With so many different Bibles available today, it is good to know the best ones for specific purposes. When it comes to reading through the Bible from start to finish, the job has been made much easier by F. LaGard Smith in h...
One of my most favorite memories of living in Israel was experiencing the peace and rest of a Shabbat. Many of us are lacking peace these days, so every Friday I plan to share with you a short devotional to bring inspiration ...
This week we reach the end of the Bible and can, therefore, better understand the beginning! The book of Revelation climaxes with what God had intended in Genesis but lost—fellowship with mankind. The Bible tells this amazing...
We are going to close out the New Testament with books written from a Hebraic world view. The books of James and Hebrews were written to Jewish members of the early church and written about subjects of great concern to them. ...
In Paul’s final letters he advices the young leader Timothy how to handle specific problems in the church under his care. Only when we understand what was happening in Ephesus and the small church there do we understand why P...
The Apostle Paul was hand-picked by the Risen Christ for a pioneering and ground-breaking calling. This zealous Jew was called to take the good news of the kingdom to a pagan, gentile world. Could anything have been harder? W...
Romans is considered to best, most concise presentation of the gospel in all of the New Testament. Interesting that it also includes the most thorough treatment of God’s dealings with the people of Israel and how the church s...
The early church was initially made up of Jews who believed Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, and boy were they surprised when gentiles started getting saved. This introduced so many problems into the already difficult life of th...
Two of the most exciting portions of Scripture include the resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the early church. In-between those two events is a conversation between Jesus and the disciples that...
Experience the final week of Jesus’ life and listen in as He begins to prepare His disciples for what lies ahead. He warns of the coming destruction of Jerusalem and describes His eventual return to earth at which time He tak...
Do you sometimes bemoan the holidays because of family squabbles? Well, you haven’t seen anything until you hear about Jesus’ holidays. Each time Jesus arrives in Jerusalem for a holiday, He has major confrontations with Jewi...
Jesus used parables depicting common every day events in order to convey spiritual truths. While they were an effective teaching tool the disciples often asked for further explanation. We too need the help of the Holy Spirit ...
This week we will come to the heart of Jesus’ message and purpose. The people were looking for someone to free them from the brutal rule of Rome. Jesus had come, however, to reveal the heart of the Father to the people and to...
This week we will come to that climactic moment the world had been waiting for—the moment God had been setting the stage for not only throughout the Old Testament but also during the 400 year period in between the Old and New...
Hear the story of the Old Testament summed up in just 15 minutes. This is an excellent review of the Old Testament and great way to prepare to read through the New Testament. Understand the grand story behind all the stories ...
Nehemiah demonstrates great leadership as he brings a third group of exiles back to rebuild Jerusalem. He encounters much resistance but in the end the walls are rebuilt. Ezra leads the people in a renewal of their covenant w...
The temple has been rebuilt but Jerusalem is still in ruins. Yet, Zechariah is given visions of a day when Jerusalem is the center of world attention and the nations will come up to worship the Lord there. At the same time, G...
The prophets Haggai and Zechariah are used by God to bring correction and encouragement to the people of Israel tasked with rebuilding the temple. Their words echo those to Moses and Joshua hundreds of years earlier: “be stro...
After seventy years of exile, singing the songs of Zion in a foreign land and wondering if God would ever favor them again, the children of Israel witnessed the end of the Babylonian empire. The new Persian king, Cyrus, allow...
The book of Job teaches many lessons—one is how God speaks with power and not just words. When God speaks to us it is often accompanied with an overwhelming peace or with the resolve and commitment necessary to obey His promp...
Ezekiel leaves the exiles with his final vision of a magnificent temple belonging to a future era of restoration. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refuse to bow down to the golden idol and are delivered out of the fiery furnace...
The Lord gives King Zedekiah one last chance to save Jerusalem from destruction, but he refuses. So, the Babylonians conquer Judah and burn all of Jerusalem including the temple, and a remnant flees to Egypt taking Jeremiah w...
God gives King Zedekiah one last chance to repent but he refuses. So Ezekiel’s wife dies as a prophetic sign it is all over and the Lord had lost his beloved Israel to judgment. He had done everything He could to avoid this m...
While Jeremiah was the main prophet within the kingdom of Judah, God calls one of the exiles to be the prophet to those in captivity. Ezekiel has tremendous visions beginning with one when God calls him into ministry and the ...