Two Reactions to Miracles The people of the nearby town who are told of this miracle have two ways to respond to the work of Jesus: First, in awe of Jesus’s power and authority, they could turn to him and follow him. Second, out of fear of the unknown and the uncomfortable, they could reject […]
The Church in Thyatira: Sexual Immorality Today’s passage: Revelation 2:18–29 Focus verse: “By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” (Revelation 2:20) We hear of the city of Thyatira once in the book of Acts. It’s the home of Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, […]
If We’re to Influence the World, We Can’t Let the World Influence Us I’ve written a lot about personal influence, but not so much about church influence. As followers of Jesus, we should seek to influence others, to have a positive impact on them. This means we must seek positive influences for our lives and […]
As we already noted, Enoch (1) is a descendant of Cain, whereas Enoch (2) is a descendant of Seth. To give us some historical perspective, here are the world’s first nine generations, from Adam to Noah: As we can see, Enoch is the great-grandfather of Noah, as well as six generations removed from Adam. Scripture […]
Elisha travels to the city of Shunem, and a wealthy woman urges him to stay for a meal. From then on, whenever he’s in the area, he stops by. Realizing he’s a man of God, she makes a room for him to stay when he’s in town. Grateful, Elisha wants to do something nice for […]
In Nehemiah and the Wall, we saw Nehemiah’s great leadership at work, stirring up a passive and floundering people to act, quickly accomplishing what had long been languishing. He also ushered in numerous reforms and ignited a spiritual revival. Yet he lacked one thing. He did not train a replacement. After leading his people for 12 […]
The Church in Pergamum: Repent Today’s passage: Revelation 2:12–17 Focus verse: “Nevertheless, I have a few things against you.” (Revelation 2:14) As with the church in Smyrna, the Bible tells us nothing more about the church in Pergamum. But like the church in Ephesus, Jesus’s message to them offers both affirmation and correction. Despite living […]
As Followers of Jesus, We Are All Priests The priesthood of believers says that as followers of Jesus we are all priests—every one of us. It’s time we start acting like it. Let’s discover what this means. Though the Bible never mentions the phrase priesthood of believers, we find the idea of us all being […]
Series Rebranded to Provide Consistent Look With the recent publication of More Old Testament Sinners and Saints and Heroes and Heavies of the Apocrypha, covers for the first three books of the series have been updated to match. The cover rebranding provides for a consistent visual look across the Bible Character Sketches series. This allows […]
The Bible tells us that Adam has many sons and daughters, but it only lists three sons by name. They are Cain, Abel, and Seth. Most people know about Cain and Abel, with Cain killing Abel out of jealousy. He then flees his family to live in the land of Nod. As a result, Adam […]