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In Bible Study, Blog, Job on
August 17, 2020

My Redeemer Lives

Many would say that the past five months have been the worst five months of their lives. They’ve been furloughed or fired from their jobs. They’ve been trying to scrape enough money together to pay their bills and put food on the table. They’ve had to figure out how to work full time at home while also homeschooling and taking care of their kids. Their businesses have been destroyed or gone bankrupt. Their cities have burned. They’ve been unable to go to churches, weddings, and funerals. They’ve been unable to get medical treatments or procedures done. They’ve been struggling with severe anxiety and depression. They’ve lost loved ones to suicide or disease, and they weren’t even able to say goodbye to them. Throughout this pandemic and time of division, things have seemed to get worse and worse and worse.

If any of this rings true in your life, you could probably relate to Job.

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In Bible Study, Blog, Mark on
July 27, 2020

The Anger of Jesus

Is it a sin to be angry? No, of course not. The Bible clearly teaches that it is okay to be angry, to feel anger, as long as we aren’t quick to anger (Ecclesiastes 7:9, James 1:19) and don’t sin in our anger (Ephesians 4:26). And if I were to ask you for an example in the Bible that proves that it is okay to be angry, a vast majority of you would probably all give me the same example – the story of Jesus cleansing the temple. The story of Jesus storming into the temple, flipping over tables, and chasing the money-changers away.

Though this is a very well-known biblical story, many people do not understand its real meaning. Throughout the years, I’ve heard people justify their own unrighteous anger by saying, “Well, Jesus got angry, too!” And in recent times, I’ve seen many social media posts using this story to justify the violence and rage that spread across the country because “it was all for a good cause.”

We can’t just use this story of Jesus’ anger to justify our actions. We need to take a good look at the account and study the passage in context so that we can unearth its true meaning and apply that true meaning to our lives.

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In Bible Study, Blog, Philippians on
June 8, 2020

The Hymn of Christ

Singing praise and worship songs communally is integral to Sunday morning church services all across the country and the world. While many churches choose to worship God through contemporary Christian songs, there are also many traditional churches who still choose to sing hymns as a congregation. Though these hymns are hundreds of years old, their beloved lyrics are theologically rich, and they remain popular in the lives of Christians today. Some of the most well-known hymns include “Amazing Grace,” “How Great Thou Art,” “It Is Well,” “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” and “Blessed Assurance.” One of my favorite hymns that I remember singing in church growing up is “Jesus Paid it All”-

“Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe / Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”[1]

Paul actually includes a hymn about Jesus in his letter to the church in Philippi.

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In Bible Study, Blog, Daniel on
May 18, 2020

We Will Not Bow

Our society today pushes a lot of ideas on us that they want us to accept and affirm. They want us to accept and affirm that all religions and belief systems are equally true and that every person should “live their truth.” They want us to accept and affirm that gender is fluid and that same-sex-attracted people should be able be together and get married. They want us to accept and affirm that fetuses are merely clumps of cells and that a woman should have the choice to get rid of those pesky cells (it is her body, right?).

All of these ideas clearly go against the truth we find in God’s Word, so we, as Christians, should not and cannot accept or affirm them. As Paul said, we are not to “be conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2, ESV). But this is easier said than done. When we refuse to affirm these worldly ideas, we’re labeled as hateful bigots, and it’s possible we may receive malicious messages, physical attacks, or even death threats. But this is not a new problem.

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In Bible Study, Blog, Colossians on
April 27, 2020

With Him

“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, buried with Christ in baptism, raised to walk in newness of life.”

Baptism is one of the two ordinances that was instituted by Jesus during His life on this earth and is practiced by the Church today (the other being communion). The act of baptism, being immersed in a body of water and being raised up out of it, is an outward symbol of an inward event – salvation, the death of the old self and the birth of the new self.

When pastors perform a baptism, they say something like the quote at the top of this blog – “buried with Christ in baptism, raised to walk in newness of life.” Those, like myself, who have been attending church since childhood tend to not pay attention to these words. We hear them, but we hear them so often that we usually don’t contemplate their meaning or origin.

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