A querist asks, “As Christians, if we fail to tell people about the saving gospel of Christ, are we not in violation of James 4:17?” We all know people — perhaps hundreds of people who are being held hostage by Satan, even as
In Ecclesiastes 7:29), the Ecclesiastes writer points out the fact that God created man “upright” or fashioned man in the moral image of God (Genesis 1:27). Thus man was not designed in God’s original plan to be sinful, but rather with a spiritual inclination to faithfulness (cf. Matthew 24:13; Revelation 2:10).
Before Paul was to speak before the Athenians, certain philosophers asked, ‘What does this babbler want to say?” (Acts 17:18). W.E. Vine defines the literal meaning of the word “babbler” as “seed collector,” used in Greek slang for a half-witted sort of person who
Teaching is not the demonstration of a teacher’s learning, although obviously one cannot teach what he does not know. It is not the mere presentation of information, for one may present without
Paul did some straight talking to the churches of Galatia (Gal. 1:2) when he said, “I am afraid for you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain” (Gal. 4:11). He went on to say:
Through the news media, we hear of negligent parents starving their children to death. We are sickened to hear of such inexcusable conduct, not to mention its deplorable
To some in the religious world, repentance is a matter of great controversy. Some believe that repentance is simply a mental disposition of sorrow, not conveying any idea of restitution (cf. Matthew 27:1-5).
What’s on our to-do list today? Cleaning out an overstuffed closet? Making a financial budget to determine what areas we are over spending? Paying our monthly bills? We all
It is not surprising that the one true God would be as a stranger to pagan nations in times past. For example, to the Athenians, the apostle Paul was one who seemed to be a “setter forth of strange gods” (Acts 17:18-KJV).
Jesus once said, “But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery….” (Matthew 5:32). Here it is assumed that the put away woman will enter an unlawful sexual relationship and thus bear her own guilt for the
When our Lord stated that He would built His church (Matthew 16:18), the figure is that of constructing a temple (1 Corinthians 3:10-17) where “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5) are put together upon the “foundation” — the truth that Jesus is the Christ (Matthew 16:16; cf. Acts 8:37). When messengers of Christ are considered the […]
The story is told of a woman who lost her husband of 40 years to a sudden heart attack. She later said that the resulting grief had caused her to value love more. As a result, she spent the rest of her life loving
In the Old Testament, God revealed to Moses the colors of blue, purple and scarlet as His
Jesus once said, “If any man desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24 NKJV).
The Bible proposes the only effective way of dealing with sin — confession (cf. Psalm 51:1-3; 2 Samuel 24:10-17). In the Old Testament, one of the ways the Israelites were supposed to cleanse themselves and maintain purity before God and in their community was by confessing their sins (Numbers 5:5-8; cf. Leviticus 5:1-5; Leviticus 26:40-42).
The word “optional” is not a part of the idea put forth in the word “must.” The word “must” means “of necessity.” A good example of this is when Jesus’ parents found Him in the temple, He said to them:
As a man of unwavering steadfastness, the apostle Paul had one main goal:
The story is told of an old cowboy who entered a church one Sunday morning just before services were to begin. Although the old man and his clothes were spotlessly clean, he
Sometimes we give Satan more credit than he deserves for knowing exactly how to tempt us — when, and with what devices. No passage of Scripture suggests to us that Satan can read our minds or know what
When I was a boy growing up on a farm, my grandad and I killed ten rattlesnakes in one day. A rattler can easily be killed if you know where it is and how far it can reach when it