“You bring stolen, lame, or sick animals. You bring this as an offering! Am I to accept that from your hands?” asks the Lord. (Malachi 1:13). This verse addresses the Levites. The Levites were the priests of Israel, the keepers and teachers of God’s law. They knew that sacrificing a defective animal violated the law (Lev. 1:3, 10)….
Category: Discipleship
Thought for the Day….
The willingness to part with one’s life is the greatest power in the universe. This is God, for God is love, and we know what love is because He laid down His life for us (1 John 3:16, 4:16).
The Hall and the Vision
Back in October, I wrote about the day I was born again. That was a powerful experience. But I wasn’t ready to follow the Lord afterwards. The next four years, there was little evidence of Christ in me. I investigated Taoism and made a go at practicing Buddhism. My personal life continued in its immoral,…
‘Tis So Sweet
I’ve had the hymn, “‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” on my mind today. There are a couple things I love about it. One, it speaks of the restful, abiding relationship we have in Christ. He is the vine, we are the branches. We need only live in Him and draw from Him (John…
Fact & Fiction
The fiction: Trying circumstances, instability within or without, personal failure, weakness, a lack of spiritual discipline, temptation, and the devil can separate us from God. The fact: “Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: Because of You we are being put…
David & Michal
One of the high points of King David’s reign was when he brought the ark into Jerusalem. Priests carried the ark into the city of David. Wearing a linen ephod (priestly boxers), David danced and leapt around worshiping with abandon. The people blew the top off the city with shouts, praises, and trumpet blasts. It was…
Mosaics, Quilts, and Piles of Socks
What should church “look like?” How should we “do church?” I hear these and similar questions bandied about regularly. There are lots of different answers. Some say we should “do church” like they did in the New Testament. In reality, there was no single New Testament way of “doing church.” There was a mosaic of…
Bloom without End
Photo by Carrie McKamey If you’ve followed The Voice of One at all, you know weakness is a theme that comes up regularly. I’m thinking about it again tonight. Weakness usually comes to mind when personal failures or shortcomings break out of me like a caged animal. Or when it seems my soul is surrounded…
The Hands of the Father–George MacDonald
What follows is an excerpt from George MacDonald’s Unspoken Sermons The Hands of the Father “Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit.”—St Luke xxiii. 46. Neither St Matthew nor St Mark tells us of any words uttered by our Lord after the Eloi. They both, along with St Luke, tell us of a cry with a…
The Unknown Within
“I watched the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He rested on Him. I didn’t know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The One you see the Spirit descending and resting on—He is the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and testified that He is the Son of God!”…
The Voice of One 