Have you ever noticed that the Old Testament is significantly longer than the New Testament? In fact, counting by books alone, the Old Testament makes up 59% of the Bible. Counting overall content (which counts for book length), the Old Testament...
On Saturday morning your next-door neighbors hear a knock at their door. They greet two neatly dressed people who introduce themselves as Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs). Immediately the JWs begin to tell your friends about “paradise on earth,” wherein...
I mentioned in this post that the Bible compares Jesus and the Church to a married couple. I noted that the points of comparison between the two are deep love and commitment (self-sacrificing love and commitment). This isn’t the only metaphor the...
The Bible calls the church is the “Bride of Christ” (Rev 21:2, 9-10; John 3:29; Mark 2:19). But what are the points of comparison between a husband and wife and the Church and Jesus? First, there is a deep love between the two. This love is self...
Surprisingly, the Kingdom of God isn’t mentioned much these days in the church. It’s surprising because it’s the one thing that Jesus talked about most often. Jesus’s life and ministry were shaped around the concept of the Kingdom of God and...
I wanted to share this excerpt from today’s entry from Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest because it has as direct correlation to what I shared in this post. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. Luke 18:31. Jerusalem stands in the life...
To continue with the theme of calling, I want to point out three things about calling that I believe are essential. First, our calling is not about us. Often times we think that God’s mission in the world is to make people (us) happy. I hate...
A few minutes after the service began, an elderly man entered the rear doors of the small church holding a dog. He quietly slipped into one of the rear pews, hoping to go unnoticed. When the pastor stood to deliver the sermon for the day, he notice...
What is the proper Christian response to terrorism? The Old and New Testament alike can provide for us instruction and counsel in answering that question. Terrorism is not something that is unique to our time in human history. Terrorism is something...
Not long ago I wrote about guarding our minds and hearts by being careful about what we allow ourselves to be exposed to in the world. I said that the same way that we have to be very careful about eating clean food, we likewise have to be very...