Regardless of Circumstances, God Walks With Us In Paul’s second letter to the believers in Corinth, he warns them not to deceive others or distort God’s word (2 Corinthians 4:2). That is, don’t misrepresent God’s character or intent to the world. Yet, this happens. Some people, in their zeal for Jesus, promise those on the […]
Azariah the Son of Oded Azariah, son of Oded, comes to Asa, King of Judah. The prophet tells the king, “If you see God, you’ll find him. If you walk away from him, he’ll walk away from you” (2 Chronicles 15:2). That is, to seek God first. King Asa takes the prophet’s warning seriously and […]
May We Be One in Jesus and Ignore What Could Separate Us We live in a divisive time, with one group opposing another, often in the most zealous of ways, sometimes even with violent outcomes. As a society, we’re quick to put people in a box and label them according to some aspect of their […]
We Are Sanctified in Jesus and by the Holy Spirit I don’t often use the word sanctification, but I should. It sounds too much like a theological construct that someone made up to explain God. Yet it’s in the Bible. So is sanctify. Therefore, it’s worthwhile for us to understand and embrace its meaning. Let’s […]
Living Water Flows from God’s Temple and Is for Our Benefit In the Old Testament, the people perceived that God lived in the temple. They saw this as his residence on earth. To connect with him meant they had to go to the temple. As Ezekiel winds down his lengthy prophecy, the man in his […]
In my prior post, entitled Cannibalism, Holy Communion (aka the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist) was seen as a spiritual invitation to salvation. Communion is a symbolic rite reminding us of Jesus’ sacrificial death for us as the solution for the wrong things we have done. This is all good. However, Paul warns against the abuse of […]
God Does What It Takes to Get People’s Attention God speaks to the prophet Ezekiel and gives him a prophecy against Ammon, against Moab, against Philistia, and against Tyre. The prophecy against Tyre is the longest and most devastating, but all four carry the same rationale. God will inflict them with punishment for their past […]
Discover What the Bible Says about Salvation Paul, in writing to the church in Ephesus, shares a succinct and essential truth about salvation. He tells them how to be saved, which reminds them how they were saved. He writes “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, […]
Don’t Be Merely Human Paul reprimands the church in Corinth for many things. One time he points out that they envy one another and argue a lot. There is jealousy and quarreling in their church. It happened then and it’s still happening now. We want what others have. Although this often relates to money, possessions, […]
Discover What We Can Learn from the Final Words of Jesus We’ve talked about the Bible’s first recorded words of Jesus and his last words before he ascends into heaven. But what people focus on most is what he says as he hangs on the cross, dying in our place for the wrongs we have […]