Selah does connect the end of one strophe with the beginning of the next; and, in four cases it connects the end of one Psalm with the beginning of the next, thus uniting the two Psalms (Ps 3 with 4; 9 with 10; 24 with 25; and 46 with 47).

Jesus had some hard things to say to the hypocrites and pretenders. He told them they were like dishes that were clean on the outside but on the inside they were full of greed and self-indulgence (Mt 23:25). In other words, they put on a good show for people.

Feeling blue is very common around the holidays. The colorful lights and decorations, the wonderful smells, and the beautiful festive music will bring up memories. Those memories or thoughts stir up our emotions; our emotions then cause our desires; and, our desires produce our actions.

Knowing God loves us is the heartbeat of His way of Agape. Unless we know He loves us, we won't be able to lay down our lives to Him. (How can we trust or believe in someone if we don't think they love us?)

It has been popular to presume that the "fig tree" is a reference to Israel. That view was further popularized by Hal Lindsey's best seller, The Late Great Planet Earth, and Ed Weisenant's 88 Reasons that Jesus would return in 1988. The idea was that since Israel was restored to statehood on May 14, 1948, and that a generation can be defended as 40 years, that 1988 was the year to watch.

Since the ten Hebrew names are proper names, they are not translated but only transliterated to approximate the way they were pronounced. The meaning of proper names can be a difficult pursuit since direct translations are not readily available. Many study aids, such as conventional lexicons, can prove superficial when dealing with proper names

Since the Y2K rollover on January 1, it has been interesting to watch the post-event analyses, which divided into two general camps: (1) a hard job well-done that prevented disaster or (2) not a problem in the first place and lots of wasted money and time.

The observances of Good Friday and Easter Sunday have perpetuated the traditional chronology that the crucifixion took place on a Friday, that the Lord's body was buried on that day about 6 p.m., and that he rose from the dead early on Sunday.

We continue to receive mail concerning various schemes that attempt to establish the date for the Rapture of the Church or the Second Coming of Christ.

The latest discoveries in quantum physics and astrophysics provide remarkable evidence of God's ongoing involvement in the creation of time, space, and matter. The latest insights of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity reveal that time itself is a created physical property as one of four dimensions of our universe.