I don’t know if you are a fan of the Indiana Jones movies, but one of them was called “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” In the movie, Indiana goes on an expedition looking for the Ark of the Covenant. Obviously, their journey was fictional, even though it made for great theater, if you like those kinds of pictures.

However, the Ark of the Covenant itself was not fictional but very real and extremely important to the nation of Israel. If you are not sure what the Ark of the Covenant is, let me give you a quick answer which I will expound on. The Ark represented the presence of God going with the people of Israel and his covenant to them.

Now let’s see what else we can learn to help us understand – what is the Ark of the Covenant?

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Is there a bigger or more challenging question to ask then who is God? Better yet is there even a way to answer this question in one article? How do you take the one who is eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing and try to describe him in the space of a few words?

The answer is you don’t. The full answer to who is God is too broad to put into one article so I am not going to try. What I am going to do is to focus on some of the characteristics and ways God chooses to describe himself in the Bible. Specifically, I want to share four qualities that will give you a taste of who God is.

Before we dive into answering these questions, let's take a look at a few verses that talk about who God is.

1 Corinthians 10:13: "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."

Psalm 68:19-20: "Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death."

2 Chronicles 30:8-9: "Do not be stiff-necked, as your ancestors were; submit to the LORD. Come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever. Serve the LORD your God, so that his fierce anger will turn away from you. If you return to the LORD, then your fellow Israelites and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will return to this land, for the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him.”

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After King David is confronted with his sin with Bathsheba, he writes Psalm 51 and offers a sacrifice to God: "a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise." David is writing out of despair over his sin, but is this something that we should replicate in our daily lives? What does it mean to offer God a broken and contrite spirit?

“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).

Over the years, I have discovered that one of the most misrepresented and misunderstood members of the trinity is the Holy Spirit. Many times, he is blamed for things that he has absolutely nothing to do with. However, because the Holy Spirit is such an essential part of our Christian walk, it makes sense to really understand who he is and how he operates.

I am going to focus primarily in how he operates in the lives of believers. Just for the record, the work he does in a believer is completely different than the work he does in an unbeliever. As Christians, you must know and recognize the way the Holy Spirit wants to operate in your life. If you allow him to do the work he really wants to do, there will be a dramatic difference in in how you live and how you walk out your faith from day to day.

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Of all the people in the Bible, we can look to Jesus to learn the most about prayer. The Son of God spent an exceptional amount of time in prayer, no matter how busy or stressed he was. By looking at a few of these prayers in the Bible, we can draw plenty of wisdom and inspiration for our own prayer time.

I believe one of the greatest gifts God has given you is hope. After all, that is what his promises are designed to do – inspire hope. It gives us the ability to look at any situation and know that regardless of how it may appear God is going to come through. This is the essence of what hope is.

However, if you are honest, the challenges of life can sometimes seem overwhelming. I know because I have faced those challenges just like you have. When these challenges attack, the thing they often come after is your hope. They try to move you from hope to despair, but that doesn’t have to be the case.

Today I want you to stand tall encouraged by the hope that dwells within you. I want to answer the question “what is hope,” but I want more for you. I don’t want you to just know what it is, I want you to walk in the victory that comes from hope.

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In Philippians 1:21, the apostle Paul writes "for me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." But, did the apostle make a typo? What exactly does he mean that to live is Christ? And moreover, how is it more of a gain for us to die? Let's take a look at the context of this verse, and what it would look like for us to live out this verse today.

One of the things mentioned in the book of Revelation is the seven trumpets. What we want to look at today is what are the seven trumpets in Revelation? It is probably not possible to give you a full, in-depth, detailed analysis of all the seven trumpets in one article. However, it is possible to give you enough information to encourage you to want to study further. Let’s begin.

Following Christ means allowing Him to be the judge and to forgive as He forgives. Here are three simple ways to avoid hypocrisy and remove the plank in your own eye.

Modern readers tend to shy away from the concept of prophecy. But the Bible is holy. It is "God-breathed." We can trust every word it contains. How? Because it makes predictions that came true, some thousands of years after they were first written. Let's take a look at 11 place where the Bible accurately predicts the life and death of Jesus Christ.

Satan is the great adversary of the church. He is clearly opposed to the will of God being accomplished in the earth. For the record, the way God chooses to accomplish his will in the earth is through people like you. God works through you (by his choice and design) to fulfill his plan. As you do his will, he accomplishes his plan in the earth. Satan knows this.

This brings us to a statement Jesus made in Matthew: “Get behind me Satan.” This is a very interesting statement because he was speaking to Peter at the time. That alone should lead you to ask the question, what is the meaning and context of Matthew 16:23, Get behind me Satan?

One thing we know for sure: one understanding of this verse is that Satan’s agenda does not line up with God’s agenda. It didn’t then and it doesn’t now. However, as we look closer, I believe there are some other truths that will unfold. 

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Prayer is such a vital part of your walk with Christ and yet sometimes we get it all wrong. Some people find prayer easy to engage in, but honestly many people struggle to pray. Regardless of where you are in your prayer life there are some common mistakes we can make in prayer (by the way I have made all of them.) So out of my own failures I want to share with you seven mistakes people often make when they pray.

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