In John chapter 3 (part of our Bible reading for this week), some disciples of John the Baptist come to him to report that Jesus is baptizing people — “and all are coming to Him” (verse 26). It was starting to look as though Jesus would make more disciples than John (see John 4:1), and some of John’s followers and friends found it troubling.
But John wasn’t troubled. His mission from God was to prepare the way for the Messiah. “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from…
…the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you — not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience — through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:20-21, NASB).
Once when I referred to this passage to show the role of baptism in God’s plan of salvation, a friend of mine objected. He…
“Speak, Lord, Your Servant Hears”
( 1 Sam. 3:9, 10)
The book of First Samuel begins with the story of Samuel’s birth and youth.
Many of us first heard it in our own young years in Bible class. As told to
children, the story focuses on the child Samuel. We learned how Hannah his
mother grieved over being childless, and how she promised God that, if he gave
her a son, she would give the boy back for God’s service. We learned that Samuel
was turned over to Eli the priest and spent his youth “ministering to the LORD (1
Sam. 3:1).”…
THE CHURCH IN THE NEW TESTAMENT…TODAY
We all agree that the right church is the church that existed in the first century, the church of which Peter, John, James and Paul were members. If we ca find that same church existing in our day, it will still be the right church. How do we know when we find it? We must ascertain its essential identifying features. We then need to search for the church today that has the same features. When… |
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Victimless Sin?
“Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled;
but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” – Hebrews 13:4
In recent years our society has taken a very libertine stance toward sexual sins.
“What is the big deal?” we are asked. “When two consenting adults engage in
sexual intercourse no one is harmed. It is a victimless sin.” We are told that what
two people do in private is no one else’s business. They tell us that the traditional
religious requirement that sex be confined to marriage is outdated.
Fornication is not, in fact, a victimless sin. The ills…
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Do Scientists Believe in God?
Atheists are sometimes heard to say, “All real scientists reject the notion that
there is a God.” If that were true it would not prove whether God exists. History
is filled with times when the consensus of the “experts” later proved to be wrong.
In reality, many of the world’s best scientific minds have believed that there is
compelling evidence to support belief in an intelligent creator. The so-called
“Scientific Revolution” actually began because men believed that the physical
universe is governed by laws which can be studied and understood – laws
established by a great…
"DO YOU THINK I AM GOING TO HELL?"
I remember a scene from a funny movie in which a sleepy man was driving at night. He fell asleep at the wheel, veered onto an exit ramp, and was driving into oncoming traffic. He came to when the driver of another car, traveling in the correct lane, honked his horn and hollered across to him, "You are going the wrong way!" The sleepy driver's response was, "How do you know where I… |
Writing to the Corinthians, Paul expressed fear that they might be taken in by false teachers. “For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted — you may well put up with it!” (2 Corinthians 11:4, NKJV).
Paul’s concern wasn’t just hypothetical. The letter of 2 Corinthians reveals that false teachers were already at work in Corinth, and some of the disciples were already putting up with…
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Seeing the Unseen
As schoolchildren, we learn about the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and
touch. We use these senses to perceive the world around us, and it’s easy to think
that nothing goes unnoticed. But did you know that there’s a world beyond
human perception? Dogs can hear high-frequency whistles that are completely
silent to human ears, and bees can see ultraviolet patterns on flowers that are
invisible to us. There’s yet another world that’s invisible to us: the spiritual world,
and we often fail to see it.
This unseen spiritual world exists outside our direct senses, but we…
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