Category: Bible Study

“Blindness has come upon part of Israel until the full number of Gentiles enter in, and then all Israel will be saved.” –Romans 11:25-26 St. John Chrysostom taught: “God attached so much importance to [man’s] salvation that He did not spare His own Son for the sake of man. Nor does He ever cease to work, trying every possible means, until He has raised man up to Himself and made him sit at His right hand” (Catechism, 358). The Lord uses every means to call us to conversion. For example, by the Jews’ “transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles”...

“I speak the truth in Christ.” –Romans 9:1 St. Paul described his sufferings as follows: “…labors and imprisonments, with far worse beatings and frequent brushes with death. Five times at the hands of the Jews I received forty lashes less one; three times I was beaten with rods; I was stoned once, shipwrecked three times; I passed a day and a night on the sea. I traveled continually, endangered by floods, robbers, my own people” (2 Cor 11:23-26). Paul suffered greatly, and much of this was due to his own people’s hatred and persecution of him. Nevertheless, Paul had a...

“For I am certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor powers, neither height nor depth nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” –Romans 8:38-39 Some of you are in prison. You’ve been separated from your loved ones. Some of you are divorced or separated from spouses. You too have been separated from your loved one. Some of you have been separated from a loved one because of their death. It’s an awful, unceasing...

“You form a building which rises on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the Capstone.” –Ephesians 2:20 Some people declare themselves spiritual, but not religious. They pride themselves on not belonging to any church; they resent “structure” and “organized religion”. They see the sinners in the Church and are repulsed. They resent the Church’s “rules and regulations” and limit their relationship to “me and Jesus.” Yet Jesus never offered that as an option. Jesus came to create His Church (Mt 16:18). Jesus, the Firm Foundation, laid the Church’s foundation on Simon, Jude, and the...

“I consider the sufferings of the present to be as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed in us.” –Romans 8:18 We must never compare ourselves with others. Nor should we compare the present with the past and idealize the “good old days.” Nevertheless, we should compare the present sufferings with the future glory. When we do this, our sufferings seem like nothing. We are filled with hope and become able to endure anything, even the burdens and boredom of everyday life. When we fix our eyes on the future glory, we do not escape from present realities. In...