Online Bible World

Believing the Lie
20 June 2025 | 5:00 am

Would you buy a used car from a salesman who had lied to you on previous deal? No way. Not only that, but I wouldn’t do any business with that dealership again. I think we could agree that it is not wise to buy a used car from a known liar.

Now why do I raise this question? It seems to me that there are people out there who would never trust a used car salesman who was a known liar, but they will vote for a politician who has lied to them more than once.

Why do we get played for suckers by professional liars? Because they tell us what we want to hear. What I am describing here is a colossal lack of wisdom—what we sometimes call common sense—but what is increasingly uncommon sense. It came to mind recently when I was reading the introduction to the Book of Proverbs.

Knowing God #4
19 June 2025 | 5:00 am

Speaking to the young prophet named Jeremiah, God had this to say about himself:

But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the Lord.

Now I would be the first to admit that there is a problem with this, at least on the surface. There is a tension between a God who exercises loving-kindness on the one hand and judgement on the other. Take Sodom and Gomorrah, for example. It isn’t immediately apparent that Sodom is an example of the loving-kindness of God.

The tension between the first two aspects of God’s character, loving-kindness and judgement, is resolved in the third aspect of his character—righteousness. In Hebrew, it comes from a root that means straight. Some of the instructions of God don’t become clear until much time has passed—or, when ignoring them, after much harm has been done. We have to depend on God to be straight with us.

Knowing God #3
18 June 2025 | 5:00 am

Have you ever heard of the Wicked Bible? No, I am not making a joke. Back in the very earliest days of printing with movable type, someone made a mistake in setting the words of the seventh commandment, and out came a Bible which read, Thou shalt commit adultery.

And as ridiculous as it sounds, I have a legitimate question: Why not? There are those who argue for the abolition of divine law, but for that to be possible, the law itself must be arbitrary. That is, God could just have easily said Thou shalt steal as to say Thou shalt not steal.

Now I’ll guess that you intuitively know that is not the case. God said Thou shalt not steal because it is intrinsically wrong. And it is intrinsically wrong because it is harmful. Now, what does that tell us about the nature of God?

Knowing God #2
17 June 2025 | 5:00 am

Some people are fond of speaking of God as omnipresent, everywhere at once, present in every blade of grass, existing throughout the entire universe. But they never seem to consider that in the process they depersonalize God and that they are advocating a kind of pantheism.

Yet the Bible reveals a God is a person and acting in time and space. You can think of God presenting himself as standing alongside a road talking to a man named Abraham about his plan. This aspect of God is revealed in the pages of your Bible.

Now if God is a person, then it is logical that he has a personality and character. In fact, that is precisely what the Bible reveals to us. So the question naturally follows: What kind of person is he? What is he like? God himself tells us what we must know about him. Let’s begin by reading his words to Jeremiah.

Knowing God #1
16 June 2025 | 5:00 am

If you only had a short time to tell someone about God, what would you tell them? What is the most important thing to know about God? In a way, we may think we don’t know much about God—that God is some great mystical being of whom we only have the faintest idea.

But if we think very long about this, we are liable to find that some of the things we know about God are contradictory. This suggests that we may have taken a wrong turn somewhere and that leads to an important principle found in Deuteronomy:

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

So there are things we can know about God and things that are unknowable for us. The curious thing about man is that we become quite sure of things about God that we really can’t know, while we are doubtful about the things we can know. So instead of busying ourselves with the secret things, creating dogma around those ideas, and using them to decide who is a Christian and who is not, let’s embrace a little humility and try to better know God.

A Father in the House
13 June 2025 | 5:00 am

Several years ago I knew a young woman who was frustrated in her marriage and wanted a divorce. Her family pleaded with her not to do it, to seek counseling, and to try to work things out. So many couples, they said, tough it out during the hard times and later they find themselves with good, strong marriages. Her husband did not want the divorce and was prepared to do almost anything to keep the family together. They said, Think about your little boy. He needs a father in the home. But she had married young, felt restricted, and wanted to spread her wings. Her reply considering the little fellow was dismissive, Oh, he will be all right. You know, I don’t think she knew the risks she was taking.

