Biblical Ha-Ha! Moments: Part 2
By Marcia Hornok Serious Bible study reveals God’s character and ways. But looking for God’s sense of humor, as well, has serious benefits. Perhaps He inserted 1 Chronicles 26:18 as a bit of comic relief, knowing that the KJV would translate it: “At Parbar westward, four at the causeway, and two at Parbar.” In Part […]
Top 5 Changes I’m Making in My Spiritual Life
By Summer Stevens Though I’ve been a Christian most of my life, there are seasons when I’ve felt like I’ve needed to dig into different spiritual practices for growth and nourishment. Sometimes it’s been memorizing large passages of Scripture or doing group Bible studies or praying the Psalms. The Holy Spirit has been faithful to […]
What About Those Guys? (Jeremiah 12:1-6)
By Ken Yates Sometimes when I read about certain people in the Bible, they seem to be superhuman. One of those people is the prophet Jeremiah. His ministry was one of suffering. The Lord asked him to do many things that were very difficult. There is a reason he is known as the “weeping prophet.” […]
How I Was Transformed
By Nancy Rempel My body was rigid with tension as I lay in the sweltering heat of another Pakistani spring. Some missionary I had turned out to be. It was Easter 1995, and we had just dedicated our second baby, Curtis, at the little church in Layyah, Pakistan. I felt like a baby myself as […]
Voice From the Past: Does a Biblical View of Grace Actually Promote Sin?
By Bob Wilkin* In the great tradition of dramatic disclaimers, such as the Apostle Paul’s in Romans 6:1-14, Shakespeare’s in King Lear, and Sir Winston Churchill’s in his famous Harrow School address, GES says “Never!” A Biblical view of God’s grace never promotes sin. People who hold to Lordship Salvation or works salvation are rarely […]
A Real Mountaintop Experience
By Gene Greeson INTRODUCTION Twenty-eight years ago, when I was 46 years old, I had set my sights on climbing Mount Everest. My plan was to accomplish that feat in the following years with a group of other climbers. While it was a lofty goal, there were reasons why I thought it was an attainable […]
Can a Christian Quit?
By Lucas Kitchen A reader recently claimed that it would be wrong for God to force a Christian-turned-atheist into heaven because it would violate his or her free will. This raises an interesting question. This is my response to that claim. If someone has believed in Jesus for salvation, then these verses apply to him […]
What Would Jesus Say? The Seven Churches of Revelation: The Letter to Pergamum (Rev 2:12-17)
By Philippe R. Sterling BEWARE OF DOCTRINAL AND MORAL COMPROMISE There are similarities between the New Testament world and ours. When the apostle John wrote down Jesus’ message to the seven churches, philosophies from the East, from Egypt, and from the hills beyond Pergamum were sweeping through the Mediterranean world. People were spiritually hungry, but […]
The Truth Shall Set You Free (John 8:30-32)
By Bob Wilkin Johns Hopkins University, Ottawa University, and Southern Methodist University all have as their motto the Latin translation of “The truth shall set you free”: Veritas Liberabit Vos. A 1975 Syracuse, NY, newspaper article about a treatment program for alcoholics quipped, “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you […]
Irene
By Ken Yates OUR INTRODUCTION “My name is Irene.” Those were the first words she spoke to me. I was in Kenya and had just completed a very long Bible study on the parables of the Lord. The study was conducted in a very humble church in the countryside. It was made of crude sheet […]