Snapshots and Synapses

  " Nevertheless, each one of you must also love [ agape ] his own wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect [ phobeo ] her husband ."  Ephesians 5:33 It is not our nature to live in the way this verse describes. The Greek words describe a sacrificial and intentional love for wives as well as a reverent and fearful respect that defers to the authority of husbands.  But we are naturally selfish and rebellious. We can often rightly point out that our wives and children don't treat us with respect. As men we need to feel respected, admired, within our homes, even more than our need to feel loved. Nonetheless, we are called to lead our households. We can be good leaders or bad leaders, but either way we are leaders of our families.  So turning our thoughts away from how our needs as men are often not met, consider this:  ~ Are you living a life that is worthy of respect?  ~ Do you understand who you are called to be by God as the leader of ...

“Although a righteous person may fall seven times, he gets up again, but the wicked will be brought down by calamity.” Proverbs 24:16 What does this proverb mean?  Is it God’s promise to the righteous?  An encouragement to persevere against life’s trials?  A reminder that we are saved by grace and can get up whenever we sin?  I believe it’s all of the above.  Has life knocked you down?  Have you fallen into bad habits?  Have you stumbled in your spiritual walk?  Are you tired of doing the right thing, thinking “nice guys finish last”? Get up again.   copyright ©2024 Mitchell Malloy (http://mitchellmalloyblogspot.com/)

Death passes over Resurrection life revealed Future Hosanna One of my favorite story-tellers is also one of my lease favorite poets: J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord Of the Rings (LOTR) trilogy. As I understand it, Tolkien longed to be a poet, but when I read the LOTR years ago, I learned to skim over the stanzas of embedded poetry, wishing the author had only written in prose. Yet here I am writing a haiku to summarize the poetry of Passover Palm Sunday. Today is that day. April 13, 2025 is both Passover and Palm Sunday, and to some small degree I can appreciate the artistry of the Ultimate Poet, Who is Sovereign and for Whom nothing is merely coincidental. The Author of our lives has carefully chosen each of us to live at this time in history, and He reminds us that the feast days of Hebrew Scriptures shall be the feast days of Jesus’ Millennial reign.   You see, Passover is a celebration of Yahweh’s protection for God’s people in Egypt; the blood of a lamb caused the Angel of ...

A summary of Ecclesiastes, written by King Solomon, the wisest man of all time, reflecting upon man, the world and life’s meaning.   What benefit do people get from all the effort which they exert on earth? Of all that has ever been accomplished, what has been truly worthwhile? So I decided to look at all options and discern for myself what was worth pursuing in life, in the limited years man has on this world.  Should I seek wisdom and knowledge? Should I pursue self-indulgent pleasure or material wealth?  I realize that wisdom is preferable to folly, but just as one dead fly in perfume ointment gives off of a rancid stench, so a little folly can outweigh much wisdom. I have come to understand that pursuing carnal pleasure or possessions is ultimately folly.  If an iron ax head is blunt, and a workman does not sharpen its edge. He must exert a great deal of effort; so wisdom has the advantage of giving success. For wisdom provides protection, just as money provides ...

So as to not be too heady as well as lay the groundwork for this particular blog, what does dichotomy mean? According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, dichotomy is: a division into two especially mutually exclusive or contradictory groups or entities [e.g.] the dichotomy between theory and practice also : the process or practice of making such a division [e.g.] dichotomy of the population into two opposed classes So “dichotomy” is simply a division within one thing, most often in the sense of polar opposites.  And what is “being”? As a verb, it’s just the act of existing while when used as a noun it a living thing. You and I are beings, and we are both currently acting out our existence. So the rather intimidating title “The Dichotomy of Being” is simply two contradictory beings in one entity. Now again, I don’t want to get too deep, but words are important and I couldn’t find a word I liked better than “dichotomy” to describe what our existence is like because as believers we are...