Katy’s Weblog
Insights from the Bible
“For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.”
What descriptions of Jesus are repeated in this famous verse?
One of my favorite books in the Bible is Esther.
There is some question of its place in the canon of Scriptures because the word “God” is not mentioned anywhere in the book. But you can easily see that throughout the story of Esther, the fingerprint of God is all over the pages.
Gary McIntosh, professor at Biola University, says in the Biola magazine, “I wish people understood that the heart of church growth is basic evangelism. It is not about marketing, business practices or a host of other mis-perceptions…Since all people are lost apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, every church must be concerned with church growth that is accomplished through conversion evangelism. This is the heart of church growth thinking today.”
In the sermon the past Sunday, our pastor preached on the conversions of the Ethiopian, Saul, and Cornelius in Acts, chapters 8,9, and 10. In each of those cases, God used a human agent to bring someone to salvation. I noticed that even though God set up the situation, and success was sure, He doesn’t…
Today’s sermon was on the feeding of the 5,000.
If you’ve been a Christian for about 30 years like I have, you would’ve heard a zillion sermons on the feeding of the 5,000 like I have. I’ve studied and taught it myself a zillion times.
Yet, each time I read the Word of God, it…
I attend a Bible Study on Tuesday mornings, studying the book of II Timothy this year.
I want to remember what I’ve learned by jotting down three major lessons that I learned:
1. Don’t expect the Christian life to be easy. Paul and Timothy and countless others suffered for the sake of the gospel. Paul says, “Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” II Tim 2:3
In the book of Numbers, chapter 11, the Israelites were complaining that they didn’t have meat to eat. The Lord told Moses that he will indeed give the people meat to eat, not for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month. Moses was incredulous. Where in the world can he get enough meat for six hundred thousand men plus women and children for a whole month?
On another Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and was teaching. Now a man was there whose right hand was withered. The experts in the law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could find a reason to accuse him. Luke 6:6-7
The Pharisees probably had more faith in Jesus’ ability to heal than any of the disciples.
Today in my Precepts Bible study group, Hebrews 12:1 came up in our discussion: “…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles…”
To be honest, I can think of many sins that entangle me in my Christian life. The writer of Hebrews says to throw off everything that hinders…
I started to teach the book of Luke in Sunday School yesterday.
My reasons for choosing to teach Luke are:
1. To get reacquainted with Jesus so as to live more like him.
2. The book of Luke seems to be less read than the other gospels.