Consider This Popular Bible Story in Today’s Context In the book of Mark, there is the story of Jesus sending out his disciples to borrow a donkey for him to ride into Jerusalem. When this request is considered in a modern context, what he asked them to do is even more astounding. It would be […]
Today’s passage: John 20:19–31 Focus verse: Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28) The Bible writes that faith is having confidence in the things we hope for and assurance in what we don’t see (Hebrews 11:1). Today this definition of faith applies to us. We cannot see Jesus, so we must […]
We Glorify God and Serve as the Most Effective Witness When We Get Along I write a lot about the importance of Christian unity. This is because Jesus prayed that we would be one, and I embrace his request and vision as imperative. If we profess to following Jesus, we need to all get along. […]
Today’s passage: John 18:28–40 Focus verse: “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36) Jesus talks often about his kingdom. John, along with Mark and Luke, uses the phrase kingdom of God, while Matthew prefers the kingdom of heaven. The two phrases mean the same thing. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll use kingdom […]
Our Good Shepherd Has More Sheep Than Just Those in Our Pen Jesus talks about a sheep pen with a gate (John 10:1-21). The shepherd goes into the pen through the entrance. He calls his sheep, and they follow him into the pastures. Only a thief would sneak into the pen another way. Yet the […]
An Old Testament Parable Warning about the Perils of Prostitution and Idolatry Ezekiel shares a story about two sisters. It’s an Old Testament parable. And it comes directly from God. The older sister is Oholah, and the younger sister is Oholibah. Oholah is Samaria, the capital of Israel and represents the ten northern tribes. The […]
The phrase son of man occurs in 178 verses in the Bible. Sometimes son is written with an uppercase S and other times with a lowercase s. When used with an uppercase S, the references are to Jesus, as seen in all four gospels (28 times in Matthew; 13 times in Mark; 25 times in […]
Today’s passage: John 16:16–33 Focus verse: “Take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) As Jesus continues his last instructions to his disciples, he talks of his departure, which his disciples will mourn, and the world will celebrate. But as a woman struggles through childbirth, and then rejoices over the birth of her baby, […]
The Creator Rested on the Seventh Day—Maybe We Should Too I’ve written a lot about taking a Sunday Sabbath. My goal is to treat it as a special day, one different from the other six days of my week. I’ve talked about my reasons for doing so, but I’ve seldom mentioned that the impetus for […]
May Our Life Honor God and Be an Example to Others Integrity is largely missing in our world today. It looms as an out-of-date concept. Many even mock it as restrictive, limiting our desire to act however we want. Integrity is an unwavering adherence to moral principles and ethical behavior. It’s being honest. It’s sound […]