Sometimes a day doesn’t go well. Sometimes you may not feel 100%. Sometimes you’re wiped-out tired. Sometimes the “kids are acting up.” Sometimes you’ve “got a ton going on.” Sometimes it would be easier to not go to worship or Bible study than it would be to go. If we measured everything by how we felt or by what would be easier,…
Let's Go Back to the Bible
Let's Go Back to the Bible
Posts by David Sproule (Page 129)
Old typewriters had a backspace button, but it wasn’t like the one on your computer today. On the typewriter, the backspace simply moved the carriage back one space, to the character previously typed, but all you could do was overtype that character (leaving an ugly mark) or grab the whiteout bottle (leaving an obvious spot of correction). As word processors came along,…
Who penned the book of James? Can we know who it was? And, if we can, what can be learned from it (and from him)? Not long after the church was established, one of Zebedee’s sons, James, was murdered by Herod (Acts 12:1-2). This is not the James who wrote the epistle in our New Testament, nor is this the James who…
In Psalm 103, David praises the Lord for all that He has done and calls upon the people of God to “forget not all His benefits” (103:2). While it would be quite impossible to list “all His benefits,” David begins to enumerate how God “forgives… heals… redeems… crowns… satisfies” (103:2-5). He explains how “the Lord executes righteousness…made known His ways…is merciful and…
Paul spent eighteen months preaching the word in the immoral, pagan city of Corinth (Acts 18:11). During this time, a group of Jews “rose up against Paul” (18:12) and made the following accusation, “This fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law” (18:13). Think about that indictment. It implies a number of things. Paul was urging people “to worship God.”…
Footnotes in Bible translations can be very useful study helps. Sometimes a footnote will cross-reference another Bible passage, or it may tell you what the original Greek word was, or it may tell you what the literal translation would be, or it may tell you of a variation in other manuscripts, or it may define a word for you. Most of the…
The reciprocal pronoun “one another” is found 89 times in 81 verses in the New Testament, emphasizing the great responsibility that Christians have to “one another.” The most practical book for daily Christian living (i.e., the book of James) has the expression in three verses. First, “Do not speak evil against one another” (4:11). Stop for a moment. Do you speak against…
The title of this article will make some people uncomfortable. Some will say, “Oh, we don’t have to show off! He knows our hearts!” Yes, God knows our hearts! But “showing God our faith” is not (when done right) showing off! In Mark 2, four men (1) “carried” a paralytic to Jesus, the Healer, (2) “uncovered the roof where He was,” and…