Imagine that you are in a room, all by yourself. No one else is there. No one else is supposed to be there. You are in the process of carrying out a rather simple task, …
The Epistle to the Romans #2
The second chapter of Romans begins with a Therefore. Any time you see that in Paul’s letters, you need to pay attention, because it means what follows depends on what has just been said. Paul …
A God Forgotten
What do you do when you cut loose from God? How do you live, what guides your decisions? How can you tell right from wrong? And when you think about it, who consciously cuts loose …
Thanks from the Heart
View PostAn Uneasy Thanksgiving
As I sit down to my Thanksgiving dinner this year, one of the things I am thankful for is that we still have Thanksgiving Day. And I find myself mildly surprised that we still do. …
The Ten Commandments #15
When the last words of the Ten Commandments had rolled down Mount Sinai, and the last echoes had faded away amid the hills and valleys, the people standing at the foot of the mountain were …
The Ten Commandments #14
Of all the Ten Commandments, there’s one that can be called the “Peace of Mind Commandment”, or if you prefer, the “Mental Health Commandment”. It is the Tenth Commandment, “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s …
The Ten Commandments #13
The very foundation of our legal system is truth. If people can come into court, swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and then lie through their teeth, justice …
The Epistle to the Romans #1
Back in the good, old days in the heyday of biblical scholarship (especially those German schools of scholarship) lots and lots of people were doing computer analyses on Paul’s epistles and said, Well, we don’t …
What Do You Want to Believe?
What do you want to believe? You should really give that question some serious thought before you ever look at the evidence in a given case. Because what you want to believe is like a …
The Ten Commandments #12
The last six of the Ten Commandments are said to be summarized by the statement You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And that’s well enough, but I want to take another look at them …
The Ten Commandments #11
Did God create sexually-transmitted diseases as a trap for man? Is it a kind of punishment to man for having too much fun? Is that the whole idea—that God created man, and then in a …
The Ten Commandments #10
The defendant is 20 years old, but he looks more like 16. He is wearing blue jeans and a sweater and his hair is neatly cut. He looks for all the world like he should …
The Ten Commandments #9
You may have heard of the Ten Commandments. The first four Commandments have to do with man’s relationship with God. The last six Commandments have to do with man’s relationship with man, and the first …
History & Prophecy #8
If we don’t have a good overview of what we’re reading in the Bible, prophecies will undoubtedly seem disjointed. In Isaiah 9:16 we’re told: Those who guide this people mislead them, and those who are …
Love and Law
It is a quirk of human nature that we don’t like to do as we are told. I have heard it said that you can surround a kid with toys, but tell him there is …
The Ten Commandments #8
If you were to take a survey among Christian people you would find that most of them believe in the Ten Commandments. After all, the Ten Commandments are the basis of all morality and the …
The Ten Commandments #7
When you were a kid, did anyone ever make fun of your name? Chances are pretty good they did. Sometimes it was funny. Sometimes it hurt. Of course, it hurts to be made fun of …
The Ten Commandments #6
By the time God finished thundering the First Commandment down from Mount Sinai, I expect most of the people waiting below were shattered. The experience of God, first-hand, was more than they could bear. There …
The Ten Commandments #5
The southern end of the Sinai Peninsula has to be one of the most desolate spots on the globe. Beautiful? Hardly. We’re not talking about the Swiss Alps, here. And when you look at a …
An Uneasy Thanksgiving
As I sit down to my Thanksgiving dinner this year, one of the things I am thankful for is that we still have Thanksgiving Day. And I find myself mildly surprised that we still do. …
Tracks of the Devil
If you were in the forest and were looking for evidence that a particular kind of animal lived in the area, you would look for the unique signs and tracks that would tell you the …
Saving the World
On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has …
The Day of Atonement
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also …
Is There Life After Divorce?
“Let none be faithless to the wife of his youth. For I hate divorce, says the Lord the God of Israel.” Divorce is painful. If you have been through a divorce, you need no one …
Church Music: Blessing or Burden?
Maybe I shouldn’t be so critical of contemporary church music. After all, even Johann Sebastian Bach was reprimanded by his pastor for his “modern music”. Bach was criticized, not because his music was bad, but …
Baptized with Fire
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall …
Passover at Home
View PostThe Body of Christ
The Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for …
An Anxious Faith
And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. Mark 9:24 Jennifer’s husband was going into the hospital on Monday for open heart surgery. …
Trumpets and the Resurrection
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, …
Could Christ Return Tonight?
