By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five colonnades. Within these lay a multitude of the sick—blind, lame, and paralyzed [—waiting for the moving of the water, because an angel would go down into the pool from time to time and stir up the water. Then the first one who got […]
Late in the day, the Twelve approached and said to Him, “Send the crowd away, so they can go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find food and lodging, because we are in a deserted place here.” “You give them something to eat,” He told them. (Luke 9:12-13 Holman Christian Standard Bible® ©) How, in your mind, were the […]
Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the actual form of those realities, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, once purified, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in the […]
My dearly loved brothers, understand this: everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for man’s anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and evil excess, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save you. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. […]
In what we call Paul’s second letter to the congregations in Corinth, there is a section in which he was declaring his credentials as an apostle to them (10:12 – 12:13). There, he mentioned a thorn in his flesh, which he described as an angel, or messenger, from satan. It was given to him to prevent him from becoming proud […]
When you enter any facility where secrets or other valuables are stored, you are required to identify yourself in a manner that convinces any guards on hand that you should be allowed. It may be a badge, or having the proper fingerprint or retina blood vessel pattern, or a password. Similar identification can be used to prevent unauthorized entry even […]
Business means both an enterprise that intends to create income and simply “being busy.” In Luke 19:11-27, Jesus told the people who were going with Him to Zacchaeus’ home a parable about His Kingdom. In the story, a man went away to be crowned as a King. Before he left, he gave ten of his servants ten minas each. That […]
One more reason you don’t want to have to submit yourself to the laws Yahweh gave Israel to make them a nation is in Deuteronomy 23:12-14. Remember – the deal Yahweh offered with that law was all of it or none of it… Live by it or die by it. Listening to and obeying the King by learning to hear […]
If you piled up all of the songs in American hymnbooks, almost half of them are about going to Heaven when we die. Probably another third of them are about having been comforted in our difficulties. Then Christmas carols and easter songs, then a few that just praise Him in His glory and His perfect character. Most of it is […]
We are people of faith. I don’t mean that in a cliche way. I mean that our Creator made us so that faith is always at work in us. This design becomes a problem for us when our faith is in our enemies’ strengths instead of our God’s. The description of our weaponry Paul wrote in a letter to the […]