Children without fathers in the home are almost twice as likely to be hyperactive as kids in homes with two parents. I don’t think she knew that 63% of youth suicides are kids who grew up with no father in the house. I don’t think she knew that 90% of all the runaways and homeless kids out there grew up in fatherless homes. Or that 85% of the children with behavior disorders, 71% of high-school dropouts, 70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions, and 85% of youths in prison grew up in homes without a father.

Fathers who abandon their children and mothers who take their children away from their fathers have no idea of the price the kids are going to pay. But I think, it is because they don’t want to think about it. It is not because the information isn’t out there. At the same time a full 92% of Americans believe that our nation can only go forward if American families are made stronger. A solid majority realize that the institution of the family is weak and getting weaker. Over 25 million children today, right now, are being raised with no father in the home. The most reliable predictor of crime is not poverty, it is not race, it is growing up without a dad. What is really odd about all of this, is that while there’s a very strong consensus among American people about the importance of the family, no one really has any idea what to do about it. And may not have the will, even if they knew.

The Lord, My Father
11 June 2025 | 5:00 am

The Fatherhood of God
9 June 2025 | 5:00 am

The Time Traveler
6 June 2025 | 5:00 am

The apostle John came as close to being a time traveler as any man is likely to be. When he was sitting near the coast on the isle of Patmos one day, a great voice behind him said: “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia.” And what John saw was enough to make our hair stand on end.

But we have to decide what it is we are reading when we pick up the Book of Revelation. There is a view that says John traveled in vision and saw the future. He saw people and events and tries to describe them for us as best he can. One source on this, for example postulates that John actually saw a helicopter assault in this vision, but having never seen a chopper, he described them as locusts. Mind you, he didn't say they were like locusts. He said they were locusts. The fundamental assumption here is that John was carried into the future and saw real events. And from that assumption comes another one. The events described in Revelation have, to all intents and purpose, already happened. Because John has seen them.

“Now wait a minute”, I can hear someone say, “How can these things have already happened and be in the future at the same time?” We have walked smack into a paradox. Look at it this way. If they haven't happened, how could John have seen them as they happened. Before we blow a mental fuse, let's back away from this and consider another way of looking at the Book of revelation. John did not travel forward in time. He had a vision, and he wrote it down. That vision has come forward to us as the Book of Revelation.

Someone once said that prophecy is history written in advance. I don't think so, and let me try to explain why. For history to be written in advance, it must already exist. That means you and I have no choice. The future is already written and all we can do is walk through it. Our choices are already written down and we can't change them. But I don't believe either the future or the past exist. The past no longer exists. The future does not yet exist. This has serious implications for the study of the Book of Revelation. So how should we look at this book?

The Power of the Spirit
5 June 2025 | 5:00 am

Do you have the power of the Spirit in your life? The Spirit is a gift promised at baptism in Acts 2:38—so if you have it what are you doing with it? For the spirit to be empowered it must have a source. What is the source that is powering your spirit? Are you plugged into the world or are you plugged into God? How do you stir up the Holy Spirit to good works?

Pentecost and Prophecy
30 May 2025 | 9:00 pm

About Speaking in Tongues
30 May 2025 | 5:00 am

What did the First Christians believe about speaking in tongues? It is always risky assuming we know what people think, but we have a pretty impressive body of writing by these folks, and from those writings, we can get an idea of what their experiences were and what they thought about them.

Just to clarify: When I speak of the First Christians, I am talking about those Christians who were alive and active when the various books of the New Testament were being written. That puts them all in the first century, and mostly before the fall of Jerusalem.

I am not arguing a case for what 21st-century Christians should practice. That is an issue that churches will decide for themselves. But if we do differ from what the First Christians believed and practices, reason suggests that we should frankly acknowledge the difference and offer a reason for it. The logical place to start is with the first instance of speaking in tongues recorded in the Bible. But to put that in perspective, consider something Jesus said:

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Christian Holidays #10
27 May 2025 | 5:00 am

Imagine yourself sitting in a room with 120 of the first disciples of Jesus. You have been through an emotional roller coaster the last two months, from a triumphant entry into Jerusalem of the Messiah, to his ignominious torture and death, to his resurrection. And you all saw him alive; some of you even saw him ascend into heaven. You are expectant, but you really have no idea what is coming. It is Pentecost, the fiftieth day after Christ’s resurrection. You have all come together to observe the feast of Pentecost as you have all your lives.

