Browsing Tag:

Bible Study

In Bible Study, Blog, Isaiah on
December 20, 2021

A Child is Born

Christmas is a busy time of year. It’s a time of baking cookies, hosting holiday parties, and singing all of your favorite Christmas carols. It’s a time of wrapping presents, drinking hot chocolate, and last-minute shopping for that one family member you didn’t know was coming into town. It’s a time of hanging lights, decorating trees, and watching classic films, like Home Alone, Christmas with the Kranks, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. For some, Christmastime is filled with joy and cheer. For others, Christmastime is filled with stress and exhaustion.

No matter what life stage or season we’re in, we all have busy schedules at the end of each year, and we all get to a point where it feels like there is so much to do and so little time to do it all in. But as we attempt to fit in all the festivities and events, we miss something. We forget that Christmas is about more than the gifts and the music and the décor. It’s a day when we are to celebrate the birth of a child. And not just any child, but the Son of God.

What is so special about this child? Why does this boy named Jesus deserve our focus, our reverence, our worship? We can discover the answers to these questions by consulting a roughly 2,700-year-old Jewish prophecy written by a man named Isaiah.

Read more
By
/
2 Comments
In Bible Study, Blog, Thanksgiving on
November 22, 2021

But God

When the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2021, people were ecstatic to leave the woes and troubles of 2020 behind. However, it appears that 2020’s issues followed us into 2021 and, in some cases, became even worse. People are still contracting and dying from diseases, often without any family or friends beside them as they take their final breaths. Workers are still being let go from their jobs, even though there is an ongoing nationwide worker shortage. Small businesses are still facing product delays, and the threats of inflation keep rising and rising. Corrupt world leaders are still enacting laws and policies that oppress their constituents, getting bolder and more authoritarian by the day. And many churches are still parroting the slogans and jargon of our secular culture and beginning to move away from biblical Christianity.

With all these things happening in our culture, country, and world, it may seem hard to find something to be thankful for this year. But we, as Christians, have a lot to be thankful for regardless of what’s going on around us. Whenever we’re feeling discouraged or disappointed, we just need to remember two little words: “But God.”

Read more
By
/
3 Comments
In Bible Study, Blog, Matthew on
October 18, 2021

Judge Not

We live in a society where judgment is not tolerated. When a person makes certain choices or decisions in their life, they expect everyone to accept and affirm them. But if anyone pushes back or questions the decision, they act as if their identity and personhood is being denied, and they label their questioner as a hateful bigot. And this reaction is amplified if the person who pushes back is a Christian.

The Bible calls Christians to be kind and compassionate (Ephesians 4:32), to love their neighbors (Matthew 22:39), even if their neighbor is their enemy (Matthew 5:44). Because of this, many people, including many believers, think that Christians should not disagree with anyone publicly. Somehow, this is seen as being “unloving,” and if you do try to disagree with someone’s choices or actions, someone is sure to throw the common Bible verse at you: “Judge not, that you be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1, ESV) However, this Bible verse is very often misused, especially in the situation described above. To find out the true meaning of this verse, we must look at it in context.

Read more
By
/
In Attributes of God, Blog, Theology on
September 27, 2021

He is True

Do you believe in absolute truth? Do you believe that something can be true no matter what? If you do, you’re in the minority! According to a 2020 Barna Group research study, 58% of American adults believe that truth depends on the individual, and that even includes people who claim to be born-again Christians.[1] The majority of Americans believe that moral truth is relative. They believe there are no absolute truths, which is ironic because by saying there are no absolute truths, one is admitting that there actually is at least one. We, as Christians, should believe that there are absolute moral truths because we have the Source of absolute truth-

Read more
By
/
In Bible Study, Blog, Genesis on
September 20, 2021

Did God Really Say?

As the popularity of progressive Christianity rises, it appears that more and more “believers” are questioning what God has commanded in Scripture. They ask questions like, Did God really say that homosexuality is a sin? Did God really say that only men can be pastors? Did God really say we should pursue modesty and purity? Did God really say there’s only one way to heaven and those who don’t go to heaven will go to hell? And when those who claim to be Christians continue questioning the Word of God, they tend to move further and further away from the faith until they leave Christianity altogether.

While this questioning of Scripture may seem like a fairly new phenomenon, it’s actually a very ancient temptation from the lips of the devil himself. It goes all the way back to the very beginning, to the story of the Fall in Genesis 3.

Read more
By
/
1 Comment