John chapter seven is remarkable in so many ways, but one truth stands out. Read the entire chapter, and it becomes immediately apparent that the people of the first century were struggling to decide who Jesus was and where He was to fit in their lives. There was no way they could deny that Jesus lived among them. The same is true…

The city of Tyre is mentioned nearly sixty times in seventeen books of the Bible. This ancient Phoenician city occupies an important place in both Bible and world history. Many great truths are understood as we look at those verses which tell us about this important nation, which developed our alphabet and spread it around the western world. Nebuchadnezzar and Tyre While…

God’s people were destined for the Babylonian captivity, and the prophet Ezekiel continually reminded them of the consequences of all they were doing. In Ezekiel 34, he shows why some sheep leave the fold. Many people think of the twenty-third psalm as the “Shepherd’s psalm.” There is another chapter we could rightly think of as the “shepherds’ chapter.” Ezekiel 34:1-6 addresses the…

Have you ever experienced that time in your life when you had done wrong and were so depressed that you were close to just giving up trying? You hated what you had done and were so disappointed in yourself? Embarrassment and shame for your actions had taken control of your life. It was not always that way, for each of us have…

Christianity was never designed to be a religion of sadness. The words joy and rejoice are found more than 400 times in the Bible. How could any relationship with God be anything other than the most marvelous experience one could have on this earth? When Paul described the fruit of the Spirit working in our lives, the second word he used was…

We may not think of that shepherd boy as a preacher, but perhaps we should. When David arrived at the battlefront, almost every word he spoke proclaimed the power and majesty of God. His words give great insight into the heart that God described as being like His own heart. David’s older brother saw him as a youth who had abandoned the…

When Jesus foretold the time when not a single stone of that majestic temple in Jerusalem would rest upon another, the disciples asked for signs which would precede the destruction of that temple and the end of Judaism (Mark 13:4; Luke 21:7). The Lord gave at least eight distinct signs which would come before that event. He then foretold of another event…

For more than two hundred years, every person who entered the temple saw everything the way Solomon had established it. Entering through the east gate, one first saw the magnificent bronze altar designed by David and built and dedicated by Solomon. That was exactly the way it should be. One should not approach God’s holy presence without a reminder of man’s need…