, Supplement Your Faith

  Starting from a position of faith in Messiah, Peter urges believers to work on the content of their character. It is a strong character that will keep the believer from falling into worldliness and so becoming unfruitful. It is character...

  
• 03.26.2024

  Esther 4-7 A Private Dinner

  Since Esther is not an expert in affairs of state, She would have no chance confronting Haman in the Throne Room. Instead she arranged to get the King into a situation where she had the advantage. Haman, full of hubris...

  
• 03.24.2024

  Demons

  Demons are a Biblical fact of life. How do they operate? How do people encounter them? What do we do about them?

  
• 03.21.2024

  1 Peter 5, The Flock of God

  As an elder, Peter exhorts the elders who receive his letter to be faithful in tending God's flock. In this he is echoing Y'shua who gave explicit instructions and dire warnings to those He would leave in charge of His...

  
• 03.17.2024

  Obedience Changes You

  On the surface God's laws might appear simply to be organizing principles for a decent society. They certainly are that, but they are also His means for changing His children into the image of Christ. The principle here is, 'As...

  
• 03.14.2024

  1 Peter 4, The Fiery Trial

  The world is a difficult place in which there are trials and suffering. When the trials are for the sake of your faith, you share in Christ's suffering. This is far better than suffering because you deserve it.

  
• 03.12.2024

  Esther 3 - Where Did Haman Come from?

  The coup attempt prompted Aẖashverosh to completely revamp his court and severely restrict access to himself. Haman, who became the gatekeeper, was not mentioned in the great feast of chapter 1. The fact that he was an Amelikite, the eternal...

  
• 03.10.2024

  Law and Love - The Importance of Emphasis

  The United States was founded and built by Christians. While the scaffolding of our society (consent of the governed, freedom of conscience, etc.) is Biblical, secularists increasingly reject Biblical morals. This stems from a Christian emphasis on rules and doctrine...

  
• 03.07.2024

  1 Peter 3 The Eyes of the Lord

  The Eyes of the Lord are watching to answer the prayers of the righteous, but ignore those of the wicked. The world is a difficult place and there will be abundant opportunities for others to mistreat you. Here Peter reminds...

  
• 03.05.2024

  Esther 1-2 The Backstory

  The first two chapters of Esther are basically setup for the rest of the book. Aẖashverosh (or Xerxes 1) threw a great feast for all of the administration within his empire. At the end of that feast he was humiliated...

  
• 03.03.2024

  What is it About Idols?

  Idols are a perennial human problem, warned against both in the Old and New Testaments. To understand the impulse and recognize the manifestations, it may be helpful to look at idols from three perspectives: as intermediaries to God, as connections...

  
• 02.29.2024

  1 Peter 2-3 Authority

  Writing to a minority Hebrew community within a gentile nation, Peter urges them to be respectful of the gentile government. He also urges respect for God's authority structures within their own community and within their families. This is very similar...