Three times in the Gospels, we are told that the Lord was placed on the same level as other people. We have the first incident at the beginning of the Lord Jesus’ public life when John the Baptist was baptized at the Jordan (Matthew 3:1, 2). People came to him from all over Judea…
An exalted view of God brings a dear view of sin and a realistic view of self. A diminished view of God brings a reduced concern for sin and an inflated view of self. Isaiah may have been satisfied with his personal holiness until he saw the Lord in His unspeakable glory. Isaiah’s encounter with…
In Gideon’s mind, victory over the Midianites was an impossibility, and he was absolutely right! The Midianites, along with their allies, overwhelmed the feeble Hebrews. Yet the moment God told Gideon to fight them, victory was no longer an impossibility! When Jesus commanded His small group of followers to make disciples of all nations, was…
Sin causes us to be self-centered, shifting our hearts from God to self. The essence of salvation is an about-face from self- centeredness to God-centeredness. The Christian must spend a lifetime denying self. Our great temptation will be to affirm ourselves while we follow Jesus. James and John did this when they chose to follow…
Question: Should (believing) women not cut their hair at all, or is cutting it okay as long as it can still be called “long hair”? Answer: Well, one thing is clear: women’s hair should not be cut off (1 Cor. 11:6). In this passage (which is also made clear by the word used in the…
Joses or Joseph from the Book of Acts was an extraordinary brother. Someone who always had the right encouragement at the right moment. Someone who noticed when someone else was sad and needed to be comforted. Someone who had a feeling for worry lines. And someone who then approached that person and comforted them….
There are many scriptures that speak about the way we relate to each other. How do I see my brothers and my sisters? How do I treat them? Paul encourages the believers in Colosse to put something on. It is like a description of a wardrobe containing different clothes that we are supposed…
The Holy Spirit is the divine Person Who descended from heaven on the day of Pentecost after the Lord Jesus had accomplished the work of redemption through His death on the cross and, having been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father ascended to heaven, and sat down at the right hand…
“But fornication and all uncleanness or unbridled lust, let it not be even named among you, as it becomes saints; and filthiness and foolish talking, or jesting, which are not convenient; but rather thanksgiving. For this ye are [well] informed of, knowing that no fornicator, or unclean person, or person of unbridled lust, who is…
An Israelite in the Old Testament was accustomed to repeatedly sacrificing animals to God. As Christians, we no longer do this. We stand on the foundation of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice, to which the Old Testament sacrifices pointed. We have a cleansed conscience, are sanctified and made perfect (cf. Heb. 9:14; 10:10,14) – an immeasurable…
Would you dare to believe that God, who called you to Himself and equipped you with His Spirit, could work mightily through you? Have you made the connection between the time and place in which you live and God’s call upon you? World events never catch God by surprise. He placed you precisely where you…
The town of Nain was about 25 miles from Capernaum, a good day’s journey. In Luke 7:11-17 we see how the Lord Jesus went there, and a large crowd accompanied him. As they approached the town, a large crowd came out of the town; it was a funeral procession. A dead man was being…
Milk or steak: which of these two foods do we give a baby? Obviously, not the steak. It wouldn’t be able to digest it. We certainly know the meaning of the Bible passage from 1 Corinthians 3:1-3: “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as…
The different statements in Romans 4:3 and James 2 have caused many Bible readers a headache as they thought they had encountered a contradiction here. It even led the great reformer Martin Luther to call the book of James a difficult epistle. While James 2:21 uses the example of Abraham to show that a…
On one occasion I was preaching the glad tidings of salvation through the finished work of Christ, when a middle-aged man stood up, and testified before his assembled countrymen to his faith in the power of the Gospel. “I have long sought for the Truth,” said he earnestly, “as my fathers did before me;…
The Law of Moses regulated Nazirites for the Israelites: Women and men could consecrate themselves to God. But they had to give up some things. Could Nazirites still be happy? – Can renunciation of something and joy go together? In Numbers 6, we find the regulations concerning the Nazirites. The term Nazirite is derived from…
How many Bibles are in your home right now? How many of them are read on a daily or even a periodic basis? I read some time ago of a Russian man by the name of Yuri, who for several months came home from work every night to the tedious but important task of hand-copying…
A wealthy landowner had to hire a new coachman. On the day the decision about the new coachman was to be made, several coachmen gathered at the estate. Each coachman was asked the same question: “How safely can you drive me on a narrow mountain path?” The first coachman could drive safely within one meter…
The Greek word for assurance in the New Testament is “plerophoria” – full assurance. It occurs four times: 1 Thessalonians 1:5; Hebrews 6:11; Hebrews 10:22; and Colossians 2:2. Assurance of salvation is the firm and full conviction and knowledge of being saved, eternally secure, and of sins forgiven, once for all; the settled disposition of…
It seems to me that the horse and the mule picture two wrong attitudes we might have when we are seeking the Lord’s guidance. The horse wants to charge ahead; the mule wants to lag behind. The horse tends to be impatient, high-spirited and impetuous. The mule on the other hand is stubborn, intractable and…
