Kingdom of Heaven versus Kingdom of God The phrase “the Kingdom of God” is synonymous with “the Kingdom of Heaven.” Some writers in the Bible simply prefer one over the other; it is not meant to designate two different concepts or kingdoms. (Mark and Luke used “Kingdom of God,” whereas Matthew used “Kingdom of heaven.”) […]
Eternal Life Begins Today (Not When We Die) Jesus often talks about the kingdom of God (the kingdom of heaven). He talks about how close the kingdom of God is, saying that it’s near and even that it’s here. How do we understand this immediacy of the kingdom of God in our life today? Is […]
Discover Four Key Things Scripture Says about the Word of God The phrase “Word of God” appears forty-five times in the Bible, mostly in the New Testament. The book of Acts leads the way with eleven occurrences, followed by Revelation with six. But what does the Word of God mean? 1. The Bible Ask people […]
A Large Catch There’s a story in the Bible of Jesus instructing some fishermen to try fishing from the other side of the boat. Imagine that, a carpenter giving fishing lessons to commercial fishermen. The amazing thing is once they moved to the other side, they caught a boatload of fish. It was as if […]
Aligning Ourselves with Like-Minded People Results in Isolation and Division An issue in the corporate world is business silos. This is where a department or unit puts up walls that separate them from the rest of the company. The leaders of these silos of information and function do so to maintain control and assure them […]
Too Many People Fail to See God at Work and Instead Oppose Those Who Follow Him into His New Ways Jesus warns his followers what awaits them. First, they’ll get kicked out of their church and then people will kill them. Their opponents will do so in the name of religion, thinking they’re acting in […]
Align with Other Believers to Build Ourselves Up and Serve Others In my post about spiritual mastermind groups I talked about the benefit of aligning ourselves with other like-minded followers of Jesus to walk with on our spiritual journey. Now I’d like to look at the word cohort and apply that too. Let’s call this […]
We Must Exercise Care with the Labels We Use for Our Spiritual Leaders Rabbi is a title I expected to find scattered throughout the Old Testament. It seems like a very Old Testament word. It’s not. It’s a New Testament word. Rabbi only appears in the Gospels and then just three of them: Matthew, Mark, […]
Blaming Others for Our Mistakes Comes from Our Sin Nature Jeremiah prophesies judgment against the people in Jerusalem for their idolatry. God has had enough, and he will punish them for turning from him and pursuing other gods. Specifically, many women are burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out their drink offerings […]
How We Read Scripture Influences Our View of God and Our Relationship with Him In a prior post I said that not all Scripture is the same. I placed the books of the Bible into eight groups. This formed a hierarchy of importance, starting with the Gospels. Though this is a most helpful guide in […]