Dr Paul Allen

The Creation stained glass window at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in Charleston, SC. Franz Mayer & Co. of Munich, Germany represented by the studios of George L. Payne of Patterson, New Jersey 1966. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.” ( Psalm 95:6 ) Psalms 95–100 seem to form a unit with several common themes running through them, all involving praise to the Lord . One of these major themes is the recognition of the Lord as Maker of heaven and Earth. For example, consider Psalm 95:5 : “The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.” Thus, God made the earth, including both land and sea. But He also made the heavens! “For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens” ( Psalm 96:5 ). Higher and far more complex than any planet of the solar system, or any star in the heavens, are the living organisms found only on planet Earth —especially human beings —and He

The Pharisees Question Jesus (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Matthew 5:21–26 “I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment…and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to the hell of fire” (v. 22). Jesus comes to fulfill the Mosaic law , not to set it aside ( Matt. 5:17). Our Lord , being the goal of the Law and the Prophets, by no means intends to do away with them.  In fact, as the end of the Law, Jesus reveals the depth of Scripture, making it clear that God’s demands are actually much stricter than the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (v.20). The meaning of this last point is determined from the practice of the Pharisees and Jesus’ teaching regarding the Law in the life of Israel . Among our Savior’s contemporaries, no one keeps the letter of the Law better than the Pharisees. Few Israelites can imagine outdoing their righteous practice, so exacting is their observation of the commandments. Yet as Christ will show us, outwa

“But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.” ( Psalm 3:3 ) The beautiful metaphor of God as our shield, and our protector from evil, is used over 15 times in the book of Psalms , the first being in our text above. The very first time it is used in the Bible , however, is also the first time the word “shield” itself is used. That was the time when God assured Abram , after his battle with the armies of the northern kings: “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield” ( Genesis 15:1 ). This was a great comfort to Abram, there in the land of the Canaanites , where evil and enemies surrounded him on all sides. But consider also a few of the many “shield” promises in the book of Psalms. One of the most beautiful and most uplifting is Psalm 84:11 : “For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” And consider also this wonderful promise: “As for God, his way is perfect:

English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Matthew 13:47–50 “So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous” ( v. 49 ). The parable of the wheat and the tares ( Matt. 13:24–30 , 36–43 ) is probably not first and foremost about the presence of people who profess the Christian faith falsely in the institutional church. However, this does not mean that Jesus has nothing to say on the subject. The parable of the net apparently deals with the fact that those who do not really know Christ will “worship” beside true believers in the visible covenant community. Several hints in Matthew 13:47–50 indicate that the parable of the net is about the church. First among these is Jesus’ use of a fishing metaphor ( v. 47 ). He calls His disciples to be “fishers of men” and four of the Twelve — Peter, Andrew, James, and John — were professional fishermen before our Lord made them apostles ( 4:18–22 ). Fishermen casting a