Sometimes little words can carry big distinctions. Both words are only a few letters long, and they even share a common letter, but there is a world of difference between my wife and your wife! Confuse the two at your own risk. Little differences like this become even more important when we attempt to study God's word.…
We naturally tend to think of our life as a story; we especially do this as Christians, because the Bible tells us that Jesus is "the author of eternal salvation" (Heb5:9). When we examine our life, we can find assurance by "looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy…
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. ~Proverbs 23:7 I really enjoy reading the Bible in different languages because it often gives me a new perspective on familiar passages. Some time ago I was reading the book of Psalms from my Greek Old Testament (LXX) and I noticed a connection between Psalm…
Almost without fail, our Trinitarian friends will use plural pronouns in the Bible to argue that God is a Trinity. The stereotypical example is Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in our image;" but as we have already discussed in another post, this verse in no way proves a Trinity. My question for our Trinitarian…
When we read the book of Esther we usually focus on Mordecai, the King, Haman, and queen Esther herself. But rarely do we take the time to pay attention to the king's servants---the men in the background who are actually integral to the story. Focusing on the king's men in the book of Esther can…
In Judges 3 Israel was once again committing idolatry and worshiping false gods, just as they had done so many times before. To judge Israel for their sin, "the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord" (Judges 3:12). Moab allied itself with…
Ever since Resurrection Sunday I have been thinking about the crucifixion. Here are a few thoughts I have been meditating on lately. When we look at the cross we see an intersection between the vertical and horizontal: the beams are not in-line with one another, but they are perpendicular. So many things about the cross run…
Judas's role in the crucifixion of Jesus has always fascinated me. What could have compelled him to betray the Lord? The Bible tells us that the devil entered into his heart; and that must have been the case. How else could someone live so close to Jesus---hear him preach, see him heal, eat from the…
As I was reading the last chapter of John a few months ago, God began to show me how poetically the gospel of John ends. The details weave together perfectly to give the reader a beautiful crescendo of faith. John tells us that faith/belief is the reason that he wrote his gospel: "that ye might…
This post was accidentally posted several days ago because of a glitch in our post scheduling system...and we weren't even done writing it yet! We are sorry for this accident. Here is the full post. The Hebrew name Judah means "praise." Because of this, Biblical episodes involving the patriarch Judah, or the tribe of Judah,…
Lectionary 