“You can do it” is common encouragement towards excellence from a teacher to a student at school, from a coach to an athlete on the field, or from a parent to a child in the home. It is also the encouragement from the aged Moses to adults who are going to outlive him. With the […]
Finding some good in this life
We live in a world where pride and wealth have become the definition of “the good life”. Yet, Proverbs 16:18 affirms that pride does not lead to good, but to destruction. In the next verse, Proverbs 16:19, one of the “better-than” truths in Proverbs is that being humble and poor is better than wealthy and […]
Just exactly how right is God?
Proverbs 30:5a says this: Every word of God proves true Proverbs 30:5a (ESV) “proves true” is, however, merely the conclusion of a very vivid language study. The vivid picture behind the word translated as “proves true” is that of smelting ore to produce a more pure form of the valuable silver or gold. The original […]
The goodness of God’s goodness
Psalm 119:68 affirms unequivocally that God is good. The necessarily conclusion is equally profound: God does good. Nothing that God has ever done is bad, and nothing that is bad has ever been done by God. You are good and do good Psalm 119:68a (ESV) Since this truth about God is often the first thing […]
The one who knows the Bible best, knows best
When it comes to identifying an expert we typically look at a person’s experience and education. And for the normal earthly matters of life that is certainly true. Sadly, though, we often look at human experience and human education when looking for experts regarding the matters of our souls. An entire category of occupations have […]
Romans 12:6 Active Christians … and prophecy?
Romans 12:6 starts a short list of spiritual gifts and how each is to be used. It begins with an exhortation. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them Romans 12:6a (ESV) As Romans 12:3-5 already prepares us for, we are again reminded that each of us as […]
Christianese: Infallibility
That Scripture is infallible means that it is incapable of failure and error (John 10:35). Scripture therefore, is always true and cannot change. There are no contradictions in Scripture and all of it’s teachings are consistent with one another. This infallibility is a result of the fact that God is truth (Zech 8:8) and therefore […]
Christianese: Inspiration
Inspiration means that Scripture is ‘God-breathed’ . (As a qualitative note, the divine inspiration of each word of Scripture is true of the originals manuscripts only and is not true of any translation.) The significance of Scripture being inspired means that the Holy Spirit moved men (2 Pet 1:21) to record God’s revelation for man. […]
Holes in your knowledge of God
The Apostle Paul maintained a clear conscience in ministry be ensuring that he preached the truth of God (2 Corinthians 2:17), the whole truth of God (Acts 20:27), and nothing but the truth of God (1 Corinthians 2:2). Yet we all have holes in our Bible knowledge. Some of it is to blame on the […]
The God Who Speaks
God is a speaking God. Ten times in Genesis chapter 1, we read that “God said“. The moment man sinned, God again spoke to them. With the first temptation of murder entering mankind’s world in Genesis 4, God initiates a spoken counselling session. God spoke to Noah to implement the plan of salvation from the […]