Category: Articles Page 1 of 13

“Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.” (Luke 11:52)

Here in Luke 11, Jesus is in the home of a certain Pharisee who had invited him to dinner (v.37). It appears this must have been a gathering of Jewish religious leadership – Pharisees, scribes, and lawyers – at this dinner. Jesus begins to quite harshly rebuke the Pharisees and scribes, pronouncing woe upon them. Then a lawyer who was in attendance asked, “Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also” (v.45), essentially asking whether he rebuked the lawyers as well, since they had not yet been directly mentioned by name. Then Jesus lays into the lawyers severely as well (v.45-52), culminating in this summary verse in Luke 11:52.

Read More

“And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me.” (1 Sam. 21:9)

In David’s victory over Goliath, swords are a prominent focal point of the story. When David shows a desire to fight Goliath, Saul offers him his own sword and armor. David does not take Saul’s sword nor armor because he had not proved them (1 Sam. 17:39) but instead relies upon his shepherd’s sling for the battle. Then, when David comes out against Goliath, he publicly declares that the battle is the Lord’s – not fought or won with the weapons of man, such as swords and spears. “45) Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied… 47) And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands.” (1 Sam. 17:45-47) When David slew Goliath with just a stone from his sling, scripture makes sure to denote that there was no sword in David’s hand. “So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.” (17:50)

Read More

“My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.” (Psalm 31:15)

When David penned these words, he was either currently in, or reflecting back, on his time on the run from Saul, being persecuted for righteousness’ sake because of Saul’s sin and jealousy. David summarized this perilous period of his life that every day “there is but a step between me and death.” (1 Sam. 20:3) In this passage, David was resting in the truth that all his “times” – the mountain top of slaying Goliath and even hiding in caves with just a step between him and death – were safely held in the hand of God. He knew he could die at any moment, but that fear was eased because he knew his life was held in the hand of God. All our lives are held in God’s hand and sustained and protected by the Lord. It’s in Christ that we “live, and move, and have our being.” (Acts 17.28)

Read More

Job 3:16-19 “Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light. [17] There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. [18] There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. [19] The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.”

In the midst of Job’s severe trial, he bemoans ever being born, and he considered the state of a hidden untimely birth as being infinitely better than his current state of suffering. It is estimated that one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage. With the loss of babies in the womb being such a prevalent struggle for many of God’s children, the Lord provides comfort all throughout scripture to his children who struggle with the loss of an untimely birth. This passage in Job is one of the most enlightening and comforting verses in all of God’s word to provide hope and comfort to grieving parents of the heavenly home of their miscarried child.

Read More

“And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counsellor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom.” (2 Samuel 15:12)

Ahithophel stands as a cautionary tale for the dangerous downward spiral that bitterness and unforgiveness and a life-consuming personal vendetta will end up destroying your own life. In the Bible narrative, Ahithophel begins as a wise counselor to king David. His counsel and wisdom was so well regarded by both David and the people that “it was as if a man had enquired at the oracle of God” (2 Sam. 16:23). It would be fair to say he was the wisest counselor in all the kingdom. However, Ahithophel went from David’s trusted counselor to his bitter enemy joining Absalom’s rebellion and plotting how he can help Absalom destroy David. What happened to cause this drastic change?

Read More

“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17)

How amazing and precious is it that the sovereign God of this universe thinks about me? We read earlier in this chapter that God is intimately acquainted with even the apparently mundane actions of our lives. Even our downsitting and our uprising (Ps. 139:2), God’s children getting up and down, in and out of bed, God is aware of these and every action of our lives. However, God does not just have knowledge of the events of our lives, but God is actively thinking about each of his children individually! How precious to know he’s thinking about me! And he’s thinking about you!

