How often do we settle for just 'good enough'? It's easy to become complacent, especially with regard to specific sins that may be difficult to overcome. Following Jesus closely doesn't leave room for us to settle for less than His best... we need to train ourselves to be godly.
Dr. Doug Groothuis offers some help in choosing a quality study Bible.
This is one of the underlying themes throughout all of Scripture: despite our own unfaithfulness, God remains faithful. An appropriate response to God's unending grace and generosity is wonder. Peterson contrasts Jesus' words (why hast thou forsaken me?) with our own: why hast thou accepted me?
Entropy is the principle that, in a closed system, disorder increases over time. Without intervention from an outside organizing force, maximum disorder will result. If our universe, or the earth itself, is a closed system, this implies that the universe is not eternal... that it must have been created by an outside force.
Christians are often encouraged to share what Jesus has done for them. That's a good thing to do. Unfortunately, personal testimonies may be entirely unconvincing. Depending on the situation, it may be more effective to share the evidence that Christianity is actually true.
Jerusalem is under siege by the Babylonians and Jeremiah is imprisoned by King Zedekiah yet, according to God's instructions, he buys land from a relative. This suggested a hopeful future for Israel (and may have symbolized the redemption offered by Jesus).
The Bible speaks of imitation: imitating Christ, imitating Paul as he imitates Christ, and - by implication - imitating the life and faith of those who have gone before us. Read about imitation, and the dangers to be avoided.
Dr. Ben Witherington is the guest for this episode of the Naked Bible Podcast. Author of more than sixty books, he is one of the best-known and most well-respected biblical scholars in the world. Topics include his recent book Who God Is: Meditations on the Character of Our God, his blogging ministry, and his fiction works.
Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica about a man he called 'the lawless one.' Who was he? What do we know about him, and what does this teach us about spiritual counterfeits?
In Leviticus 16 we read of the scapegoat ritual, where the sins of the people are transferred onto an animal and it is sent away. The biblical ritual has parallels in ancient Eblaite, Hittite, Ugaritic, and Neo-Assyrian rituals and include bulls, mice, frogs, and more.
Too often, the Holy Spirit is all but ignored by modern Christians. The Father and the Son seem to get all of our attention, but the Spirit isn't a spiritual afterthought. What is His role in the life of a follower of Jesus?
Michael J. Kruger points to the underlying truth of biblical eschatology: that evil exists, and that it is a problem that God will ultimately solve. We believe that good things will happen but, better, that sad things will become untrue.
