“Christ died for my sins on the cross.” These words roll off our lips with ease. Did you ever think about what salvation means, and how extensive it really is? I want to introduce four long Bible words that are packed with meaning, and that help us appreciate more powerfully what Christ accomplished when He died on the cross. Most of this material comes from the book, The Cross of Christ, by John R. Stott.
Continue readingIn the Old Testament through Isaiah the prophet, the Lord had given a sign to king Ahaz, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (Matthew 1:23, referencing Isaiah 7:14). Immanuel means “God with us.”
Hundreds of years later, an angel visited Joseph and told him that Mary, his betrothed, “will bear a son, and you shall call his name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Jesus means “God Saves.”
Continue readingTo us who are still loaded down with the cares of life, with its many distractions, with the endless to-do’s driving us with no end in sight, Jesus’ offer still stands: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, NKJV).
Perhaps we cannot come to Him because our goal in life is quite different from “rest.” We want to achieve. We want the best. We need money. We need a friendly face. We have some place we want to be and rest won’t get us there.
Actually, it will.
Continue readingOur new strand begins with Romans 5:10, “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” The life of Christ will offer more than a resumption of the fellowship with God that we lost through sin. It will be the cause for keeping us living the righteous life in faith. More on this later.
Continue readingMany of us at one time or another have scratched our heads over the two verses in Rom. 7:24–25, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! ” From “who will deliver me?” to “I thank God—through Jesus” presents a maddening gap in logic that has frustrated believers who knew the battle Paul faced: “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do” (Rom. 7:15). What exactly was the solution that set Paul free?
Continue readingWhen we consider the men and women of faith in Hebrews 11–Abel and his excellent sacrifice, Enoch who walked with God, Noah who built the ark, Abraham who left for the unknown, elderly Sarah who received strength to bear a child, Moses who passed through the Red Sea–we find it hard to see ourselves walking in their shoes, having a faith like theirs.
Yet this is exactly what God intended with the offering of His Son. The communion they spent with God is ours with Christ. The faith stirred in hearing His voice is the same faith of the word that burns in our hearts today. The direction and calling they received is offered to us by the same Spirit in us who call Jesus Christ our Lord.
Continue readingIn our Bible college class, we were to read Revelation over the course of a week and write up our observations. Here is what I came up with, using the two main headings I was to fill in.
Continue readingI decided to examine the nativity accounts myself to see what the mystery is all about. (Spoiler alert: there’s no mystery; they work together perfectly.) I first made two columns on a sheet of paper and listed the main events of each book’s chapter two, and especially the locations of each event. My goal was to match up the events by similar location. I wanted to see if I could find a literal, historical account.
Continue readingGod created us in His image, after His likeness (Genesis 1:26-27). That image encompasses all of us, our heart, soul, mind, and strength expressing love to the Creator of all. He made us to be image-bearers reflecting His glory to the world wherever we go.
History in ancient times tells us that when the emperors, like the Pharaohs, claimed new territory for their kingdom, they placed statues of themselves there to remind the occupants who their ruler was. Those images represented the ruler’s authority extended to there.
There may come a time when we look at our lives and realize that God was no longer at work. We no longer enjoy the freedom, peace, and power we had with Him.
In the same way in Israel’s history, in the time of Saul, they had departed from God, but the reality did not hit them until the Philistines went to war with them and Israel brought out the ark of the covenant to the battle. Israel lost the battle, and the Philistines captured the ark (1 Samuel 4).
When we do something wrong and we knew better, sometimes it shocks us awake, especially when we could have resisted it before. We approached life as usual, then wham! The sin came out of nowhere and we were surprised. The Jews were surprised because they brought the ark with them, the symbol of God’s presence. But the Lord was not with them.
Continue readingThe elders of Israel asked the prophet Samuel to make a king over them like the other nations have. When Samuel prayed about this, the Lord replied, “they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:7).
Continue readingOur God wants to make Himself known to the world. He had this desire from the very beginning in the garden of Eden when He created the first couple. He made them in His image (Genesis 2:26–27).
He wanted them to be “fruitful,” meaning to flourish with all the God-given abilities, talents, and gifts they were given. To “multiply,” to procreate more godly images of Him. To “fill the earth” with these God-honoring images of Himself (Gen. 2:28 NKJV).
