Life's Inanities and Ironies

* Lessons from Achan and the Battle of Ai – Joshua 7 * In our ongoing series “Don’t Cross That Line,” we have already seen how God draws clear, immovable boundaries out of mercy and holiness. We watched Shimei test the line around Jerusalem and pay with his life. We saw Nadab and Abihu offer strange fire and be consumed instantly. We heard Aaron hold his peace in the face of devastating personal loss because holy fear demanded it. Now we come to one of the most sobering warnings in all of Scripture: **one man’s hidden sin can bring defeat to an entire nation.** The account of Achan in Joshua 7 is not merely ancient history. It is the living Word of God shouting across the centuries that sin is never truly private, that God’s “devoted things” are not to be touched, and that hidden compromise in the camp will eventually bring public defeat—until the line is honored and the sin is removed. The Backstory: A Great Victory and a Clear Command The children of Israel had just experienced one o...

   *Lessons on Holy Fear, Submission, and Grief from Leviticus 10:3 (KJV)* In the wake of one of the most terrifying judgments recorded in Scripture, we find one of the most beautiful and challenging responses ever given by a man of God. After fire came out from before the Lord and consumed his two oldest sons for offering “strange fire which he commanded them not,” Aaron the high priest did something extraordinary. He held his peace. No outburst. No protest. No demand for explanation. No public display of the raw grief that must have been tearing at his father’s heart. The man who had just watched his sons die in the very place they were called to serve simply… held his peace. This is not the silence of emotional shutdown or stoic pride. This is the silence of **holy submission** — a profound act of worship rising from the ashes of unimaginable loss. Aaron’s response in Leviticus 10:3 stands as one of the clearest demonstrations in all of Scripture of what it looks like to fe...

  *“Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.”* — Hebrews 12:28-29 (KJV) In an age when much of what passes for worship feels casual, entertaining, or even performance-driven, the biblical emphasis on **holy fear** stands as a much-needed corrective. Holy fear is not the paralyzing terror of the lost or the cringing dread of slaves. It is reverential awe — a deep, trembling awareness of God’s infinite holiness, majesty, and otherness that shapes how we approach Him in worship. Without it, worship easily drifts into irreverence, self-expression, or emotionalism detached from truth. With it, worship becomes acceptable to God and transforming for His people. This theme flows directly from the blog idea I shared on “Strange Fire Before the Lord” (Leviticus 10). The Nadab and Abihu account is one of Scripture’s clearest warnings about what happens when holy fear is absent in worship. But the principle runs thro...

The doctrine of election addresses one of the most profound and debated truths in Scripture: God’s sovereign choice regarding salvation. At its core, **election** refers to God’s eternal decision to choose certain individuals (or a people) for salvation, tracing the initiative for redemption back to God Himself rather than to human effort or merit. All Bible-believing Christians affirm *some form* of election because the concept and terminology appear repeatedly throughout the Old and New Testaments. The real debate centers on the *basis* of that choice (unconditional in God’s will alone, or conditional upon foreseen faith), its scope (individual or corporate), and how it relates to human responsibility, free will, and evangelism. This investigation draws directly from Scripture as the supreme authority, while noting major historical and theological perspectives. It is written with conservative, fundamentalist Christians in mind—those who uphold the inerrancy, authority, and sufficienc...