We tend to rush through the book of Job. Like many of our activities today, our journey with the Bible also suffers from that focus on instant gratification. We want a quick takeaway which we can immediately apply to our lives or share on Facebook or Twitter. And so we are quick to extract a…
Category: Bible Study
Nineveh Repented
Jonah 3:1-10 Nineveh, the heart of the the great Assyrian kingdom, repented at the preaching of Jonah. It was unexpected – even by the preacher. Yet it happened. This was a revival! Everyone turned – from the greatest to the least person. What can we see? We see God’s salvation reaching out to non-Jews long…
A Note on the late Gordon Fee and his Book
‘Passionate scholar’ need not be an oxymoron. Gordon Fee, who died on Tuesday at the age of 88, exemplified this in his career and teaching. The book he co-authored, How to Read the Bible for AlI Its Worth (now in its fourth edition), has been very helpful in showing how literary genre, background, and other…
God’s Glory in every Nation: A Reflection on John Piper’s Let the Nations be Glad
“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t” —John Piper I recall when I first came across the above quote, which was long before picking up this book. Like many of John Piper’s lines, it’s striking. And it’s quite fitting to open up this remarkable book on…
Paul’s Triad: Faith, Hope, and Love
The thirteenth chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians has rightly been called the Love chapter. But it also highlights what may be described as the paradigm of the Christian life. In verse 13 , Paul identifies what has come to be known as the theological virtues. So now faith, hope, and love abide,…
When Peter Wept
Peter had been probably the most confident and outspoken of all the disciples. We see him offering to come to Jesus when he was walking on water while other disciples were afraid (Matthew 14:28). We note his inspired confession of Jesus’s Messiahship and heavenly origin (Mathew 16:16). He was also so certain he would remain…
Joseph’s Tears
“Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.” Genesis 40:14,15 How…
The Quiet Witness of Sarah
In the grand story of God’s redemption, Sarah might not be seen as a significant figure. Of course, she partakes of God’s promise to Abraham as his wife. And she is naturally recognized because it’s through her that the child of promise is born (Genesis 17:21). God also changes her name to indicate her status…
Who is Jesus?
We cannot answer this question without first asking who God is. And according to scripture, God is the being who created all things and on whom all things depend (Genesis 1:1; Acts 17:24-28). Jesus is the Son of God who came into the world to redeem it. Here are some things we learn from the…
Are you a Wretch?
John Newton’s popular hymn has that jarring line: Amazing grace, How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me. A wretch? Few of us would call ourselves by that term. We are far too respectable. With our advanced degrees and cultured upbringing, we are anything but wretches. However, one result of an awakened heart…
The Christian Mind 