But sin entered in when the couple chose the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil at the instigation of a Satanic serpent (Gen. 3). So their offspring was corrupted with a sinful image, one that no longer looks to God for guidance, but instinctively acts with autonomy, deciding what is good and right for themselves. So all people begin life with this sinful mindset. Meanwhile, God left a promise of a new man who was to come, saying to the serpent, “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15; “bruise” in these two uses can also be rendered “crush”).
Continue readingThe “Our Father” prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 humbles me. The entire prayer is pointing us to see our need for the Lord in everything. The Father is exalted in heaven. We pray for His kingdom to come and replace the sorry mess we’ve made on earth. We pray that His will be done because what we want often doesn’t rise to His level of importance.
We need His daily bread because the world’s fare doesn’t satisfy. We need to face our sins and confess that we’re the problem after all. We need to forgive others and give them another reason to do well next time. The evil one is stronger than us and keeps leading us to temptation and ruin.
God desires that we be like His Son (Rom. 8:29). In the end, this is what salvation looks like, that we live the way He does because we have the relationship with God that He has. Jesus gave us a forceful command that helps us evaluate how we are living our lives and get back on track where we’ve gone off.
He said to His disciples, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33).
Continue readingAs I read America’s Declaration of Independence this morning, I was struck by its many parallels to our times. The Declaration included a list of 27 grievances committed by the British king against the original “united States of America.” For these reasons, the colonies determined to be “Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown” and to live as “Free and Independent States.” (Uppercase and lowercase have been preserved from the original document.)
We have jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire, for the Declaration’s grievances against the king have parallels to problems we face now.
Paul, who devoted his life to earning righteousness through the Mosaic law, found something that was foreign to him: grace. To clarify grace, he later wrote, if it is “by grace, it is no longer of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace” (Romans 11:6 NKJV). Grace is not dependent on us having something to offer as a prerequisite. If we say, “I can’t receive grace because I did not do well,” we have turned grace into a reward. It is no longer biblical grace. Grace (for instance, in the form of God’s help to us) isn’t given based on how well we’ve behaved, good deeds we’ve done, some charitable work we are proud of, or some difficult goal we’ve achieved. If we have received Christ, we are positioned for blessing because grace depends on his finished work, not ours.
Continue readingI read with interest the quotes you had gathered about repentance, addiction, and other subjects to help you grow. They are really good quotes.
I see one glaring problem with your quotes. First, read Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation [deliverance, rescue, or setting free] for everyone who believes…” The glaring omission from your quotes is Jesus Christ. He should be the star on every page of your quotes. V. 16 says so.
Continue readingSome of us may wonder why Christian growth seems to take such a long time, and we wonder if it is happening at all. Jesus addressed this issue in Mark 4. It’s a matter of how well we are hearing and receiving the message the Bible passage is trying to teach us. Frankly, the principles behind Bible learning are the same as learning other things as well.
How well do we listen? Regarding the message of the word, and hearing it, Jesus said, “But these [seeds] are sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred” (Mark 4:20).
When Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord and ate the fruit of the wrong tree, the Lord spelled out the consequences for each of them in Genesis 3:16-19. These curses were not because God was angry or vindictive. It was much worse than that.
After these curses, we learn that Adam called his wife’s name Eve, “because she was the mother of all the living,” v. 20. Yet she was not the mother of all all life, was she? She did not create the animals or creeping things, neither the creatures of the air nor sea.
Continue readingMany words have been inked about the Son of God becoming a human being in the Christmas story. However, I seldom read of one aspect of the story, one important reason that’s left unmentioned, of why Jesus had to be born a human male.
Yes, He came to die for our sins, be buried, and rise from the dead, saving us from the wrath to come and giving us hope. Yes, He came to fulfill prophecy. He came to set up His kingdom. To reveal what God is really like and be our example to follow. To break the power of sin and the devil. To offer salvation by grace through faith for all. All of these blessed reasons are true and not to be taken lightly.
After seeing King Solomon’s riches and hearing his wisdom, the queen of Sheba said to him, “Behold, the half was not told me. You exceed in wisdom and prosperity the report which I heard” (1 Kings 10:7, NASB).
