A Word From The Word: Baptism Sometimes we find words in scripture that everyone is familiar with—yet few actually understand. There are various reasons for this. We have to remember that if we are reading the scripture in English, we are reading someone’s translation of the original Greek or Hebrew, and every translator or committee of translators has biases. Sometimes these biases are even published so that we are aware of them. More often, we have to do some digging to discover what these biases…

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A Word From The Wor It is impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6). Jesus said if we have faith even the size of a mustard seed we could move mountains (Matthew 17:20). Paul went so far as to say that faith is the means by which we receive salvation (Ephesians 2:8). So, what exactly is faith? At this point, most Christians would quote Hebrews 11:1: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. The problem is, this…

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A Word From The Word By its very nature the gospel is relational—the relationship between God and His creation: Humanity. Throughout scripture there are indications of how important this is to us—and to God Himself. My favorite of these words is found throughout the New Testament. It is translated “help”, “comfort”, “encouragement”, “exhortation” among other words. The two most important examples of it are found in John 14:16 and 2 Corinthians 1:3-7. In John, Jesus is in the middle of what we call the farewell…

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A Word from The Word I recently studied Luke 15 again—for probably the 100th time. I have studied this passage, taught on it, and even preached it at least half a dozen times. Yet, as I was studying the passage again in preparation to preach on the Prodigal Son for a local congregation, I came across an interesting word—one which illustrates why it is important to study the Biblical text and understand what the Holy Spirit actually caused to be written. The word is found…

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A Word from The Word Those of you who know my teaching and preaching know that I place great store in the verbal inspiration of scripture. This means I believe that the Holy Spirit led the authors of various scriptural documents to use specific words. For many years now, Christians have relied on translations—and someone else’s study of that translation—to understand those words. This has led to many—even most—Christians having little understanding of some important aspects of their faith. Good teachers of the Word address…

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If you live in the US and are aware of events around you, you have noticed a number of people declaring their candidacy for President of the US. It is inevitable for those of us who follow the King and have American citizenship to think about these candidates, perhaps even deciding whether to support them or oppose them. But, before we go there (and if we have already gone there—perhaps backing up—we need to ask ourselves a question: What does being faithful to Jesus look…

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