If you were challenged to open your Bible to an account of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, would have you have turned to Mark 1? Mark's short account of this event is often overlooked or lumped into the longer accounts. What can be gained from focusing specifically on what he recorded and developing a habit of considering texts in their context first?  Read More

"Christianity is a relationship, not a religion." Have you ever felt like this, or said it? More and more people see religion as the antithesis of faith instead of an avenue for faith. Are they right? Let's see what our Bibles say about "religion."   Read More

Recently, an assembly that had identified as a church of Christ allowed itself to be absorbed into a denominational body. Several alterations have already been made to the assembly's practices, a byproduct of the denomination's leadership being as one of them put it, "not doctrine-driven." But what is doctrine, and is it something that matters to God?   Read More

A children's song says that we have, "Two little eyes to look to God." So why do Moses, Isaiah, and Paul say that, "God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see" (Romans 11:8; cf. Deuteronomy 29:4; Isaiah 29:10)? Let's reflect upon spiritual blindness and the role that God, Satan, and our own choice play in it.   Read More

Prophets are sometimes understood as finger pointers at rather than participants in their culture. The truth is that prophets helped their people move forward and that their loss was keenly felt. What can we learn from Enoch, Elijah, and Elisha about walking with God and having an impact on others?   Read More

Some claim that God directly communicates today apart from the Bible through feelings, circumstances, or perhaps even through dreams or an audible voice. What does the Bible teach on this subject?   Read More

Ephesians 5:21 calls Christians to submit "to one another," and then, starting in v. 22, calls wives to submit to their husbands. But if a wife is "one" who submits, who is "another" who does so? Let's dig deep deeper into this text and see the Lord's will for our marriages.   Read More

2 Peter 2 is a chapter full of condemnation for the wicked, and yet in the midst of it, there is a hopeful promise: "the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation" (2 Peter 2:9). What can we learn from the context about the Lord's deliverance?   Read More

The early church was united in the practice of acapella singing; the thousands of denominations that exist today... aren't, to put it mildly. These days, one can find all kinds of music being offered in praise to God. Why were things so different 2000 years ago? Let's dig deeper in our Bibles and find out.   Read More

"Contend for the faith" is a command... except it isn't in the text of Jude 3. Instead, it's an infinitive, a verb form that describes an activity that Jude wrote to encourage. His brief epistle not only reveals how to contend for the faith but why one not only should but must do so.   Read More

Nostalgia is an incredibly powerful human emotion. At its best, it tethers a current generation to a past time so that the good of the past isn't rejected. At its worst though, it creates an unhealthy preoccupation with a time that's gone. Let's reflect on what the Bible says about seeing the past as "the good old days."   Read More

We tend to think of idolatry as bowing down to a statue symbolizing a false deity or one's ancestors. However, Ephesians 5:5 would have us think about the term differently.   Read More