Suddenly, with no warning, the room is filled with a great roaring sound, something very much like fire shimmers across the ceiling of the room, and a little stream of that fire descends upon each of you sitting in the room. Each of you finds yourself with the ability to speak in a language you have never spoken before and bursting with a message about the wonderful works of God.

It would be an unforgettable experience, wouldn’t it. Energizing, empowering. But the experience is not what this was about. The experience only lasted for a while and faded. And the disciples were left to ponder what the experience was all about and what it meant. It was clear enough right from the start that what was important was not so much the experience, but the meaning. What the disciples were coming to understand was that the Temple was a stage upon which a drama was played out. And that drama was the story of Christ.

Christian Holidays #9
26 May 2025 | 5:00 am

Of all the Christian holidays, the one that surprises me the most is Pentecost. It surprises me that every Christian does not observe it. After all, it is the birthday of the New Testament church. It is the day the Holy Spirit fell on the church in power. You would think that if they are going to celebrate anything, they would have an important anniversary every year at Pentecost.

On the other hand, it is a fact that more than half of all Christendom observes Pentecost. In England it is a national holiday, called Whitsunday, or White Sunday—because of the custom of wearing white for baptism, and the large numbers of baptisms on Pentecost. But most American churches remain blissfully unaware of Pentecost. It is a word they attach to a charismatic movement that includes speaking in tongues. They don't think of it as a day. And yet Pentecost is definitely a Christian holiday.

There is a curious thing about Pentecost, though. The word Pentecost is a Greek word that means Fiftieth. The fiftieth what? Well, since it is the day of Pentecost it would seem to mean the Fiftieth day. But the fiftieth day from what? To tell you that story, I have to paint in a little background. The basic scripture that outlines all these holidays is the 23^rd chapter of Leviticus.

Before Pentecost
23 May 2025 | 11:00 pm

Many people have called Pentecost the birthday of the New Testament Church. It has also been called a lot of other things down through the years. It has been called a harvest festival. It’s been called a celebration of the resurrection. It’s a celebration of the Holy Spirit. It’s been called the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Firstfruits, and the name we generally use—the Feast of Pentecost, itself a curious little Greek word signifying that it is the fiftieth day. In the very beginning, though, Pentecost was a harvest festival. Let’s begin with the very earliest reference to the feast, found in the 23^rd chapter of Exodus.

The God of Time
23 May 2025 | 5:00 am

As I understand my basic science, time can speed up or slow down depending on the speed at which an object travels. That is a little hard to grasp, but they say it has been scientifically demonstrated, so we will take that as a given. But my first proposition is that, fast or slow, time is a one-way street. There is no such thing as time travel, nor will there ever be.

Now I have heard people speak of God existing outside of time, and they draw a mental picture of God sitting on a hill where he can see the entire timeline of man. He sees it like a road. We can’t see around the next bend, but God sees it all. But let me pose a problem to you. As I write this, I am sitting in Texas. Can God see me right now in, say, Mexico City? Of course not, because I am not in Mexico City, I am here. Have I limited God? No, the question is absurd and everyone knows it.

Well, can God see me next year? If we say no, are we limiting God? Can’t God travel in time? Can’t God see the future? Whether God can or not, we might discuss. But first, you may want to write this down: God does not do things merely because he can.

True Fellowship
22 May 2025 | 5:00 am

I got an email a few nights ago from a man in the military who is often away from home for extended periods. He enclosed a picture of himself, his wife, and his little child. He told me the three of them commonly listen to me in bed at night before going to sleep. More than that, he told me he took my sermons with him on his iPod and listened to them in a tent late at night—and that they were a comfort to him.

I doubt if anyone can realize how much an email like that means to me, personally. Unlike some ministry programs, I don’t do mine in a church with a live congregation in front of me. I do these programs in a studio, usually with no one except Gary Gibbons across the glass from me. I know you are out there, though, and I can ride along with you on the way to work, I can sit with you while you have breakfast, I can chat with you over a cup of coffee. And, through all the days, I feel like I am talking with friends.

