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Bible Study

In Bible Study, Blog, John on
April 10, 2023

The Door

Back in 2019, I traveled to Romania on a mission trip, and while I was there, our team had the opportunity to visit a Romanian Orthodox church in Bucharest. It was a rather small church, but its distinct beauty made up for its humble size. The front doors were made of solid wood, carved with an ornate floral design. Chandeliers and metallic lanterns hung from above. The walls were trimmed with gold and covered from floor to ceiling with brightly painted icons of saints who’ve passed on to glory.

Yet, despite its beautiful architecture and design, our group felt a spiritual heaviness as we walked through the doors. At the front of the room, a white-haired woman in a long coat kneeled on her knees before a priest, presumably confessing her sins to the man. The eyes of the icons stared down at us with glowing halos around their heads, reminding us of the common practice of venerating the saints. Our entire team felt a sense that it was a place of works-based religion and a place where many worshippers sought out a human mediator rather than going straight to God.

The Romanian Orthodox Church is certainly not the only church that practices these things. There are several different denominations and sects of Christianity that practice confession and veneration of the saints, that seek out mediators between them and God. However, the reality is that we have no need for an earthly mediator. We have no need to confess all our sins to a priest or honor the saints of old in a particular way. Why? Because we have Jesus. And Jesus is the Door.

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In Bible Study, Blog, John on
February 28, 2023

The Light of the World

I do not have a green thumb.

My mom is a gardener, and she loves spending hours outside planting seeds, watering plants, pruning back leaves, and harvesting vegetables for the family to eat. The entire backyard is filled with fruit trees and wood planter boxes, and we’ve enjoyed many servings of green beans, corn, and sugar snap peas from the garden.

I, on the other hand, can barely keep a houseplant alive for a few weeks or maybe a few months, if I’m lucky. I can’t tell you how many succulents or snake plants I’ve killed over the last few years. I try to water them and take care of them, but over time they all slowly shrivel up and die. The only plant I’ve managed to keep alive is a small pothos, and he’s been going strong for a little less than a year and half.

One thing I’ve discovered throughout my houseplant woes is that I often don’t give my plants enough sunlight. Most plants need a good amount of light to grow and thrive. And this is also true with other living organisms—animals, insects, human beings. Light is a basic necessity of life on earth, and without it, most life would probably cease to exist.

Believe or not, the sun is not the greatest source of light there is. There is a more powerful and more beneficial source of light in existence. This better Light of the World is the Son.

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In Bible Study, Blog, John on
January 16, 2023

The Bread of Life

I don’t know about you, but I really love bread.

I love all kinds of bread. I eat bagels in the morning for breakfast. I eat buttered toast for an evening snack. My go-to bakery item at Starbucks is banana bread. When I place an order at Panera Bread, I never ask for the chips or the apple—I always go for the baguette. If a restaurant brings breadsticks before the meal, you can bet I’m going to eat one (or two). I’m a believer that consuming chili without cornbread is sacrilegious. And if I suddenly woke up with a gluten allergy and couldn’t eat any kind of bread any more, I think I would die. (Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but I would be very, very sad.)

All of that being said, bread is great, and a lot of people think so. In fact, every country and culture around the world has some form of bread as a basic staple of their diet. The ancient Jews once had a very special kind of bread that they treasured dearly. However, their great affection and desire for this bread made them miss an even greater Bread that was right in front of them.

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In Bible Study, Blog, Exodus on
December 18, 2022

Out of Captivity

Christmas is a truly joyous time of year. Carols are playing on every radio and loudspeaker. Streets and avenues are lit up with twinkling lights. Homes are filled with the delicious scent of gingerbread cookies and the cozy warmth of the fireplace. And families gather to watch classic movies and celebrate this holiday with great cheer.

But Christmastime is not so jolly and wonderful for everyone. Instead, it’s a reminder of a loved one’s devastating passing. It dredges up old memories that we would rather leave forgotten. It can make us feel like we are lost and alone, desperately seeking a way out of our misery.

We’re certainly not the only people in history who have felt these things—lost, alone, forgotten, miserable, grieving, anxious, hopeless. But there is hope—there is always hope. And if anyone can remind us of this truth, it’s a baby born in captivity many centuries ago.

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In 1 Peter, Bible Study, Blog on
November 21, 2022

A Chosen People

In my opinion, one of the most rewarding parts of studying the Bible is when you discover a connection between the Old and New Testaments. You’ve read a passage dozens or possibly even hundreds of times, but then one day you read it again, and suddenly a lightbulb goes off, and everything just seems to click. I’ve always loved to solve puzzles and decipher mysteries, so when I feel like I’ve made sense of some mysterious verse in the Bible—whether I discover how an Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled in the New or I recognize when the New Testament is clearly quoting or referring to the Old—I get really excited.

This happened to me a few months ago as I was studying 1 Peter using a Bible study written by Lydia Brownback. I read a pair of verses that I had no doubt read countless times before. All of a sudden, the lightbulb went off, and the passage now had a much deeper and richer meaning than before.

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