John 14 begins with Jesus telling His disciples about His Father’s house and that He was going to prepare a place for them after which He would return and take them there to be with Him forever. Thomas apparently not understanding all this says “Lord, we do not know where You are going, And how […]
Sheep and shepherds were a big part of ancient Israel, the nation of whom God had said was “the flock of My pasture” Ezekiel 34:31, and His commitment to them through the prophet Isaiah was that He would “feed His flock like a shepherd” 40:11. Then in Psalm 100:3 they acknowledge that “we are His […]
Jesus Himself speaking in John 10:1, using a metaphor from the agriculture of His day, said, “Most assuredly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold (the kingdom of God) by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” A sheepfold was an enclosure […]
No less than seven times in John’s gospel did Jesus identify Himself as “I am”, I see these powerful statements linking Him with God the Father who in Exodus 3:14 indentified Himself to Moses as “I AM WHO I AM”. As “God manifest in the flesh” 1 Timothy 3:16, Jesus is everything God the Father […]
As we continue looking at Psalm 46, in verses 8-11 we see God as our victorious warrior. The desolations He makes in the earth are explained by Jamieson-Fausset-Brown as literally, ‘who hath put desolations’, destroying our enemies.” Making wars to cease might refer to the time the angel of the Lord slew 185,000 Assyrian soldiers […]
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” Psalm 46:1. A refuge is a shelter, a place of protection, a fortress, and a place of hope. The message here in Psalm 46 1-7 is that even when the earth and all that is in it are in turmoil, in God there […]
2 Corinthians 1:10 says, “Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us.” This verse seems to allude to three stages of salvation, “delivered us” being the moment we were “born again” and sins power over us was broken; “does deliver us” […]
In Matthew 25:1-13 we have recorded one of Jesus well known parables. Keep in mind that a parable is a story of earthly activity with a spiritual meaning, and all the details which are part of the earthly side of the story need not necessarily apply to the central theme, which in this parable is […]
In Luke 18:1-8 Jesus “spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.” In Luke’s account this is recorded on the heels of Jesus teaching about His return and the conditions on earth leading up to it, thus we can take encouragement to remain steadfast and not become disheartened […]
We read about this “living hope” in 1 Peter 1:3-5. What is living hope? It is hope with assurance that its object will come to pass without question; it is a confidence that its end is absolutely certain! It is God’s guarantee to us that He will give us “a future and a hope”, or […]