But when I say that, I have to recognize an important truth. What has made you and I friends is the Bible, Jesus Christ, and his Father, and the Holy Spirit. It is here that we have found common ground. It is here that we find a spirit of brotherhood and friendship. I think the Apostle John must have felt the same way when he wrote his first letter.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

Fellowship is a well-worn religious word, and like all overused words, it has lost some of its significance. The word in the Greek denotes more than sitting around after church, sharing coffee and snacks. The word denotes partnership. If we were partners in business, and the business goes broke, we are both losers. If it makes money, we both can get rich. But if we are partners, we share everything. It is a little frightening to think about this is relationship to our faith. But listen to what Jesus said to his disciples at the Last Supper…

The Tree #2
21 May 2025 | 5:00 am

The Apostle John is in vision, and he’s nearing the end of an incredible experience. Step by step, he has seen the sequence of visions that make up what we call the Book of Revelation. I would think that he is pretty well wrung out by the time he gets to the end of all this. It must have been some experience. What he has seen are the last days, and late in the 20th chapter he summarizes it all. He says:

And the sea gave up the dead who were in it; and death and hades delivered up the dead who were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

You know, it sound like a kind of clean-up operation. All those who were written in the Book of Life are saved, they’re all caught away from the earth, and down here everything is burnt up. Simon Peter made a reference to this time in his second letter.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conduct and godliness, Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, in which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

Kind of scary, isn’t it? The heavens are on fire and the elements are melting. It sounds like that time when the sun, in its dying throes, will become a giant ball—a great red giant—that reaches out nearly to the earth. Surely, what is described here will happen when that day comes. It sounds like that would be the lake of fire that John described. Peter concluded:

Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, in which dwells righteousness.

Well, that’s what Peter said would be coming, so what more did John say he saw?

The Tree #1
20 May 2025 | 5:00 am

There’s an odd thing about the Bible that’s easy to overlook: It begins and it ends with a tree. Everybody knows that in the Garden of Eden there was the Tree of Life. What’s easy to overlook is that, in the very last chapter of Revelation, God says, Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Now, as you know, the Tree of Life was in the Garden of Eden, and it hasn’t been seen since Adam and Eve were evicted. But you also need to understand that the Garden of Eden was not everywhere. It was a little world of its own within the larger world of the planet. In fact, the Garden of Eden did not even encompass all of Eden, but was eastward in Eden. God created Man out of the dust of the ground and put him into this small world—a world of their own.

There are a few things we can say about this world. We know there were animals there, but we know none of them were dangerous. We know they had all the food that anyone could desire to eat. There was work to do, because Adam was told to dress and keep the garden. We know the climate was mild, because there was no need for clothes. From what comes later we know there were no thorns or briers. We can infer there were no weeds or noxious plants. We can also infer that there was no pain, no disease, and we know that there was the potential for living forever. It was an altogether perfect world—all upside, no downside. But there was a gateway out of this world, and that gateway was a tree.

The Epistle to the Galatians #5
19 May 2025 | 5:00 am

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, self-control: against such there is no law.

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Referenced articles:

• Why Do We Use the Hebrew Calendar?
• The Hebrew Calendar (chapter from The Thread)

The Next Pope
19 May 2025 | 4:00 am

To Honor God
16 May 2025 | 5:00 am

Once upon a time, there was a people who had returned to their homeland after a generation in exile. They had been tasked by God with repairing the Temple and restoring worship. It wasn’t that God dwelt in houses made with hands; the Temple was symbolic, a center of worship, a reminder of who God is—really—and of what is really important about life.

But life wasn’t working very well for them. They were in the middle of an economic failure—a position not unlike where we often find ourselves. They had been told by the prophets, from Isaiah to Jeremiah to Ezekiel, why they were going into exile before it actually happened; so they just might listen to a prophet this time. Well, God sent one.

Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin? Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: Give careful thought to your ways: You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a bag with holes in it.

This is what the Lord Almighty says: Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the Lord Almighty. Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.

Ouch! Do you suppose there is a lesson in here that might speak to where we are today? That theme, You earn wages, only to put them in a bag with holes in it, sure sounds familiar. Too many times we have run smack up against economic failure, and we have no idea how bad it will be or how long it will last. And if we think our government has a clue what to do about it, we are dreaming. But maybe we could learn from Haggai the prophet, to give careful thought to our ways.

