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Messiah

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 Bible Study, Blog, John on
October 2, 2022

Once Saved, Always Saved?

When I was a young child, I would pray the sinner’s prayer every chance I got. I grew up attending a Southern Baptist church every Sunday, so I’ve witnessed many altar calls in my lifetime. As a child, I knew that I had put my faith in Jesus, and I knew that meant I was saved. But I didn’t feel saved. I felt like surely there had to be something more to salvation than just believing in Jesus. So, I kept praying the prayer, hoping that at some point it would click and I could feel assured that I really was saved. I wanted some big, flashy sign to tell me, “Yes, you are saved!”

Assurance of salvation is something that every Christian struggles with at one point or another. We see how sinful we still are, even after repenting and trusting in Jesus, and this causes us to wonder if our salvation experience really worked the first time. These feelings of doubt and insecurity often beg the question, “Once saved, always saved?”

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In Bible Study, Blog, Luke on
May 22, 2022

Jesus Draws Near to the Outcast

There have many times in my life when I felt like an outcast. I wasn’t doing what everyone else was doing. I wasn’t wearing what everyone else was wearing. I wasn’t watching what everyone else was watching. Sometimes, I’ve been glad for this. I’ve been happy to stand out and stand up for my principles and beliefs. Other times, I’ve resented this. I just wanted to fit in with my friends and peers, and I felt judged and excluded for being different. Whether I felt my outcast identity was good or bad in the moment, it pretty much always has left me feeling lonely. Life is hard, and it’s even harder when you’re doing it alone, without the help and encouragement of someone else who’s been in the same boat.

If we’re being honest, we’ve probably all felt like outcasts at some point or another, each of us experiencing varying degrees of loneliness, judgment, and exclusion. But in the book of John, Jesus comes upon a woman who was likely far more alone, far more judged, and far more excluded than we could ever imagine. And He met her in a city of Samaria.

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