Articles by Marty Kessler

The word god is not God’s name.  That is not to say that using the term flippantly is a virtuous practice.  All references, even allusions to the creator of the universe should be of utmost respect.  But “God” is not God’s name.  So what is His name?   When Moses asked this question, God told him that he was to refer to Him as I Am Wh...

The above word is the name that was given to the place where Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried.  It means “oak of weeping”.  Genesis 35:8 is nearly the only passage telling us anything at all about her life.  There is one other reference in 24:59 simply reporting that when Rebekah left home to become the wife of Isaac that “her nurse&rdq...

Christmas is over.  Homes and businesses previously decorated with bright and cheery holiday lighting are all taking those lights down again.  What about you and me?  Jesus was speaking to people just like us when he said to them, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14-16).  He defined their “light” as good works that they could do...

God did not design us for violence. Sin, however, changed everything and it became the responsibility of righteous people to take violent situations in hand.  As soon as Noah stepped off of the ark God instructed him that any man or beast who took the life of another man was to be put to death, Genesis 9:5-6. God had noted for us in Genesis 6:5 & 11 & 13 that mankind ha...

'Church' these days has been turned into a show by many in the religious world. Worship is for them a big production that is performance oriented and entertainment driven. Such assemblies beg for applause and they get plenty of it. It seems to me that it is a lot of hype with very little of God in any of this. But getting back to the question about applauding at a baptism, or some g...

God said it.  He said it to Joshua.  He said it three times (Joshua 1:6, 7, 9 & 18). The third time God told Joshua to be strong and courageous, He also asked him, “Have I not commanded you?”   Doesn’t that sound to you like God wanted Joshua to understand that since He had commanded him to act, that there was no reason to be timid or afraid?  Go...

God teaches us that it is right to punish those who do wrong. When He or those authorized by Him (see Romans 13:1-5) punish evil as He designed, it is justice. When individuals take things into their own hands, however, it is usually for revenge. Justice is a matter of comparing one’s behavior with a recognized code of behavior or law. When the law is broken, justice demands a fitting punish...

Jesus said the above in John 7:24. We usually hear people claiming that the Bible says not to judge and they are usually making this claim having judged someone for having supposedly judged someone else. They seldom catch themselves, however. Actually, the title quote above is incomplete. Jesus’ full statement was, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgmen...

“For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.” Romans 7:19 What evil do you want to do? I have mine. You have yours. Even the apostle who wrote the above had his. Need a list? Just off the top of my head I can think of gluttony, envy, arrogance, drunkenness, promiscuity, vulgarity, adultery, physical and/or mental abuse, theft, dishonesty, bul...

I cannot recall what it was like to be in my mother’s womb. Of course at that point I was incapable of understanding any of the wonders of the created universe into which I would eventually be born. But having been born, I would never go back. As children, we always looked to the next “phase” of our lives. We wanted to play with the big kids, to go to school, to go to the next gr...

You see it often in the gospels; Jesus reaching out with his hand to touch people. He touched Peter’s wife’s mother on the hand and took away her fever (Matthew 8:14-15). He touched the eyes of two blind men and gave them sight (Matthew 9:27-31). He touched the ears and the tongue of a deaf mute and gave him hear-ing and speech (Mark 7:31-35). He even touched a leper to make him clean ...

I find it interesting that there are no specified instructions for how to hold a funeral service in scripture. There isn’t anything teaching us that we must have one, nor even any direct instructions as to what to do with the body. Yet God teaches us that there is something very special about death, especially the deaths of those who die having been faithful to Him: Precious in the sight of ...

God challenged Jeremiah about 2,600 years ago: “Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and look now and take note. And seek in her open squares, if you can find a man, if there is one who does justice, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her” Jeremiah 5:1 Jerusalem was doomed because her people had abandoned God. His justice, having been building ever since Israel’s de...

If you look around when you are outdoors, with the exception of a few rare places on the planet, what you’ll see is an amazing array of plant life. Trees of every description decorate the landscape from the umbrella shaped Parana pine to the fern-like cypress and the cartoonish baobab. There are also grasses, carpeting the ground with color, texture and beauty. Shrubs and bushes abound that ...

God created both Adam and Eve in His image. Each of them had a divine purpose. Adam was created first according to Genesis 2:1-18 noting for us that it was not good for the man to be alone. God then made woman from the man to be his wife, but more specifically, to be his helper according to 2:19- 24. Because of the weakness of our fleshly minds, we humans tend to make this relationship competitive...

Time and again I’ve heard the expression, “You can’t legislate morality” and wondered whether those touting this line have thought through what they were saying. We do not “legislate” morality, but we must legislate behavior. Anyone in authority over others not only has the right, but the obligation to do so. From national governments all the way down to our own...

There is a fifth reason I want to identify in this continuation of last week’s article. That reason is that the rest of Jesus’ New Testament after the gospels shows us that His apostles carefully and specifically followed the pattern of work He laid out for them. In Acts chapter two we see Peter preaching Jesus to the crowds gathered in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. He tells th...

John the apostle writes in the first chapter of his gospel that those who receive Jesus, defined as those who believe in Him, are given the right to become children of God, John 1:12. He does not tell us here at what point believers actually become children of God, perhaps because he is saving that for Jesus Himself to introduce in chapter three. In chapter three, a man by the name of Nicodemus co...

Mark records at least nine different times in his gospel when Jesus forewarned His disciples that He would be arrested, abused, crucified and resurrected (8:31-33, 9:9-12, 30-32, 10:32-34, 45, 12:1- 11, 14:3-8, 22-25 & 26-28). Matthew tells us that even as Jesus was being arrested He told those present at least twice that what was happening was in order to fulfill what the prophets had said (2...

I remember being a part of a group of students that visited a denominational church many years ago as part of a school assignment. We were to learn as much as we could about them from one of their leaders. While taking a guided tour of their place of worship, we noticed that they had a communion table much like the ones with which we were familiar in the church. One difference, however, was that t...