Meditations and Notes: April 2026

Abba, may I have a fish?

(Matt 7:7-11)

Do not be drawn in different directions about tomorrow, for tomorrow will draw itself in different directions. Sufficient for the day its own malice is.

(John 6:34, word study)

These and more below have been my meditations this April. My meditations are fewer; I don’t know if this is because I’m too busy to meditate (bad), or because reading the New Testament in a month is exhausting (less bad), or because I have spent a lot of time meditating and simply have nothing to show the world for it (fine). I am trying something different though and have put what I think are my best, most insightful notes from study this month alongside my meditations.

My mouth is full of curses and bitterness;
Touch my lips with the altar-coal of your sacrifice,
That on them may hallowed be thy name.

(Rom 3:14; Isa 6:6-7; Matt 6:9)

O Lord, in all my loneliness,
        I will rise to bless the God who is all and is in all;
In all my uncertainty,
        I will rise to bless the God who knows all and does all;
In all my fear,
        I will rise to bless the God who works all things for my good,
        Knowing that your glory and my good are the same.
In all my comfort,
        I will rise to bless the God of all comfort;
In all my joy,
        To bless the God of my salvation,
        Till I be lifted in perfect love
        To him who loved me and gave himself for me.

Study Notes

1 Chron 10:8-9: “the Philistines…sent messengers…to carry the good news to their idols and to the people.” What an interesting word, good news, to use. The Septuagint uses a verb form of “apostle” for the sending of messengers, and “evangelize” for carrying the good news. This is a grim foreshadowing of a much sweeter event. Jesus cut off the head of sin and its son death (James 1:15), stripped them of their invincible armor of the Law (1 Cor 15:56), and proclaimed the good news to his God and his people.

2 Chron 25:14-16, my first instinct is to condemn Amaziah for turning to the gods of those he just destroyed. But then I wonder how often I put sin to death only to return to it again. Yet “we feel sure of better things” (Heb 6:9), that the Lord is not determined to destroy us, that he will not overlook our work and love (Heb 6:10), that it is impossible for him to lie in his promises, so that we are encouraged to hold fast our hope in him (Heb 6:19). And as the hymn says: “He will hold me fast.”

Matt 9:13, I’m a sinner! He came to call me!

Matt 17:21, What is a little geography, to faith?

Luke 1:13, per Tyndale: “Feare not Zachary for thy prayer is hearde.”

Luke 19:40 “if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” Have we considered that the problem with US-75 is that people aren’t praising Jesus enough?

John 4:29 “he told me all that I ever did.” There are two kinds of people: those who hate Jesus for exposing their sin, and those for whom Jesus calling them out as a sinner was the greatest day of their life.

Acts 13:9, Paul means “small.” From a great king in his own eyes, like his namesake, to “small Paul,” who accounted his own life as neither valuable nor precious (Acts 20:24), who considered himself the least of the apostles (1 Cor 15:9), who found greatness in the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ (Phil 3:8).

Acts 15:39 “sharp disagreement” is the Greek paroxysmos, which is the noun form of the verb translated “irritable” or “provoked” in 1 Cor 13:5. It literally means “sharpness,” and this was an unloving one between Paul and Barnabas. (Interestingly, it’s the same word “stir up” in Heb 10:24. “Let us consider how we can poke each other into love and good deeds.”)

Acts 16:25 is one of my favorite verses. I might be royally screwing up the Greek, but if I have it right, it could be translated, “But about midnight, Paul and Silas, praying, were continuously hymning God; and continuously listening to them, the prisoners.”

Eph 3:18, What is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ? As high as the heavens are above the earth, and as far as the east is from the west (Ps 103:11-12).

Heb 7:25 cf John 13:1 of Jesus about his disciples: “he loved them [eis telos, to the end/uttermost].” Now in Hebrews, “Consequently, he is able to save [eis pantelos, to all ends/uttermosts] those who draw near…since [pantote, in all whens] he lives to make intercession for them.”

1 John 5:4-5, “overcome” is the same word as “conquer” in Rev 2-3. “For everyone begotten of God conquers the world, and this is the conquest that has conquered the world: our faith.”

Rev 4:8 comp. Rev 17:8. Whereas the Lord God Almighty “was, and is, and is coming” (see LSB footnote), the beast “was, and is not, and is [lit.] about to rise up…and go.”