Before His arrest and crucifixion, Jesus prays: “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:11). The Gospels are clear that the name given to Mary’s child was “Jesus”—and that is not God’s name. The i

It is not wrong to know about cancer. Ignorance is not a virtue. But the lure to know more and more and the lack of zeal to know God more and more is symptomatic of unbelief. Cancer is meant to waken us to the reality of God. It is meant to put feeling and force behind the command, "Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD" (Hosea 6:3). It is

1. Hell is fun, Heaven is boring."Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company." Mark TwainYou get this a lot in popular advertising. You know the scene—people in white with wings looking a bit bored — while those from the other place get to enjoy chocolate, or ice cream or are sipping cocktails on the beach.  This portrayal of heaven as some

In some ways, archaeology also bears witness to Peter’s effectiveness. Letters discovered from Pliny the Younger to Emperor Trajan discuss suppressing a strong Christian community in northern Asia Minor. Peter’s letters were written to this region. In many ways, he was the “rock” of the religion that later became a threat to the emperor.Though we l

There are many mistaken views of faith. One links faith to credulity. This is the view that faith is belief without evidence. But God provides evidence, and He does so overwhelmingly. In Abraham's case the evidence was an appearance of God so striking that it got the patriarch and all his family and possessions moving out of their homeland into a l

The gap is so extreme in our world that we have to take lightly passages such as Luke 12:33: “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.” How else can I walk out of a mud shack and back into my 2,000-square-foot house without doing anything? The concept of downsizing so that others might upgrade is biblical, beautiful…and nearly unheard of. We eit

1. Lamentations 3:22-24“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘“The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him’” (Lamentations 3:22-24). Here we see the beauty of a new day. A new morning. New mercies awaiting us. We see t

Themes of RomansThe letter to the Romans covers several universal themes:Our Need for Salvation. Romans affirms that people of all times and nations are sinners and are in need of salvation.God’s Grace and Our Faith. It also points to the fact that neither the law of Moses nor any work by humans has ever been, nor can ever be, the means of salvatio

1. FearPride is at the root of fear and anxiety, when we refuse to humbly rest in God’s sovereign care. Fear simultaneously reveals our lack of trust and our poisonous self-reliance. We fear because we don’t have faith in the Lord, we are enormously preoccupied with ourselves, and we don’t have control.When Peter stepped out on the stormy sea to co

2 Matthew 8:29; 25:41.3 Numbers 13:16.4 The Greek word used for people in 1:21 is laos, which was used to refer specifically to the People of God.5 Galatians 3:14.6 Matthew 18:8; 25:41; Mark 9:43, 48.7 Matthew 10:34-35. The final prophecies in the Old Testament particularly focused on this aspect of the Messiah's great mission; see Malachi 3:1-4; 3

1. Great Samuel’s GhostWhat happened? King Saul, that ignoble king of Israel, had lost his kingdom by disobeying God. Soon, he would lose his life, too, as revealed by a very unusual source.Moment of terror? Saul asks a witch at Endor to raise the spirit of Samuel the prophet. After some coaxing, she obliges…Then the woman asked, “Whom shall I brin

“I believe the answer is yes.”Not just from my experiences, but also from others who have reported similar incidents. We are told about the thin veil between heaven and earth, and scripture bears witness to the possibility of movement from one to the other.In the Old Testament, we read the story of King Saul, who asked to speak to the prophet Samue

Take, for instance, the great words of Psalm 121, which begins: "I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth" (vv. 1-2). As we continue the psalm, we see that most of the help God gives us comes in the form of "keeping," the very same word used of Adam's calling in Genesis 2:1

3. You must be sent with sufficient power to accomplish the mission.See how perfectly Christ fits this description. He was sent by the Father in heaven. He was sent to be the Savior of the world. He was sent with all the prerogatives of deity clothed in human flesh. We all know of grand human projects that never came to fruition. Sometimes there is

Ecclesiastes 2:18–21I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is absurd. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all

These ways of studying the Scripture will not result in life transformation. Why? Because they’re missing something. Better put, they’re missing Someone. Bible study alone is not what transforms your life. Jesus transforms your life. Of course, He does this through His written Word to us. So we must affirm that life change doesn’t

Some of you may be objecting to all of this saying , "But I am not Jesus." That is true. We certainly are not Jesus. Yet, the infinite difference between Jesus and us does not excuse us from doing what He said. He told us to do what He did. "That's fine," you may say," I will do what He did. I will do the humble task. I will vacuum the churc

Mary teaches us that in order to be willing to accept God's plan for our lives, we must know him, believe in him, seek him and trust in him. It's a journey that during which through time, as we are obedient with the small things, he will give us more. Where do you think Mary was in her relationship to God to be chosen to be the mother of Jesus?We f

In Jonah 3:7, there is a pun: “By the decree (, mita‘am) of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste (, yit‘amu) anything” (ESV). The word (ta‘am) has two unrelated meanings: The first, more common, meaning is “to taste” (as a verb) or “flavor” (as a noun). For example, Jonathan tasted (ta‘am) a little honey with t

A Word from Another WorldWhat is the source of your power in preaching? What is the object? What is the controlling motivation in not only your preaching, but in your living? These are questions with which I rarely wrestle. I am usually too busy in the ministry to think about the ministry. Therein, of course, lies the danger. I can get it wrong.I o