That is, is it understandable to us why God would send His only begotten Son to earth? The answer to the question is, Yes. When you think about it, Jesus did two things when He came to earth: He taught, and He died for our sins. His teaching ministry, in turn, (a) elaborated on … [Read more…]
Our church recently distributed this book to its “small group” leaders, and a good friend who’d already read it said this was the best book on evangelism he ever read (he noted in particular its emphasis on the importance of replication). The whole book is online here: [link: https://campusministryunited.com/Documents/MasterPlanOfEvangelism.pdf]. The title contains the theme: “Master … [Read more…]
It’s interesting, is it not, how much of what Jesus says in Scripture was in response to a question or challenge? And it is also interesting how the Bible combines great simplicity with great complexity. For example, what God wants can be boiled down to loving Him and loving our fellow humans, but the extent … [Read more…]
The greatest commandment, said Jesus, is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (see Luke 10:25-28, Mark 12:28-31; see also Matthew 22:35-40 [minus strength]). Well, we should love God then — but how exactly is this done? *** As we unpack the four means with which we are to love God, … [Read more…]
Jesus told us to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and added that this sums up the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12; see also Luke 6:31. So the Golden Rule is important, and the idea of this post is to offer some thoughts on following it. *** It’s … [Read more…]
Jesus is, as you would expect, quoted a lot in the Gospels. But how much is He quoted in the rest of the New Testament? I found the answer to be surprising. If you consider all his letters, Paul quotes Jesus … exactly once (I Corinthians 11:24-25, regarding what Jesus said at the last supper, … [Read more…]
As the one Gentile author in the Bible, Luke alone came from a background in which the very concept of Scripture was, presumably, unfamiliar. Yet, as a new Christian, he was quite aware of the Holy Spirit. So was he conscious of being inspired to write God’s word in Acts even if, beforehand, such writing … [Read more…]
Two random notes from the Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 7:1 is sometimes triumphantly quoted by anti-Christians: “Judge not lest ye be judged.” Along the same lines, so is Jesus’ injunction in John 8:7, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” But the passage in Matthew and the incident of the rescued … [Read more…]
The Old Testament volume here was highly recommended by a very good friend who knows his Bible, and I then discovered that there was a New Testament volume following the same approach, so I checked them both out on interlibrary loan. Good move on my part! I think these would be excellent reference books for … [Read more…]
I’m a lawyer, and this short post makes a few points about how interpreting the Bible is like and unlike what lawyers do. *** Among the major similarities are these: Two major lawyer activities are interpreting texts and making arguments (including counterarguments) about what texts mean. The latter skills, significantly, require you to learn to … [Read more…]