Carefully Consider What You Ask of God Each Day When You Pray When Jesus’s disciples asked him to teach them how the pray, he gave them a prayer (Luke 11:1-4). Though many people recite this prayer exactly as the Bible records it (also see Matthew 6:9-13), a better approach is to use this prayer—often called […]
The Source of Life, Truth, and the Way to Father God Is Through Jesus The disciple Thomas wants to go where Jesus will go but doesn’t know how to proceed. He seeks clarification. Jesus gives him a five part answer, which another disciple John records for us. Jesus says, “I am the way and the […]
3 Illustrations of the Trinity A commonality among most who call themselves Christian is the understanding of God as Trinity—the Holy Trinity— that is, a singular entity existing as three persons: Father, Son (Jesus), and Spirit. That is confusing, but recall that Jesus said, “I and my Father are one,” (John 10:30). Two common illustrations […]
Our Savior Came to Heal and to Save After giving us four chapters of historical narrative, Isaiah shifts back to more prophecy. His future-focused look tells us about Jesus and justice. Though Jesus is God’s Son, as our Savior—the Messiah—he is also God’s servant, who will come to earth in service of Father God to […]
Characteristics of God In the Bible, Jesus makes several declarations of who he is and his character. In the book of John alone, he says: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). “I am the […]
Don’t Drink Blood versus Drink My Blood Among the many “laws” (that is, rules and regulations for right behavior), that God—through Moses—gave the nation of Israel was an unconditional prohibition against drinking blood. Every Hebrew would have been taught this from early childhood. Breaking this law would have been unthinkable to them, a repulsive act to […]
We Can Believe That God Hears and Answers Our Requests When you pray do you think God hears you? Does he answer your prayers? All of them? The Bible says so. Consider what Scripture teaches. God Hears Our Prayers First, we can have assurance that God does indeed hear our prayers. John writes that we […]
Jesus Shocks His Audience Jesus said many things that surprised and even shocked his followers. One of his more appalling statements was that we needed to eat his body and drink his blood. That’s a hard thing to swallow—literally and figuratively. Gross. He asserted that those who ate his body and drank his blood would […]
Many People Like an Easy Jesus, But Not Everyone Accepts What He Says Jesus normally teaches the masses in parables. Though most don’t really understand what he means, they like his stories because they’re so countercultural. Inaddition, he sometimes gives them food and heals them. He’s a cool speaker who does nice things for them. […]
Though God Doesn’t Change, but the Way He Relates to Us Has We divide the Bible in two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament focuses on the relationship of Father God to his people and looks forward to the coming Savior. The New Testament centers on Jesus and the work […]