The Fall
I recently heard a Christmas sermon which purported to offer a broad overview of the Biblical story leading up to Jesus. Unfortunately, this sermon was flawed in ways which are…
The Lion of Judah
The book of Genesis lays the foundations for the story of the Bible. It begins with the creation account whereby God brings the universe into being by the power of…
The Fruitless Fig Tree
Mark 11 contains an excellent example of a literary "sandwich." The meat of the sandwich is the so-called cleansing of the temple. Many Christians fail to grasp the importance of…
Cleansing Or Curse?
Most scholars believe that the book of Mark was the first gospel written, probably around 65 AD. There is strong evidence that Mark relied heavily on the eyewitness testimony of…
Bearing the Right Fruit
The theme of fruitfulness can be traced throughout the scriptures. In the last blog, we examined Isaiah 5, which contains the song of the vineyard. God the landowner lovingly cultivated…
The Vineyard
Isaiah chapter 5 contains a song about a landowner who made every effort to cultivate a flourishing vineyard: "My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug…
Blessed Assurance
Frances "Fanny" Crosby was born in 1820 just north of New York City. She was blind for most or all of her life. Her blindness might have been congenital, or…
Salvation and the Spirit
It's not at all unusual to hear Christians talk about the time when they were "saved" in the past tense. Perhaps this salvation event occurred when they were a child…
Well Done!
Most evangelicals have been taught that the righteousness of Christ is imputed or credited to those who put their faith in him. When God looks at Christians, he regards them…
Standing Before the Pearly Gates
When people think about salvation, there are lots of ideas which fill their minds. In Revelation 21, John describes a vision of "the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down…