Please read about the withered fig tree in Mark 11:12-14, 20-25 and consider: Fig trees in Palestine may live as long as four hundred years. A well-cultivated tree should produce fruit for ten months of the year in those locales. However, because of the difficulties of translation, some have extrapolated a point from this text…
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human…
Four times, the Bible declares, “The just shall live by faith.” Paul famously wrote to the Ephesians, “For by grace you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). To the Romans, he stated, “we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand” (Romans 5:2). Faith, then, is the door into the halls…
One hundred and forty-three years ago, a fellow named Charles W. Fry wrote a hymn entitled “The Lily of The Valley.” The opening line is, “I have found a friend in Jesus; he’s everything to me.” That sentiment of friendship with Jesus turns up in quite a few Christian songs, singing of “friendship with Jesus,…
God’s word endorses mercy, as Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7). The prophet Hosea wrote that God desires “mercy, and not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6), which Jesus echoed (Matthew 12:7). The Lord wants mercy more than rituals performed by worshipers. James warns us that “judgment is without mercy to…
Certain gospel passages demand special attention and diligent consideration by the mortal mind of man. This is true of the words written by Peter in I Peter 4:17: For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begins at us, what shall the end be of…
Jesus warned against choosing the wrong goal in life. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”—Mark 8:38. No matter how great our material success in life might be in achieving possessions, power, honor, and prestige; it will be of no benefit to us if our…
Here is a question as old as the New Testament itself. However, regardless of age, this question and it’s answer should not be taken lightly. What must I do to be saved? The answer is: Obey the gospel of Christ. This answer is general in it’s character; and to fully understand its meaning it is…