Perrydox.com is devoted to the pursuit of truth, whether plain or paradoxical, whether simple or sublime, or simply absurd yet absolute.
PHall | March 27, 2014
Everyone knows someone with cancer. Hearing the word “cancer” makes us fear the worst. Survival rates vary from the almost hopeless (pancreatic, 6%) to the almost guaranteed (prostate, 99%). Very possibly, many died undiagnosed in darker times, simply wasting away. Modern medicine is making amazing progress. Cancer no longer is an automatic death sentence. Hezekiah […]
PHall | March 22, 2014
Incentives or motivation for righteousness in the OT was very personal, even “base” by New Covenant standards. And yet, sometimes what sin “costs” us can and should be motivating; it can cost us relationships, self-respect, all more important than money, and yet…. Imagine the personal financial cost of offering sacrifices in bygone years. You sinned, […]
PHall | March 19, 2014
Prayer is humbling. If it isn’t, we aren’t doing it right. After giving up on his own false solutions and defenses, Hezekiah turns to God in prayer. First, he asks Isaiah to pray (2 Kings 19.1-4). Isaiah responds with God’s answer of salvation (19.5-6). Then Hezekiah kneels before God Himself and prays (19.14-19). God’s answer […]
PHall | March 13, 2014
Augustine advised, “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” A Chimney Corner Scripture advises, “God helps those who help themselves.” After good and bad works, after praising God, plundering the temple, paying off Sennacherib, seeking an alliance with Egypt, rebuilding the wall, building a water tunnel, asking Isaiah […]
PHall | March 6, 2014
How amazing is God’s love? How many friends would we have lost; how many jobs would we have been fired from; how many people would have slapped or punched us; how many times would our spouse have been angry with us…if anyone and everyone could read our minds and know all our thoughts? And yet […]
PHall | March 6, 2014
Pinocchio is a beloved story, at least Disney’s version. I doubt many are familiar with the original; Pinocchio kills the nagging cricket with a hammer. Why do we love Disney’s version? It’s a tale of redemption. It is a whale of a tale. Wood I lie to you! Like that fictional morality tale, Jerusalem’s Deliverance […]
PHall | March 5, 2014
Both were warned of defeat (1 Kgs. 22:17; 2 Chon.35:21) Both ignored the warning (1 Kgs.22:29; 2 Chron.35:22) Both disguised themselves in battle (1 Kgs.22:30; 2 Chron.35:22) Both shot with a random arrow (1 Kgs.22:34; 2 Chron.35:23) Both asked to be taken away from the battle (1 Kgs.22:34; 2 Chron.35:23) Both died after the battle […]
PHall | March 2, 2014
In Hezekiah’s restoration movement, it is interesting and instructive to note that 2 Chronicles focuses on the outward aspects of Yahweh’s worship (what some call “religion”), while the book of Isaiah focuses on the inward (what some call “spirituality”). God’s word without our hearts is not worship. Our hearts without God’s word is not worship. […]
PHall | February 24, 2014
“The primary sense is that the burnt offering goes up as smoke. From a theological perspective, one may say that the act of burning is more concerned with transformation than incineration….What has been placed on the altar is literally an animal. The ritual has transformed the animal into something else – smoke – and this […]
PHall | February 22, 2014
Fear is often described as a fear of the unknown, a fear of the future, thereby finding comfort in the present and in inaction. I wonder though if when it comes to serving God and other areas, it is the exact opposite. We fear the present, not even looking to the future, and find no […]