CHRIST the OUTPOURING: “He poured out His soul unto death” (Isa 53:12). When Christ “emptied Himself” (kenoo, Php 2:7), who received the outflow of this fullness? We know the answer: “of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace” (Jn 1:16). If we can truly hear what Paul tells the Ephesians, we should […]
“Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him!” (Job 26:14). The theater of Aspendos is one of the best-preserved in the Roman world. Built from 161-169 AD in Lycia (modern Turkey), an area visited briefly by Luke and Paul as recorded in Acts 27, the […]
Charles Darwin wrote: “To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree” (Origin of Species, 1859, […]
Yes, God helps those who help themselves—to the resources He’s made available to us in Christ. We are approaching the conclusion of Round 3 of the grand debate. The following six chapters (Job 26–31) are Job’s last effort to answer his critics, make his appeal to God, and find any sense in the broken shards […]
The SON and the BREATH of GOD: Even the breath of the Lord has power in it! We know the Son was the Creator of everything (Jn 1:3). How did He do it? “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth” […]
“I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel” (Ps 31:12). Supposedly designed to look like a stairway to heaven, Wat Arun (“Temple of Dawn”) dominates the western side of the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, Thailand. The Buddhist holy site is noted for its colorful, glazed ceramic […]
Don’t the following verses teach that all people will ultimately be saved? Col 1:20; Eph 1:10; 1 Tim 2:4-6; 4:10; 1 Cor 15:22-28; Phil 2:9-11. This is the teaching of Universalism. Note that both Col 1:20 and Eph 1:10 speak of reconciliation, but only of things in heaven and earth, not things under the earth. […]
“How Thou canst think so well of us, Yet be the God Thou art, Is darkness to my intellect, But sunshine to my heart.” —F.W. Faber 1236. Job concludes his speech with a challenge: “Now if it is not so, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?” (Job 24:25). As if he needs […]
CHRIST the MAKER—and REMAKER: “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (Jn 1:3). But our Lord was not finished MAKING when the world was finished! Through His precious sacrifice, “He has MADE US ACCEPTED in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6). And as a result, “now in Christ Jesus […]