Malachi 3 – God says He is “going to send my messenger to prepare a way before me” (3:1). “Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire and the fullers’ alkali . . . he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and then they will make the offering to Yahweh as it should be made” (3:2-3).

 They must stop sinning against the Lord – practicing sorcery, adultery and…

Sirach 23 – God is addressed as “Lord, father and master of my life. . .” (23:1). I love it.

“Do not habituate your mouth to coarseness and foul language, for this means sinful talk. Remember your father and mother when you are sitting among princes, in case you forget yourself in their presence, and behave like a fool, and then wish you had not been born, and curse the day of your birth” (23:13-14).

“The man who sins against his own marriage…

In 1949, Elton Trueblood published a short book on The Common Ventures of Life: Marriage, Birth, Work and Death (New York: Harper and Row).  “The purpose of this book,” he says in the Preface, “is to help puzzled men and women to prepare for the intelligent and reverent facing of those experiences which are so central to man’s life that they have seemed supreme in all generations and in all cultures.”  Marriage is the first of those “common ventures” that Trueblood…

Ruth 4 – Boaz consults with the man and with ten elders.  He puts the matter to the man as if Naomi were selling land that belonged to her husband, and asks the next of kin if he is interested.  The man says he is, but when he learns that with the land comes Ruth, he yields his “rights” to Boaz. The deal here is that if the man were to take Ruth and she were to have a son by him, the son would legally be Elimelech’s heir—Ruth’s husband’s father’s, and the land would then go to him. …

Historical Information: To review very briefly the history of the people Moses and Josiah established in the “Promised Land” – we have, after all, just flipped from the end of Deuteronomy where Moses had brought the people of the Exodus to the borders of that promised land – to the very end of the monarchical period, some 600+ years later - VERY BRIEF:

Joshua, who received his appointment as leader from Moses, led the people into the land Moses had led them to. Under his…

Psalm 135 – Praise the Lord for He is good; He is kind and greater than all the gods. He move the clouds, makes the lightning flash and the wind blow. In Egypt, God “performed miracles and wonders.” It is God who brings down nations and opens space for His people. The God of the Jews, creator of nature and the power behind all history is not like the “gods of the nations,” gods made of silver or gold. Those who worship such gods – may they all become like these gods - ineffectual.…

     Dear Friends:

     Over the last few days I have been overcome with a heavy darkness.  But the darkness was like a dawn, followed soon by a great light.  I feel compelled to share the message, the fruit of this light, with you.  Indeed, you will note, I have written about same-sex relationships before, but I did so from my own mind; my own views.  Whereas before I wrote from conscience, today I write from light.

     You may think that the question of honoring same-sex…