Jesus Knows Our Deeds! In the second and third chapters of the book of Revelation, Jesus Christ dictates seven letters, to seven churches located in Asia (present day Turkey). And He tells His apostle John to write down what He says. There’s a statement that is common to five of those letters. And that statement is.. “I know your deeds..” In the other two letters, Jesus says, “I know your tribulation..” …
The Word “Tribulation” There is a Greek word that appears 22 times in the original text of the New Testament, and it’s always translated “tribulation” in our English bibles. The word is “thlipsis”, and it means “pressure, affliction, anguish, persecution, trouble, tribulation”. The word is used in reference to various tribulations that have occurred to various different people. Some of these tribulations are specific to certain groups of people,…
Do You Have God’s Authority ? One day while Jesus was teaching the people in the temple, the Jewish chief priests and scribes and elders came to Him and said, “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things?” Luke 20:8 We all recognize that in establishing a teaching or doctrine, or in other words in establishing “rules”, we must have the authority to do so….
Is There a Balance Between Sin and Repentance ? One of the questions that I received here on the website was, “How do we balance our repentance with the level of our sin?” I’m sure the thought behind that question is that if you have sinned a lot, you must repent a lot. And vice-versa; If we only sin a little, we only need to repent a…
What Does The Bible Say About The Burning of Bodies? There’s a story in 1 Samuel chapter 31 about how King Saul, the first King of Israel, and his three sons were all killed in a battle with the Philistines. And the Philistines, being a ruthless and godless people, found the body of Saul, and they beheaded it and fastened the body to a wall. I suppose…
What Does the Bible Say About Burial and Cremation ? Actually, the bible gives very few specifics about burial and it says nothing about what we know as cremation. So to gain an understanding of how God feels about these subjects, we need to look at the few examples that we are given, and also look to what God tells us about the physical body and about death. We also need to…
He Who Believes Shall be Saved The bible says in several places, that it’s the person who believes, that will be saved. In the previous lesson titled WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BELIEVE, I gave several verses of scripture that say that very thing. That lesson began with these six verses.. John 3:16, John 3:18, John 6:29, John 6;40, Acts 19:4, and 1 Cor 1:21. And all those…
Reverence For The Word Of God The bible affirms again and again, that it is in fact the very word of God. For example the bible states in 2 Tim 3:16, “All scripture is inspired by God (the words “inspired by God” literally mean “God Breathed”) and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped…
Bible Interpretation The question of how to understand the bible is really a matter of how we interpret the bible. As with almost any subject, there will always be some people who tend to go to extremes. With the bible, there are some who want to interpret everything literally. And then there are some who want to interpret everything figuratively. And of course there are those who…
Whoever Believes In Him The bible says a lot about believing. Probably the most well-known verse in the bible is John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” But there’s lots of other verses as well.. For instance, John 3;18 “He who believes…
Enter By The Narrow Gate Jesus has told us, in Mathew 7:13 – 14, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow, that leads to life, and FEW are those who find it. For the gate is wide, and the way is broad, that leads to destruction, and MANY are those who enter by it.” Many will enter destruction,…
Where Does God Keep Fallen angels? There are two specific verses of scripture that tell about angels sinning. One verse is on Jude, verse 6. The other verse is in 2 Pet 2:4. Here are those two verses.. Jude V-6, “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds, under darkness for the judgment of the…
In Did God Create Satan, And Is Satan An Angel ? We’ve had two previous lessons on the subject of Satan. And we’ve learned several things. Just for a quick review, let me list what we’ve already learned from the bible. #1. “Names” given to satan. The bible refers to satan as the “devil”, and the “serpent of old”, in Rev 12:9. God also refers to satan as …
Three Questions About Satan There were three questions that we were left with in our previous lesson titled IS SATAN AN ANGEL ? One question is; Is Satan indeed an angel? Another is; Did God create Satan? And the last one is this; Is lucifer another name for Satan? I mentioned that the name lucifer was used one time in the bible, but that it…
The Bible Teaches Faith In the last couple of posts, we’ve been looking at how God uses examples to teach us. I’d like us to look at some examples of faith from the bible, but before we do that, I want us to learn some things about faith itself. The first verse of Hebrews chapter 11 gives us a short definition of what faith is. Here’s the verse.. “Now…
Spiritual Thoughts In our previous “Spiritual Thoughts” lesson, Jesus made it perfectly clear, that there are obviously things that we MUST DO, to get to heaven. He Asked in Luke 6:46, “Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and not DO what I say?” Obviously those who where calling him, Lord, Lord, did in fact believe in Him. But Jesus said, “That’s not enough just to BELIEVE,…
Spiritual Thoughts Just the other day I was talking to someone about God and the bible. And I asked him, “Do you know that the bible says you must do to be saved?” And his answer was, “Believe in Jesus”. That’s by far the most common answer that people will give to that question. And the bible affirms, you MUST believe in Jesus. Jesus Himself…
Examples From God This is our third lesson in the series called Command, Example, and Necessary Inference. We’re examining the various ways in which God has left His instructions for us concerning how He wants us to live our lives. The bible is indeed an “instruction manual” which reveals to us the nature and Spirit of God, ie.. “Love is from God, for God is love”.. 1 John 4:8; “Our God…
The Blessings of Jesus “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Mat 5:3. The poor in spirit are those who are humble and gentle in nature. Not the proud, not the pushy, not those who demand their own way. Jesus said in Mat 11:29, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me. For I am humble and…
God Commands, God Gives Examples, God Implies This is the second part of our lesson about how God gives us instructions to teach us how to live our lives, through His Holy Word. In the previous lesson we were introduced to three methods of instruction that God has used, namely, Commands, Examples, and Necessary Inferences. If you’re not sure of what “necessary inference” means, please go back to the FIRST…