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Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 by Don Neuendorf

I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.

To appreciate what God is saying here you really need to back up and read the chapters before. Ezekiel describes the unfaithfulness of the Jewish leaders - priests participating in or permitting pagan celebrations in his temple - the people wandering away to worship in the high places and sacred groves - injustice throughout the kingdom that was supposed to be a witness to God's righteousness. And then God says...

Matthew 25:14-30 by Don Neuendorf

[The kingdom of heaven] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent...

First, you need to make a deliberate effort to de-link your brain from that word "talents". It shifts our emphasis to volunteering, when Jesus is using gold as his illustration. Certainly our time is included here by extension, but it begins with the gold, and that's appropriate because, as Martin Luther once said, the pocketbook is the last part of a man to be converted...

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 by Don Neuendorf

Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night... But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you...

This web site (http://www.bible.ca/pre-date-setters.htm) lists over 220 different dates that have been set for the end of the world. (Note: 3 of them are from the Weekly World News, a spoof newspaper, so those don't count.) Quite a number of them are in recent years, not just around the year 2000 (though there were lots then), but even now people are still trying to identify a date. WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THIS???

False prophecy is a terrible thing, but stupidity is apparently also a powerful force in this world...

A Comment Upon Commas by Don Neuendorf

Since I write these for public consumption, I am more aware of my personal literary foibles with these blog postings than I am with other writings. I have noticed that I often use an elipsis (...) where a comma would normally be used. If that troubles the literary types among us, I apologize. It is, however, not an accident.

I agree with the editor who once said that a loose usage of commas was like leaving chairs pulled out from the table so that people stumbled as they walk through the room. However, I like to write so that the reader "hears" the words, and when I want to pause for effect it seems to me that a comma isn't even a long enough pause to take a breath. I doubt that the modern reader even pauses much for a semicolon, so I use the elipsis.

Technically, the elipsis is supposed to represent missing text. And if I'm quoting someone else (like the Bible) then I use it that way. But otherwise my three dots are intended to let you stop to think... and then to lead you on.

I hope you follow the dots and keep reading!

Zephaniah 1:7-16 by Don Neuendorf

The great day of the Lord is near - near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the day of the Lord will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there. That day will be a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom...

...Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like filth. Neither their silver nor their gold willbe able to save them on the day of the Lord's wrath...

So - can you see why we don't read further than verse 16 when we use this text in church? Not very cheerful, is it? Why does the Bible contain things like this??? Isn't this too gruesome to be God's Word? Well... maybe you should think of it this way...

Matthew 25:14-30 by Don Neuendorf

Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money...

"God didn't give me much, just the sunshine in the morning..." That's how an old campfire song begins. Yes, I know, it's terribly saccharine. But it does make a sarcastic point (and I always love sarcasm). When we look in our bag to see how many talents God has given to us, aren't we always dissapointed?

"Oh, I don't have many skills, really." "Oh, I'm not rich or anything." When we were children our trick-or-treat bags seemed to fill too slowly and empty too soon, although we deserved none of it. Now as adults we're little better...

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 by Don Neuendorf

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have not hope...

I am deeply troubled today. Sure, I have lots of opinions about politics and economics and what government should do about this or that. But as vital as some of those issues might seem they pale to insignificance before the one issue that lies so heavy on my heart. Worse, I don't know how to find comfort in this case from Paul's words.

Please note: add up the populations of Michigan (10,095,643), Indiana (6,313,520), Ohio (11,478,006), Illinois (12,831,970), Wisconsin (5,556,506), and Minnesota (5,167,101) and you'd have 51,442,746 people. That's a lot of people.

That still does not equal the 53,430,000 American citizens who have been killed by abortion since it was legalized in 1973.

And now what do we do with Paul's words, that we should not be ignorant about those who have fallen asleep nor grieve like the rest of men if our nation appears to be bent upon continuing down this path?...

Amos 5:18-24 by Don Neuendorf

Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light...

I just voted. There were long lines of people voting, many of them with high hopes for the result. "If so-and-so gets elected, we're saved!" But even if you get your way - even if all the people who voted for today are elected, will that mean what you hope it means?

In the case of our political elections, that's true because we know the people we elect are sinful, but in the case of our hopes for the Lord's second coming...

Matthew 5:1-12 by Don Neuendorf

"The Be-Happy Attitudes" That is how a famous preacher once described these verses. He could not have been more wrong.

Oh, it's true that if a person could be some of these things - meek, hungering for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart - that he would be blessed. But even if we're blessed it doesn't mean that we're happy.

In fact, that raises the question... "Is happiness really what we're after?"...

1 John 3:1-3 by Don Neuendorf

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

There was no punctuation in the original manuscripts, OK? We know this sentence is not a question because of the form; it begins with an imperative. "LOOK!" (In Greek, idete) "Look at the greatness of love..."

So our English translations take some liberties with the punctuation. They have an exclamation point after both these first two sentences, probably because of the punchy aorist (one time, immediate action) imperative that begins it all. But the way it reads in English... what if we changed the punctuation to a question mark?

I know. I know. That's not in the text. But bear with me for a moment...