Read The Bible

Although I did not know it, while I was in my last year of high school my parents made a quiet vow before the Lord. For reasons too complicated to go into here, they decided that unless certain things happened, at the...

When I was still a very young man, I became pastor of a smallish church in Canada. The people were very kind toward me, and were far more patient of my faults and errors than I deserved. There was one woman in that...

In the New Testament, there are two explicit church offices. On the one hand, there are pastors (the word comes from the Latin expression for “shepherds”), who are also called elders or overseers (the word rendered...

Current agendas mean that when 1 Timothy 2 is referred to in contemporary discussions, usually the focus is on 1 Timothy 2:11–15. So we shall reflect on 1 Timothy 2:1–7 . (1) Transparently, Paul urges that Christians...

Some years ago I received a letter from someone who told me that he had read one of my books and was upset that I had often referred to the Lord Jesus Christ as “Jesus.” He quoted several passages about confessing Jesus...

The passage in 2 Thessalonians 3:6–13 is unique in the New Testament. Nowhere else do we find so many lines devoted to the sin of idleness. Certainly it is possible to transform work itself, or the rewards that stem...

It has always been easy to get things wrong about the return of Jesus. Sometimes this springs from ignorance, sometimes from a distorted emphasis. Judging from 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12 , such dangers have been present...

I once heard a pastor preach through 2 Thessalonians 1 under the following outline: A good church going through a rough time (2 Thess. 1:3-4) A good God waiting for the right time (2 Thess. 1:5-10) A good man praying in...

The last chapter of 1 Kings, 1 Kings 22 , many believers find troubling. For here God himself is presented as sending out “a lying spirit” (1 Kings 22:22) who will deceive King Ahab and lead him to his destruction. Does...

In 1 Thessalonians 4 , Paul once again provides explicit instruction to his converts on how to live ( see meditation for October 4 ). Although his time with the Thessalonians was brief, Paul can look back on those few...

The intensity of the relationship between Paul and his converts surfaces again and again. There is never a trace of mere professionalism in Paul. For all that he is prepared on occasion to stand on his apostolic...

Doubtless Elijah expected that, after the triumphant confrontation on Mount Carmel, Israel would turn back to the living God ( 1 Kings 19 ). As he had executed the false prophets, so Queen Jezebel herself would be...

It is tempting to comment further on the Pauline triad found in 1 Thessalonians 1:3 ( see meditation on October 11 ), but the confrontation on Mount Carmel ( 1 Kings 18 ) beckons. The most shocking thing about that...

Here and there in the New Testament we are suddenly given brief glimpses of arrays of Christian people. Romans 16 provides such a snapshot, and Colossians 4:7–18 provides us with another. The men and women briefly...

First and 2 Kings narrate the declining fortunes of both the northern and southern kingdoms. Occasionally there is a reforming king in one realm or the other. But on the whole the direction is downward. Some orientation...