Christians disagree about whether it is right to celebrate Christmas, and the reasons are usually serious ones: concerns about tradition, possible pagan associations, and the fear that cultural noise can drown out real worship. Others see it as a useful time to...
Exodus opens with a hard turn: the family of Israel that was protected in Egypt under Joseph becomes a people threatened in Egypt under Pharaoh. One sentence in Exodus 1:8 explains the human reason for the change, and it also sets up the way God will show His name,...
Meekness is one of those Bible words that gets flattened in everyday talk. Folks hear meek and think weak, timid, easy to run over. But when Jesus says the meek are blessed in Matthew 5:5, He is not praising spinelessness. He is describing a kind of strength that...
Daniel 9 gives us one of those places where the Bible forces us to deal with real history, real rulers, and a real timetable from God. Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks in Daniel 9:24-27 ties Daniel’s burden for Jerusalem to God’s plan to deal with sin, bring...
Oil and lamps show up again and again in the Bible because God uses everyday things to teach spiritual truth. If you follow the trail from the tabernacle to Israel’s kings to the teaching of Jesus, you start seeing one steady message: God sets people apart for...
When Jesus called working fishermen to follow Him, He was not handing them a new religious hobby. He was taking over their lives with a new purpose. In one short sentence in Matthew 4:19, He tied their everyday work to His rescue mission in the world, and He...
The shepherd picture in the Bible is not soft or sentimental. It is practical language God uses to show how He cares for His people and how His people are meant to follow Him. Even early on in Genesis 4:2-4, the first shepherd we meet brings an offering that...
Mountains show up all through the Bible as places where God makes Himself known in a clear, unforgettable way. The ground is ordinary dirt and rock until the Lord chooses to meet somebody there. You see that right away in Moses’ call at Horeb in Exodus 3:1, and...
Elijah steps onto the page like a man sent straight from God, and the Bible does not pause to build his resume. In one verse he confronts a king, challenges a nation’s idols, and announces a judgment that will touch every field and every table in Israel. If you...
Paul shows up in the New Testament as a real man with a real past, and God turns that life around by the gospel of Jesus Christ. When you follow Paul through Acts, you see both the suddenness of his conversion and the long steadiness of his service afterward. One...
