The Four Gospels Each Have a Story of a Woman Who Worships Jesus Each of the four accounts of Jesus’s life—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—give a story about a woman who anoints Jesus with expensive perfume, but the details in each report vary. It may be that this happens on four separate occasions. Or it […]
God Provides the Antidote When We Face Fear We live in a time where there is much to fear. Whether by mandate or out of personal concern, we cower in our homes afraid of what is happening in the world around us. We sequester ourselves and exist with little community to encourage us. Aside from […]
Jesus Died as the Ultimate Sacrifice So That We May Live The Old Testament of the Bible overflows with instructions about offering sacrifices to God and how his people but them into practice. One of those sacrifices served as an annual sacrifice for the sins of the people. The people had to repeat it each […]
Faith Comes from Hearing God’s Message About Jesus and Believing In the book of Isaiah, the prophet asks, “Who has believed God’s message?” Isaiah then goes on to prophetically proclaim what Jesus will do. He will suffer and die for us, sheep that have wandered off. He will take upon himself the punishment for our […]
Distinguishing Between the Many Men in the Bible Named Simon and Simeon When I write a blog post, I never know which one will resonate with people. A perennial favorite—which always surprises me—is 9 guys named Simon in the Bible. The only post is more popular is 4 angels in the Bible with names. And […]
Some People Avoid Persecution and Others Pursue It In my post that listed spiritual disciplines, I explained that spiritual disciplines are an activity we willingly pursue to draw us closer to God or to honor him. After listing seventeen examples of spiritual disciplines, I wondered about four more possibilities. One of those is suffering. Is […]
The purpose of the Bible’s 66 books is to reveal God to us. More specifically, the Bible reveals Jesus to us. The Old Testament anticipates him, while the New Testament celebrates him. This is perhaps best portrayed through The Jesus Bible, which smartly places the focus of the biblical text where it belongs: on Jesus. […]
Biblical Murderers and How They Relate to Us Consider some of the best-known biblical murderers. Cain Kills Abel We’re only four chapters into the Bible when the first murder occurs. Cain kills his brother Abel. The account in the Bible suggests that Cain premeditated his actions. First degree murder. But let’s not view Cain as […]
There’s a story about a military leader, a centurion, who desires Jesus to heal his dying servant. The centurion doesn’t approach Jesus himself, but instead he calls in a favor, asking some Jewish leaders to go on his behalf. If these men are like most of the religious leaders we read about in the Bible, […]
The Holy Spirit Gives Jesus’s Followers Special Abilities In the Bible, Paul talks about spiritual gifts, special abilities given to us by the Holy Spirit. These aren’t for our personal use but for the common good of Jesus’s followers, that is, his church. Some of these supernatural abilities enhance our existing capabilities, while others are […]