Solomon investigated hard work as a possible way of supplying meaning to life. He realized, however, that if he worked, at the end of his life he would have to leave all the fruit of his labors to people who had not worked. He concluded that this would be foolish and extremely unfair.
Continue reading WHY SHOULD WE WORK IF HARD WORK PROVIDES SO FEW REWARDS?
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Continue reading SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY (JOHN 15:18-25 “THE WORLDS HATRED”)
The sights, sounds, and smells of any form of public execution are never pleasant, but it is hard to find a method of execution more disturbing than crucifixion. The notion of crucifixion seems to have grown from the practice of impaling lifeless of living persons on a post. This practice morphed into crucifixion and was employed by the Persians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Jews, and eventually Romans.
Continue reading EVERYDAY BIBLE LIFE (CRUCIFY)
In the beginning, Eve was not her name.
Eve wasn’t even second choice for the name of humanity’s mother. It was third. Adam came up with it only as they were leaving the Garden of Eden, forced out of God.
Continue reading A LITTLE KNOWN FACT ABOUT (EVE)
The prophet Ezekiel is addressed as “son of man,” a title used for him over ninety times throughout the book of Ezekiel. The title shows the contrast between Ezekiel, a man, and the almighty Lord. This name would portray Ezekiel’s human limits and weaknesses in contrast to the glory and greatness of God.
Continue reading WHAT DOES “SON OF MAN” MEAN?
5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;
6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?
Continue reading SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY (LUKE 11:5-13)
After Jesus launched His public ministry, He began to preach and baptize in the same area where John the Baptist was working. Jesus invited at least two of John’s disciples to join His ministry team. One of these was Andrew, the fisherman and brother of Peter. The other is unknown, but many people think he was the apostle John, the son of Zebedee. If John the Baptist objected to these disciples leaving him to follow Jesus, we see no hint of such an objection in the biblical account (John 1:35-39).
Continue reading JOHN CONTINUES TO HONOR JESUS
The number four and groups of four connect with our sense of place in the horizontal world. Everything around us is in one of four directions: east, west, north, or south. In the worldview of the Old Testament, complete descriptions were often developed in sets of four. When the tax collector Zacchaeus expressed his practical faith in Jesus, he included a promise to “pay four times as much as I owe to those I have cheated in any way” (Luke 19:8). Jesus accepted that commitment as a sign of genuine repentance, symbolic of completeness. And there are four Gospels, a complete picture of the life of Christ.
Continue reading SIGNS AND SYMBOLS OF THE BIBLE (FOUR/4)
Jacob entered the world grasping-literally. The secondborn of twin boys, Jacob started his life journey by grasping his brother Esau’s heel. The symbolism is difficult to ignore. Jacob wanted what was his-and then some.
Continue reading MEN OF THE BIBLE (JACOB “THE QUEST FOR RECONCILIATION”)
1.Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
Continue reading SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY (REVELATION 2:1-13)