What wonderful words to say when we’ve had our fill of daily bread in the Word of God, “The half was not told me” of my Lord. How wonderful is the wisdom of our Savior and the riches of grace we have in Him.
Continue readingWhile King Solomon stood before the people before the newly dedicated temple, he prayed for several scenarios in which they would need to pray before the temple of God’s presence. “When your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You” (1 Kings 8:33). This scenario of defeat will tell the people they have sinned and they’ll need to confess it to get God’s wisdom and strength for victory again. When they humble themselves and seek the Lord, order will be restored and the Lord will once again lead the way.
Continue readingAt the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem, a house of prayer, Solomon prayed that when a foreigner “comes and prays toward this temple, hear in heaven” and answer their prayers that they “may know Your name and fear You” (1 Kings 8:41-43).
The contrast between the Pharisees of Jesus’ time and the Old Testament times regarding Gentiles is striking. Here, Solomon prays for the Lord to hear the Gentile prayers. And when we look among David’s mighty men in 2 Samuel 23:8-23, we find (possibly) many non-Israelite nationals. Moses married a Moabite woman. Ruth was a foreigner, yet by God’s grace her story put her in the lineage of the Messiah (Matthew 1:5).
Continue readingHow do we tie a war to Israel and the end times? Is the current war related to the end times, and is the antichrist figure about to appear? This article is written with the 2023 war in Gaza uppermost in our minds. The newspaper headlines about war in the Middle East will come and go, but the details in the Word of God will remain faithful to show us the truth.
Let’s turn to Zechariah 12-14, which talks about war with Israel from a unique perspective.
Continue reading. My pain and loss echoes His own pain over our broken love relationship, for my sin separated me from God. I confess to hurting Him.
. I confess that it was my fault and my sin alone that understandably drove Him from me.
. I acknowledge that I still love Him more than my sin.
. I’m sorry for what I’ve done. I feel terrible over how I could chose momentary sin over a life with Him.
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal”
1 Cor. 13:1
If I don’t love the person when I speak to them, such as when using a gift of tongues, prophecy, or teaching, it doesn’t profit me or my hearers. Though I learn various languages, if I don’t really care about the person who’s listening, then it’s all noise and thunder that can’t steer people to Jesus.
Love uses words, but sometimes its actions speaks louder than words. Being patient and kind, seeking the good of another, not embarrassing people, being merciful (1 Cor. 13:4)–these actions are profitable because God is love. God moves through us when we love others. These actions and attitudes point people to the reality of God in your own life. It shows how the Spirit has changed you to be like the person who loves you.
Continue reading“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it” (Mark 8:35).
Jesus has a cool way with words. In this verse, He is looking at “life,” “save,” and “lose” from two different perspectives. In the first part, your life represents the “me first” period before you became a child of God. We want to preserve, or save, everything about this life that we are comfortable with. We love to put ourselves first. When we agree with the world when it tells us that wealth, fame, and indulgence make life enjoyable, then we’ll tend to “save” this life. But if we do, Jesus warns us, we will lose what we cherish, with nothing to gain from it. No rewards accrue in the life to come for this pursuit of self.
Continue readingGod’s names throughout the Scriptures reveal His character and what He stands for. The more we hallow, or respect, His name, the more we will be delivered and be like Him. And how does that happen?
It happens when the sinner discovers that God is a “Savior.” When the estranged find in Him a “Father” to the fatherless. When the anxious learn of the “Prince of Peace.” Then the name is profoundly respected, the person of God is revered, and the heart of the believer is changed by the encounter.
Continue readingWe who are involved in the work of the Lord can fall into the terrible sin of pride. This was not a problem limited to the Pharisees. It is not a religious problem but a human being problem, because hypocrisy appears everywhere people do, not just in religious institutions.
The prideful try to make themselves a cut above, often by elevating themselves above others. The Pharisees prayed in public to gain the admiration of men (Matt. 23:5). They wore larger sleeves (phylacteries) to stand out among their peers. The proud are motivated to promote themselves, to gain recognition, in all that they do.
Continue readingAn increasing number of stores are rejecting cash for digital-only payments. Obviously, this applies to online stores and businesses. The use of credit cards and the rise of Apple Pay and Google Pay in stores and restaurants is slowly working toward the cashless society prophesied in the Bible.
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