The apostle Paul was forced to leave the infant church of Thessalonica before he was confident about the state of their faith. When he “could no longer endure it,” he sent Timothy “to know [their] faith” (1 Thess. 3:1, 5). When Timothy returned with “good news of [their] faith and love” (3:6), Paul was “comforted” (3:7) and said that he could now…

In the ancient Roman culture, when slaves went about their work, they would tie a long white apron (called egkomboma) on over their other garments. Why is that significant? The word egkomboma is not found in the Greek New Testament, but the verb form (egkomboomai) is used one time–in 1 Peter 5:5.  “Clothe yourselves (egkomboomai) with humility.” Literally, “tie on the apron…

The Greek “god of fire” was Hephaestus, one of the sons of Zeus, but he’s a lower case “g” god — i.e., a fake god! Do you know who the real “God of fire” is, with a capital “G”? In Daniel 3, Nebuchadnezzar was furious with the unwavering faith of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Hego, so he had his fiery furnace heated “seven…

As a fisherman, Peter knew a lot about fishing, but he also knew a lot about catching. When he had “toiled all night and caught nothing,” there can be little doubt that he had done all that he knew how to successfully do to catch fish. He’d been fishing that night, but not catching. Jesus sat in his boat and told him,…

Jesus encountered a Gentile in the city of Capernaum for whom He had great praise, “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel” (Luke 7:9). What was it about this man that brought such commendation from the Lord? The centurion had a servant, “who was dear to him” and “was sick and ready to die. So when he heard…