View PostThe Design
I have to see my eye doctor three times a year, and I am always left waiting in his examination room. The walls there are covered with pictures and diagrams of the human eye. I …
If Not Christmas, What?
Jesus was not born on December 25. On the evening of Jesus’ birth, there were shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. Shepherds, they tell us, would not have been …
Governing Sheep
What is the shape of a flock of sheep? This probably belongs on a list of the world’s most meaningless questions, for a flock of sheep has no shape. It is a collection of living …
Basic Christianity: The Opening Gambit
The Christian faith must seem downright confusing to an onlooker. Even the largest, seemingly the most monolithic Christian denominations are, in reality, composed of many factions. Unless you are an insider, you can remain unaware …
Why Do You Believe What You Believe?
Where did you get your beliefs? Can you remember your first ideas about God, or how old you were when you first became aware of the existence of God? Maybe you remember praying as a …
Second and Third Tithes
View PostA Funeral Service for Anyone
When we are young, we are a little unsure about funerals. We don’t like to think about death and we are uncomfortable being around people who are grieving. We don’t know how to feel, and …
A Second Chance?
“There are two kinds of people in the world,” intoned the preacher, “the saved and the lost. There is no middle ground with God.” Now there is a sobering thought. If indeed there are only …
Introduction to the New Testament #1
Imagine that you are in a room, all by yourself. No one else is there. No one else is supposed to be there. You are in the process of carrying out a rather simple task, …
The Epistle to the Romans #2
The second chapter of Romans begins with a Therefore. Any time you see that in Paul’s letters, you need to pay attention, because it means what follows depends on what has just been said. Paul …
A God Forgotten
What do you do when you cut loose from God? How do you live, what guides your decisions? How can you tell right from wrong? And when you think about it, who consciously cuts loose …
Thanks from the Heart
View PostThe Ten Commandments #15
When the last words of the Ten Commandments had rolled down Mount Sinai, and the last echoes had faded away amid the hills and valleys, the people standing at the foot of the mountain were …
The Ten Commandments #14
Of all the Ten Commandments, there’s one that can be called the “Peace of Mind Commandment”, or if you prefer, the “Mental Health Commandment”. It is the Tenth Commandment, “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s …
The Ten Commandments #13
The very foundation of our legal system is truth. If people can come into court, swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and then lie through their teeth, justice …
The Epistle to the Romans #1
Back in the good, old days in the heyday of biblical scholarship (especially those German schools of scholarship) lots and lots of people were doing computer analyses on Paul’s epistles and said, Well, we don’t …
What Do You Want to Believe?
What do you want to believe? You should really give that question some serious thought before you ever look at the evidence in a given case. Because what you want to believe is like a …
The Ten Commandments #12
The last six of the Ten Commandments are said to be summarized by the statement You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And that’s well enough, but I want to take another look at them …
The Ten Commandments #11
Did God create sexually-transmitted diseases as a trap for man? Is it a kind of punishment to man for having too much fun? Is that the whole idea—that God created man, and then in a …
The Ten Commandments #10
The defendant is 20 years old, but he looks more like 16. He is wearing blue jeans and a sweater and his hair is neatly cut. He looks for all the world like he should …
The Ten Commandments #9
You may have heard of the Ten Commandments. The first four Commandments have to do with man’s relationship with God. The last six Commandments have to do with man’s relationship with man, and the first …
History & Prophecy #8
If we don’t have a good overview of what we’re reading in the Bible, prophecies will undoubtedly seem disjointed. In Isaiah 9:16 we’re told: Those who guide this people mislead them, and those who are …
Love and Law
It is a quirk of human nature that we don’t like to do as we are told. I have heard it said that you can surround a kid with toys, but tell him there is …
The Ten Commandments #8
If you were to take a survey among Christian people you would find that most of them believe in the Ten Commandments. After all, the Ten Commandments are the basis of all morality and the …
The Ten Commandments #7
When you were a kid, did anyone ever make fun of your name? Chances are pretty good they did. Sometimes it was funny. Sometimes it hurt. Of course, it hurts to be made fun of …
The Ten Commandments #6
By the time God finished thundering the First Commandment down from Mount Sinai, I expect most of the people waiting below were shattered. The experience of God, first-hand, was more than they could bear. There …
The Ten Commandments #5
The southern end of the Sinai Peninsula has to be one of the most desolate spots on the globe. Beautiful? Hardly. We’re not talking about the Swiss Alps, here. And when you look at a …
History & Prophecy #7
All too often, Bible prophecy is misconstrued or misappropriated. The Apostle Paul told us in 1 Corinthians that prophecies can fail: Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are …