Read More

We are saved eternally solely by the unconditional, sovereign grace of God bestowed upon his children (2 Tim. 1:9, Eph. 2:8-9), and the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross (John 19:30, Heb. 9:12). However, there are other ways in which the child of God can feel the power of their eternal salvation in their lives here and now. How do we “lay hold” of the eternal life (1 Tim. 6:12) we rightfully have in Christ? For those already given spiritual life by God’s sovereign work in regeneration, how do we live and lay hold on the “abundant life” (John 10:10) that the Lord has for his children here in the kingdom of God? The first step to laying hold on the blessings of eternal life and pressing into the abundant life is to believe in Christ, publicly confess that belief before the church, and be baptized. If we see one professing belief in Christ, that is evidence they have already been born again by the immediate work of the Holy Spirit in their soul. The scriptures consistently affirm that belief is the evidence that one has already been born again (1 John 5:1, John 5:24, 6:47, 1:12-13), never the cause that initiates regeneration. Although belief is not the means of the new birth, there is a powerful deliverance and peace that floods the soul of God’s child when they profess belief and are baptized that they have never felt in their heart and soul before. This powerful experience of joy and peace in their heart feels like they “got saved” the day they believed. That is because they did “get saved” that day they believed and were baptized. That is not when they were born again, but that was the day they felt the power of God’s peace flood their soul that delivered them from bondage, shame, fear, ignorance, and many other things. That is why many of God’s children describe their experience in belief and baptism as “When I got saved…” They felt a deliverance and salvation in their soul they never felt before, but that was the effect of their obedience to God in belief rather than when they were born again from death to life. This salvation in gospel obedience highlights the necessity in distinguishing two different aspects of salvation in scripture: 1) eternal salvation that is accomplished solely by grace and the finished work of Christ, and 2) conditional time salvation where the child of God lays hold on the salvation that is rightfully theirs here in the course of time in their life and they feel deliverance, peace, and joy in their heart in their experience of discipleship.

Read More

It is a very common struggle in this world for God’s children to wonder “am I really saved?” Let me first say before we dig into this lesson, that is never a question that a person will ever ask that is unregenerate, so just your desire to ask that question is evidence that you are already born again and the Spirit inside you is stirring for you to ask that question. God gave us the scriptures and the gospel that we would have “assurance” of our salvation; that we would “know” we have eternal life. That language of “I know” I am saved has got a lot of attention in Christian circles. Some might even say that you cannot “know” you are saved. This thought runs in direct contradiction to the assurances to “know” you are saved that we will study in 1st John. It is not prideful or presumptuous to use Biblical language that we can “know” we have eternal life. God does not intend for his children to be constantly doubting if they are his child or not and if he really loves them or not. To put it another way, I want my children to “know” I love them and never to doubt that. I want to verbally tell them I love them, but there are other ways they can see through my actions that I love them, and I want them to be assured to have total confidence of how much I love them. In a much greater sense, it’s obvious that God wants us to “know” he loves us, and he has given us great assurances to examine to “know” how much God truly loves us. We will study some specific language from the epistle of 1st John of actions where we can “know” we have eternal life.

Read More

As we begin to make New Year’s Resolutions for the upcoming year in 2026, arguably no resolution is more important than a renewed commitment to the reading and study of God’s word. We hope you will embark with us on this one-year Bible reading plan designed to read your Bible all the way through in the next year.

Click here to view and download a PDF of the 2026 One Year Bible Reading Plan

To aid you in reading God’s word, you might consider downloading this Bible Timeline of the Old and New Testament to place each passage of scripture in the appropriate historical context.

Click here to view and download a PDF of the Biblical Timeline of the Old and New Testament

“Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:” (1 Pet. 2:23)

One of the most challenging things to do in our lives is to follow the example of Jesus Christ when we are reviled, slandered, and bore false witness against. The Savior did not render railing for railing (1 Pet. 3:9), but as a lamb dumb before his shearer, he opened not his mouth (Isaiah 53:7). Instead of defending himself against every false witness, Christ “committed himself to him that judgeth righteously”. We see from Christ, Stephen, and Paul’s examples that false witnesses are a house of cards that will eventually fold in upon themselves. As with Christ, the false witnesses did not agree together and even Pilate could see these were just unfounded lies. If we commend ourselves over to the righteous judgment of the Lord, then he will ensure that the lies of the devil collapse under their own weight and our righteous character is defended.

Read More