Paul the Reconciler While Philemon is the recipient of the letter that bears his name, Paul is the author. We know a great deal about Paul, as he is mentioned over 250 times in the Bible, mostly in the book of Acts, but also in the letters that he wrote, as well as once by […]

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Moses Blames the People for His Mistake Not Taking Responsibility for Our Actions Goes Way Back We often shake our heads in dismay over people who refuse to admit when they have done something wrong. Instead they want to blame others. They refuse to take responsibility for their mistakes. This is not a new development. […]

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Peninnah is an unfamiliar Bible character. Hare you ever heard of her? She’s a co-wife with Hannah (the mother of Samuel). Their husband is Elkanah. Having two wives is never a good idea. Conflict ensues. In a tale reminiscent of Jacob and his two wives, Rebecca and Leah, we have the story of Elkanah and […]

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Do Our Meetings Do More Harm Than Good? We Must Examine Our Church Meetings to Make Sure They Are Truly Beneficial In Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, he talks about worshiping God and then he talks about celebrating the Lord’s Supper. In between these two topics he slips in a condemning one-liner. […]

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The Apostle John and the Chosen Lady In John’s second letter he writes to the chosen lady and her kids. Some people assume John is employing an intimate metaphor to reference the church (the chosen lady) and its members (her children). But this interpretation falls apart because the New Testament considers the people as the […]

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God Speaks to the Prophet Amos through a Vision Regardless of How God Speaks to Us, We Should Listen to What He Says The words of the Old Testament prophet Amos appear in the book of the Bible that bears his name. The words come to him in a vision. But the Bible doesn’t tell […]

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Women in the Bible: Jael When Barak and the Israelite army routes Sisera’s army, Sisera escapes and takes refuge with Jael. He seeks her because her clan has a favorable history with his country. Pretending to protect him, Jael takes him in, attends to his needs, and then slays him by bashing in his scull […]

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What is the Error of Balaam? We Will Do Well to Consider Balance Error So We Can Avoid It As mentioned in the book of Jude (Jude 1:11), we’ve covered Cain’s path and Korah’s rebellion. Now we’ll address the error of Balaam. Frankly, I’m perplexed as to what Balaam’s error was. In reading his story […]

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Women in the Bible: The Shuammite Woman Elisha travels to the city of Shunem, and a wealthy woman urges him to stay for a meal. From then on, whenever he’s in the area, he stops by. Realizing he’s a man of God, she makes a room for him to stay when he’s in town. Grateful, […]

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Take a Census and Make a List God Tells Moses to Count the Number of Men for the Army The book of Numbers opens with God telling Moses to take a census of the people. Numbers also ends with a census. These two numberings of the people serve as bookends for this section of Scripture, […]

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Women in the Bible: The Widow’s Oil The widow of one of Elisha’s followers comes to him for help. Her husband left her with an outstanding debt, Since she has no means to pay off the debt, the creditor demands her two sons become his slaves. Elisha asks what resources she has. “Nothing,” she replies, […]

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If God Cares for Every Bird, How Much More Will He Care for Us? God Cares for the Lesser Things of His Creation and We Are So Much More In one of Asaph’s Psalms he exalts God for his power, beauty, and perfection. In doing so Asaph envisions what God might say to his people, […]

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Do You See Jesus? The two disciples walking to Emmaus teach us to open our eyes & see God at work After Jesus is executed and rises from the dead, he appears to two of his followers as they walk down the road, but they don’t recognize him. They don’t see Jesus. Yet he listens […]

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We Must Listen to God and Do What He Says God Promises Rewards for Obedience and Punishment for Disobedience As we read through the book of Leviticus, which is a struggle for most of us, we read instruction after instruction of what God expects from his people. With precise detail, his commands come forth one […]

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A Criminal Makes a Deathbed Confession Don’t Put Off Following Jesus While we shouldn’t wait to follow Jesus, it’s nice to know that he’ll give us up to the last minute to make a decision In Luke’s biography of Jesus, the author sometimes shares details not found in the Bible’s other three accounts of Jesus’s […]

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We Must Speak Up for the Accused Remaining Silent Is Not an Option The book of Leviticus in the Bible gives us a lot of instructions about things to do and to not do. It’s a challenging read and many readers skip it. Yet there are bits of truth scattered throughout it that are relevant […]

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Pray and Do Not Give Up Jesus teaches us to keep praying and to not stop until we get an answer Jesus gives us an object lesson (a parable) of a widow who keeps appearing before a judge to seek justice. A bad adjudicator, he cares nothing of her, of public opinion, or of God, […]

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Where Should We Go For Jesus? Where Is Our Mission Field? Sometimes we may need to go far away for Jesus and other times we may need to go home Before Jesus returns to heaven, he tells his followers to go throughout the world and let others know about him (Matthew 28:19). Does that mean […]

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The Bible Personifies Wisdom What the Bible Teaches About Wisdom May Shock Us The book of Proverbs talks a lot about wisdom. The word pops up in fifty-five versus in this thirty-one-chapter book. That’s a lot of wisdom. This may be the reason why many think of Proverbs as a book of wisdom. As Solomon […]

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Know the Bible: Is Studying and Memorizing the Bible Important? When Satan Tempts Jesus, Jesus Responds by Quoting Scripture Satan was unsuccessful in preventing Jesus’s birth and he was unsuccessful in causing Jesus to die prematurely before he could start his mission. For the enemy’s next ploy to thwart God’s plan to reconcile us to […]

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