Standing at the Edge
15 May 2025 | 5:00 am

After some recent reading, I now think we are standing closer to the Abyss than I thought we were, and that the tipping point is not what I thought it was. Let me explain. I have long been aware of the closing verses of the Old Testament (you may know them):

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

For some reason, most of commentators I’ve heard focus on the coming of Elijah (and more than one prophecy nut has claimed to be a reincarnation of that prophet). But the last verse is where I am today: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

I’ve heard various explanations of this, but none of them seemed to draw out the truly shocking statement that is there. And I’ve come to understand something that was slower to come to me than it should have been: God does not have to lift a finger or press a button; the curse follows on our own action. Yes, I know God says through the prophet, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse, but the act of God comes before we have passed the point of no return. In other words, the curse that God sends is an intervention to prevent the continuing slide into oblivion.

Now that is a sobering thought as we find ourselves standing at the edge and staring into the Abyss. What does our future look like, short of divine intervention? For I cannot see a way we can turn this around ourselves. We are too far down the slippery slope to hell. Malachi’s solution was that we should remember the law of Moses. How much chance do we have of that ever happening? So, let’s follow the idea of this curse to see where it leads…

The Words of Jesus #47
14 May 2025 | 5:00 am

⁴ [Jesus], being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, said he, you have heard of me.
⁵ For John truly baptized with water; but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
⁶ When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
⁷ And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in his own power.
⁸ But you shall receive power, after the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
⁹ And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
¹⁰ And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
¹¹ Who also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.

The Words of Jesus #46
13 May 2025 | 5:00 am

The whole Christian world believes in the resurrection of Jesus. They believe it because of the testimony of the witnesses. But did you know that no one saw Jesus rise from the tomb? Oh, they saw him alive afterward, so they knew that he was risen, but no one actually witnessed the event. They knew there was an earthquake that opened the tomb, but they could only assume that Jesus rose at that moment.

There is another interesting fact about the resurrection of Jesus that you don’t seem to hear about that often. You would have to be a serious student of the Bible to even notice the distinction, but when the Bible says that the women came to the tomb early on the first day of the week, the expression first day of the week—as normal as it is to us—was a rather unusual expression at that time.

What do I mean by that? Well, normally, if you are going to talk about Sunday, you would have said. on the day after the Sabbath. But not one of the gospel writers do. They all use the expression, on the first day of the weeks—notice the plural. This was the first day of the seven weeks leading up to Pentecost. It was a singular day of the year, not of the week, and there is an often-overlooked significance about this day which sheds light on the work and ministry of Jesus.

The Words of Jesus #45
12 May 2025 | 5:00 am

And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming in from the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus. And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, who also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts which never nursed. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do these things with a green tree, what shall be done with the dry?

And there were also two others, malefactors, led with him to be put to death. And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his clothing, and cast lots. And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he is Christ, the chosen of God.

And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, And saying, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. And one of the malefactors who were hanged railed at him, saying, If you are Christ, save yourself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God, seeing you are in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man has done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto you, Today shall you be with me in paradise.

And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the curtain of the temple was torn in the middle. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit: and having said this, he gave up the spirit.

About the Bible
9 May 2025 | 5:00 am

What did the First Christians believe about the Bible? It is an interesting question for several reasons, not least because the Bible, as we know it, had yet to exist. The components of what we call the New Testament were being written in the years between about AD 55 and 70. To the First Christians, these were written testimonies and letters of the apostles.

However, the First Christians were not without a Bible. But they referred to it by a different name. I won’t bore you with the details right now, but the collection the First Christians called The Holy Scriptures was what we call the Old Testament.

For the First Christians, the Scriptures were authoritative. We should think a little further about what that means. When we speak of the authority of Scripture, we are using a shorthand phrase for something a little more complicated that I’d like to talk about.

Choosing a Pope
9 May 2025 | 3:00 am

The Words of Jesus #44
8 May 2025 | 5:00 am

My heart goes out to Simon Peter. It is impossible to feel what Simon and the others felt on the night Jesus was arrested. They had followed this good and gentle man up and down the hills of Judea and Galilee for 3 ¹⁄₂ long years. Not only did they love him like a brother, they were convinced of the rightness of his cause—their cause. When you have done nothing but good, when you have been nothing but kind, when you are absolutely convinced that your cause is just and your conduct righteous and blameless, it must come as a terrible shock to have your leader betrayed, arrested, and dragged away in chains.

But that was not the worst of it. When Jesus was arrested, Simon Peter and all the rest of them had fled into the darkness in abject fear. There is no ease for the shame that comes on a man when he has run away. No one needs to convict him of cowardice, for his own heart is judge and jury. I suspect that it was that sense of shame that brought Peter back to follow Jesus and his captors back to the place of judgement. Peter was trying hard to recapture his courage.

