Category: Bible Study

“Never take my son back there!” —Genesis 24:8 Abraham insisted that Isaac never go back to Abraham’s ancestral place of origin, the land of the Chaldeans. That was a place of pagan religion. Abraham, who had left that land to follow the call of God, knew that going back to his lifestyle before God called him might mean permanently turning away from God. We live in a culture of death. Temptations in the secular culture abound, and the pressure to “fall away from [our] sincere and complete devotion to Christ” may overcome us (2 Cor 11:3). Perhaps we have a...

“The boat began to be swamped by the waves. Jesus was sleeping soundly.” —Matthew 8:24 Over the centuries, Church fathers and Scripture scholars have seen the Gospel boat as a representation of the Church. On occasion, the boat is rocked by violent storms, which threaten imminent destruction. Through it all, Jesus is constantly present to the Church, even when He seems to be sleeping (Mt 8:25). In the last few decades, the Catholic Church in the United States was “swamped” (Mt 8:24) by the storm of scandal. Some pundits even speculate that “we are lost” as a Church (Mt 8:25)....

“Merciful and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger and abounding in kindness.” —Psalm 103:8 Abraham asked the Lord to spare the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah if there were ten innocent people in those cities (Gn 18:32). Yet the cities were destroyed by fire and brimstone because there were not ten innocent people in them, and possibly because Abraham stopped interceding for the inhabitants of these cities. Abraham possibly stopped interceding because: He thought he had reached the limits of God’s mercy. This was wrong because in the light of the new covenant we know the Lord’s mercy...

“You have been called to live in freedom.” —Galatians 5:13 “It was for liberty that Christ freed us. So stand firm, and do not take on yourselves the yoke of slavery a second time!” —Galatians 5:1 After we make the ultimate decision to convert, we spend all our time with the Lord and all our lives for Him. Then we get to know the Lord personally, and it doesn’t take us long to realize that the Lord is preoccupied with our freedom. We should expect this because Jesus’ mission is to set the captives free (Lk 4:18). He died on...

“Peter was thus detained in prison, while the church prayed fervently to God on his behalf.” —Acts 12:5 Because Jesus is God and is Head of the Church, the Church is invincible. For example, Peter, the leader of the leaders of the early Church, was miraculously freed from “death row” shortly before King Herod had planned to execute him. Paul, the great missionary of the early Church, testified: “I was saved from the lion’s jaws. The Lord will continue to rescue me from all attempts to do me harm and will bring me safe to His heavenly kingdom” (2 Tm...