Passage, Paragraph, and Prayer

The psalmist bookends Psalm 119:13 with our lips on the one side and God’s mouth on the other. In this devotion, Pastor Biebert talks about what we could call the cycle of heavenly pollination.

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In this episode we begin looking at the devil’s tactics of temptation. The devil begins by questioning the reasonableness, goodness, and kindness of God’s word, especially when he tells us we cannot …

“Blessed are you, O LORD,” the psalmist says (Psalm 119:12). How can God be blessed? Isn’t he the One who blesses, and we are the ones who are blessed? In this episode, Pastor Biebert talks about the…

Sometimes after Day 6, when God saw that everything was “very good” (Gen. 1:31), the devil came to tempt Adam and Eve. But how did there come to be a devil in the first place?

Music Credit: J. S. Bach…

What do you put in a treasure chest? And what do you do with it there? In Psalm 119:11, the psalmist tells us to think of our hearts as treasure chests for the sayings of God, and he tells us how it …

The serpent was also one of God’s good creations in the beginning, and his craftiness or shrewdness was good too. But the devil took these creations and abused them for his own evil purposes—the same…

Why do we make commitments and promises to God when we’re always going to violate them until he brings us to heaven?

Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movemen…

Before the fall into sin, humans went about naked without any shame or embarrassment. Can you even imagine that? Our difficulty imagining that (without imagining other shameful and horrifying things …

Youthful innocence is often therapeutic for us when we get older and start growing jaded and cynical at the world. But what can we do to help our children and young people retain their (relative) inn…

The author of Genesis 2:24, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, recognizes that what God has done for and with Adam and Eve is the way he wants it to be on earth as long as the earth endures.

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In the final verse of the first stanza of Psalm 119, the psalmist nicely sums up his thoughts.

Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Remember the instructions and prohibitions (with attendant consequences) that God gave Adam in Genesis 2:15–17? Who would pass those along to Eve?

Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, d…

Understanding the concept of God’s righteousness as expressed especially in the psalms was at the heart of the Reformation. Unfortunately, many English versions of the Bible don’t reflect this unders…

Oftentimes Bible translations render Genesis 2:23 along the lines of, “This is *now* bone of my bones...” But Adam actually used a word that means “finally” or “at last,” which says a mouthful not on…

If a writer inspired by the Holy Spirit had shame when surveying not some, but all of God’s commandments, then what does that say about us?

Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg C…

When God brought Eve to Adam to be his wife, Adam couldn’t help himself. He spontaneously broke out into the first human poem.

Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritte…

After telling us that God’s precepts are to be kept thoroughly, the psalmist leads us in crying out to God for help with our paths.

Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto,…

Why did God build Eve from Adam’s rib?

Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).

Is our attitude toward God’s word an indifferent, ho-hum, or casual one? If so, God wants to correct that.

Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

When God walked Eve down the aisle to Adam, so to speak, and introduced her to him, Adam would have noticed the complementary differences between him and Eve—differences in shape and soul. In this de…