And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple: that disciple was known unto the high priest, and went in with Jesus into the court of the high priest. But Peter stood at the door outside. Then went out that other disciple, who was known unto the high priest, and spoke unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter. Then said the girl that kept the door unto Peter, Are not you also one of this man’s disciples? He said, I am not. And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals; for it was cold: and they warmed themselves: and Peter stood with them, and warmed himself.

These were some of the very people who had arrested Jesus. (Apparently they had not seen Peter in the garden.) It took a certain amount of courage to be in that place, trying to keep his hands from shaking with the cold and the fear. But it would have taken a lot more to have confessed Jesus, in that time and in that place. Peter stood and warmed himself by the enemies’ fire—and denied Jesus, outright.

The Words of Jesus #43
7 May 2025 | 5:00 am

Love is no defense against fear. Neither is faith. And if you are afraid, you are no different from any other man, not even those great pillars of faith that formed the foundation of the Christian church. It may shock you, but in this very human trait, you are not very different from Christ himself. After the last supper, Jesus completed a rather long discourse with his disciples and they were totally enthusiastic. They gave him rave reviews. They said:

[…] Lo, now speak you plainly, and speak no proverb. Now are we sure that you know all things, and need not that any man should ask you: but this we believe that you came forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? Behold, the hour comes, yea, is now come, that you shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

I know these men loved Jesus. I think they believed him as far as they were able. They just did not know what they yet had to face. Jesus knew. Then he paused to pray for them and, strangely enough, for us. Let’s see what he had to say, in John, chapter 17.

The Words of Jesus #42
6 May 2025 | 5:00 am

Where is God? Where does he live? Can you point in the direction where one might find him? There are those who believe that God is in every blade of grass, every leaf of a tree. But they may believe in an amorphous God that is everywhere in general but nowhere specifically. They may believe in a God who puts in appearances from time to time, but usually is somewhere else—especially when you need Him. One of Jesus’ disciples may have been thinking in these terms when Jesus told him:

He that hath my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will show myself to him. One of the disciples said, Lord, how is it that thou wilt show thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

We are not going to put in an appearance from time to time. We will live at your house. We’re going to move in. We will be at the table for every meal. When you are having a soak in the bathtub, we will sit nearby and we can have a talk. As humorous as that may sound, the relationship is actually closer than that. Jesus speaks of living, not merely with you, but in you. I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember that as often as I should. I really should not take Jesus to places he wouldn’t want me to go.

The Words of Jesus #41
5 May 2025 | 5:00 am

We all know that God loves the world. But I’m afraid that we think of it as God loving us as one big gaggle down here, without any particular love for the individual. But when I say that Jesus loved his disciples, I am going way beyond the idea of a collective love. Jesus had spent 3 ¹⁄₂ years with these 12 men. They had laughed together, cried together, slept on the ground around a campfire together. They had faced hardship and fear together. They had eaten together and been hungry together. He had taken them places and showed them things they had never seen before—never even imagined before. He loved them so much that he was prepared to die for them. He loved all of them, individually, even Judas.

Here we are at the Last Supper and Jesus tells them, I have really wanted to share this last Passover with you before I suffer.

²¹ […] Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
²² Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake.
²³ Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.
²⁴ Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.
²⁵ He then lying on Jesus’ breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it?
²⁶ Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
²⁷ And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.
²⁸ Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him.
²⁹ For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor.
³⁰ He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night.

I don’t think event is very well-understood by many people. Why did it have to be so? Why would Jesus choose a man that he knew would betray him in the end?

The Third Sabbath
2 May 2025 | 11:00 pm

Sheep, grain, bread, salt, seeds. In the Gospels, Jesus uses many metaphors when describing both the harvest that is before us and our own roles as workers, bringing in that harvest.

The Words of Jesus #40
1 May 2025 | 5:00 am

We have an incurable fascination with the future, don’t we. We want to know what is going to happen, when it is going to happen, why it is going to happen. Small wonder that when Jesus foretold the coming destruction of the temple, his disciples wanted to know. Enquiring minds always want to know. When will these things be, they asked, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

Jesus’ answer has a lot of information about the end time, but I can summarize it in two points: It is not for you to know the time. Get on with life and the work you have been given to do. When you see Jerusalem being surrounded, flee into the mountains, but between now and then, he said, you have things to be doing. What are those things?

