In 1882, Priscilla J. Owens penned these opening words of a familiar hymn: “We have heard the joyful sound: Jesus saves! Jesus saves!”  What could be a more “joyful sound” than that?  In fact, if you were looking for a simple two-word summary of the whole Bible, you could not find one better than “Jesus saves!”  Let us think about this exciting…

Unlike the teachings of many today, a Christian can fall from grace. Paul warned in Galatians 5:4 that a return to the traditions of the Old Law could result in falling from grace. In Hebrews 3:12, the Hebrew writer warned Christians to beware, “…lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God…” Also,…

We continue this week looking at a problem the scribes and teachers of the Old Testament possibly could have had if they made a deep study of the Scriptures. They obviously knew the Messiah was to come and hundreds of prophecies could have lead them to discover so much about Him. There were those prophecies where one word used to describe Jesus…

“Well, that’s a typical preacher thing to say, isn’t it?  Of course, a preacher is going to say that the church is a BIG deal to Christ!  That’s what he’s supposed to say!”  I guess someone could respond that way, but let’s approach this strictly from the viewpoint of the Bible.  Let’s not give attention to what any ordinary man has said…

One of the takeaways I had from preaching school was that I wished every Christian could go and have the same kind of intensive study. Every day I was opening my Bible and being guided on how to know the stories and scriptures better. I was challenged to wrestle with difficult passages and commands and apply them in my daily life. Preaching…

When the Jews returned from Babylonian captivity, they immediately began to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem that Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed, and they had a major problem. In one of the three times Satan is mentioned in the Old Testament, he magnified this problem. There was no high priest who was holy to offer the sacrifices for sin and atonement. Read about this…

Have you ever played a pickup basketball game where every guy on the court thought that he was in charge?  Two things usually result: chaos and frustration.  What about in your workplace—what if every person there thought they were the boss?  Can you imagine (or maybe you don’t have to) the chaos and frustration that would erupt?  How easily we understand the…

Alright. I need you to stop what you’re doing and pray! Right now. Yes! Right now. Put down the bulletin and come back to me when you’re done. Sometimes we need a good reminder to pray. Unfortunately, it is far too easy for us to forget. There are so many things of far less value that we never forget to do. So,…