Jesus addressed the heart of our need and the need of our heart to be right with God, not just leaning on external and empty ritual.
Most of the world's great souls have been lonely. Loneliness seems to be one price the saint must pay for his saintliness.
What is a “bank”? Is it the land beside a river? A financial institution? Yes, depending. It’s ambiguous until you know the context. In a similar (but more sophisticated) way, the author of Jonah plays with words for effect.
It is important to recognize that this process of perception, interpretation, and conclusion has a significant impact on the way people experience life. Understanding this can have a profound impact on helping people walk through difficult seasons of suffering.
I began to look back and realize that hardly, if any, of the people I led to Christ were discipled, growing, and flourishing in their relationship with God. There was little to to no “fruit that remains.”
During a recent study of the book of Acts, I was struck with the recurring emphasis on the irrepressibility of the gospel.
As a professor at a seminary, I have the great privilege of training men for pastoral ministry. Every year new faces come in, full of excitement and trepidation. What most of them don’t realize is how dangerous their calling truly is.
It says here that you were nearly stoned to death, left for dead, flogged, unjustly thrown in prison, shipwrecked, bitten by venomous snakes, reviled, and generally persecuted wherever you went. Paul, how would you classify these many trials you experienced?
Forgetfulness is a common, yet deadly spiritual disease. That is why God's Word gives so much emphasis to calling us to remember.
There is, of course, no literary break between Romans 5 and Romans 6. But now Paul is going to show that Christ's victory at Calvary liberates us.
The world and all that is in it was created for our enjoyment and pleasure and points us to a good God who loves us and desires our good pleasure. However, something is wrong.
The Corinthians were Jesus believers with tough outer skin, "spiritual knuckle-heads" just like me.