As a Bible teacher for many years, I have often had occasion to look over the prophetic studies of a lot of students and teachers. Almost all of them have been consumed with questions of timing and events. They try to correlate the events and the number of days. There are prophecies that deal with 1,260 days, or 42 months, or 3 ¹⁄₂ years. These are benchmarks that men try to connect with a time line. It is almost as if we assume that working out the details of these prophecies have some practical value. I think there is a practical value in knowing what the prophecies say, but I doubt seriously that there is much to be gained by attempts to predict the course of events. Not many stop to ask why God would bother to tell us the future at all. I can think of two important reasons.

The Words of Jesus #39
30 April 2025 | 5:00 am

The idea of the End of the World has a kind of morbid fascination for us. We are conditioned to think in terms of beginnings and ends of things, so it becomes not so much a question of whether, but of when. It is not a happy topic. I suppose it is a lot like a sore tooth—we have to keep exploring to see if it still hurts.

I can’t pass up those old disaster movies that have us colliding with an asteroid or comet and facing up to the temporary nature of things. There have been some really huge meteor strikes in the past—the one that caused meteor crater in Arizona is one of the smaller ones. Now they believe that just such a collision accounts for the extinction of some species in the past and even the onset of the ice age. And they believe it can happen again. It is only a matter of time. I have heard this kind of collision called an extinction event. The question is whether or not man will be made extinct, either by such a collision or by our own devices.

Jesus Christ spoke of such an event in what is called the Olivet Prophecy. According to Jesus, we are going to come face to face with extinction, but something will save us.

²¹ For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
²² And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
²³ Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
²⁴ For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
²⁵ Behold, I have told you before.
²⁶ Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
²⁷ For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
²⁸ For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

The Words of Jesus #38
29 April 2025 | 5:00 am

How would you like to know—step-by-step—all the events leading up to the end of the world? Maybe you’d rather not know. We really have a morbid fascination with the end of the world, don’t we? We fantasize about how to escape it, how to prevent it. We make movies about blowing up asteroids and extinction-level events. It was chilling, several years ago, to actually watch as a comet slammed into a neighboring planet—piece by piece—and knowing that, if that ever happened here, it would be all over.

The question of the end of the world was raised 2,000 years ago by the disciples of Jesus, and they got an answer from Jesus himself. Actually, it was only a couple of days before Jesus was crucified that there were standing among the magnificent buildings of the Temple and said, Master, look at the kinds of stones and what buildings they built here! Jesus replied, Do you see these things? I tell you the truth: there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.

It’s hard to imagine the impact of that statement on Jesus’ disciples. The Temple was the center of their religious life—where men prayed, where sacrifices where made—even the plan of salvation, in a sense, was played out upon the stage of the Temple. The idea that this building—God’s building—would be destroyed? It seemed absolutely unthinkable—though they knew it had happened before.

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the world?

The Words of Jesus #37
28 April 2025 | 5:00 am

Power corrupts. Absolute Power corrupts absolutely. It is one of the reasons why men have rejected absolute monarchy and the divine right of kings. But forget about absolute power for a moment and think about power—power in small amounts. It is a little spooky to realize how little power it takes to start the process of corruption.

When Jesus walked the streets of Jerusalem, Rome was the absolute power, and Rome was corrupt. What was less obvious was that there was also power in the hands of religious leaders, and that power had done its work in all of the sects of the prevailing Judaism. But nowhere was it more apparent than among those who formed the religious establishment.

Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

There is nothing more frustrating than a double standard in religious leadership. What is it about power that causes that?

The Last Breakfast
25 April 2025 | 11:00 pm

The Last Breakfast
25 April 2025 | 11:00 pm

The Words of Jesus #36
24 April 2025 | 5:00 am

When you consider the mess the world is in right now, you might wonder if God has written us off as a bad investment. But if you read the Bible, you know that the world—at least man’s world—has been in a mess from the very beginning and yet God has taken an interest in it, and seems to be making sense out of it all. He has plan and is working the plan. The challenge for is for us to make sense of it and go along with his plan.

God has not only taken an special interest in the world, but has acted in history and has related to people in the world—sometimes to a community of people. The most obvious illustration is the most-favored nation status that God afforded Israel during much of their existence as a people.

God was Israel’s king, and they were his Kingdom. The first manifestation, as it were, of the Kingdom of God. It is odd, in a way, the confusion that surrounds the expression, The Kingdom of God. It simply refers to that entity which God rules. It is a Kingdom in the past where Israel is concerned. It is a future kingdom where the whole world is concerned. It is a present Kingdom where individuals are concerned who submit themselves to that Kingdom in a spiritual sense.

But knowing all this makes it all the more earthshaking when we grasp what Jesus was trying to tell the people of his day. Take this allegory, for instance. Surrounding Jesus when he gave this parable were a number of Jewish leaders, along with Jesus’ disciples. Listen carefully, because allegories are not always what they seem to be. We’ll find it in Matthew, chapter 21.

The Words of Jesus #35
23 April 2025 | 5:00 am

There is a name that will live forever in our memories, and there is probably not a culture in the world that does not understand the significance of the name…Judas. Judas is hard to understand…almost as hard to understand as Jesus who included Judas in the small band of men he named as apostles. Because Jesus included Judas in that band knowing from the beginning that Judas would betray him.

People have a morbid fascination with Judas, knowing that he did an evil thing but wondering at the same time if there is any way to rescue him, to rehabilitate Judas. He first starts emerging from the background noise around Jesus in an incident that took place a mere six days before Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus had come to Jerusalem for the last time and was staying in Bethany, at the house of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Bethany is about a half hour’s walk from the temple mount. Martha had prepared supper for Jesus. Lazarus was one of those sitting at the table, and so was Judas.

Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?

What was Jesus’ response to Judas?

The Words of Jesus #34
22 April 2025 | 5:00 am

If I could tell you a way whereby you could live forever, would you be interested? Well, the question was put to Jesus, and Jesus gave a straight answer. Would you like to hear it?

And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?

Now, there is our question. But the answer comes as a bit of surprise. One of the most fundamental Christian doctrines is that salvation is by grace, through faith and not of works. But listen to Jesus response.

And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Now this comes as a bit of shock, not that we should keep these commandments, but the suggestion that works have anything to do with eternal life, right? There is a funny thing about the 10 commandments, though. They don’t call so much for you to do anything as to avoid doing things. Is it a good work to abstain from committing murder? And surely we don’t think that men who habitually break the ten commandments will receive eternal life, do we?

I think what many confuse in this issue is that salvation is a rescue operation. Sin is the transgression of the law, right? And the wages of sin is death, right? Well, you cannot get rid of the guilt of sin by keeping the law. That can only come about by grace through faith. But the person who will not forsake the sin that killed him cannot receive the grace of God, no matter that God extends it to him. It is called repentance.

The Words of Jesus #33
21 April 2025 | 5:00 am

The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Jesus’ answer? One man, one woman, for life.

They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

What Jesus is here saying is in total agreement with Moses. His first statement was the ideal. The conclusion deals with the reality once sin has entered the picture.

Seven Weeks of Harvest
18 April 2025 | 11:00 pm

We rarely give very much thought to these days between Passover and Pentecost; but in ancient times, this was a time of very hard work. These are weeks of harvest that we are now going through. What do the weeks between Passover and Pentecost really mean? And what does an ancient agricultural rhythm have to do with the Church today?

50 Days to Pentecost
18 April 2025 | 5:00 am

The listeners to our one station in the British Isles will know Pentecost as Whitsunday (White Sunday, that is) from the custom of the newly-baptized wearing white. I was surprised on a visit to London a few years ago to find that Whit Monday is also a holiday there. They get a extended weekend, the Brits do, based on an ancient Jewish holiday. Go figure that. The Jews know it as Shavuot or the Feast of Weeks.

When you understand what Pentecost is, it is a wonder it isn’t a much bigger thing among Christians. Pentecost was the day the Holy Spirit was poured out in power on the early Church. It was the day they baptized 3,000 souls in one day. I don’t think the Church has ever done that since. It has been called the birthday of the Church, and you would think it would be celebrated in fine style.

But for most of Protestant Christianity it passes unnoticed. It’s just another Jewish holiday and many don’t even notice that. Pentecost is the Greek word that means fiftieth. In Acts 2, verse 1: When the fiftieth day had arrived they were all together in one place. But the fiftieth day from what? Well to answer that question we have to go back a ways.