Category: Bible Study

“Oh, that I might be firm in the ways of keeping Your statutes!” –Psalm 119:5 Is your Ash Wednesday Lenten resolve still firm or are temptations wearing down your self-denial? Our weak flesh is vulnerable to the relentless pressures of temptation. We desire to do what is right, but we don’t have the power (see Rm 7:18). Our old, sinful nature rebels against our new, redeemed nature. There’s a civil war raging inside us (see Jas 4:1). What wretches we are! (Rm 7:24) “Who can free” us? (Rm 7:24) Jesus has set us free (Jn 8:36). He freed us for...

“Everyone who grows angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment.” –Matthew 5:22 Jesus has a higher standard for personal relationships than we do. No one but Christ demands such love in our relationships. Here are some of Jesus’ standards for relationships: 1) immediate removal of resentment, unforgiveness, and anger (Mt 5:25), 2) loving enemies even to laying down our lives for them (Mt 5:44; 1 Jn 3:16), 3) sharing fellowship with the poor, lame, and blind (Lk 14:13), 4) anticipating each other in showing respect (Rm 12:10), 5) building up one another instead of acting out of rivalry...

“If you, with all your sins, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to anyone who asks Him!” –Matthew 7:11 Lent means “springtime.” As nature awakens from the dormancy of winter to the vitality of spring, so should our life in the Spirit break forth into new life. The Lord wants to give us a freshness and a newness in our relationship with Him. He wants to go on a “second honeymoon” with us and restore our early love (see Rv 2:4). He desires to bring us back...

“Just as Jonah was a sign for the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be a sign for the present age.” –Luke 11:30 For modern-day readers of today’s Gospel, the sign of Jonah is that he spent three days buried in the belly of the large fish (Jon 2:1). After three days, the fish spit him alive onto the shore. Thus, Jonah prefigured Jesus’ three-day burial and subsequent Resurrection. In today’s text, Jesus refers to Jonah being “a sign for the Ninevites” (Lk 11:30). The Old Testament book of Jonah makes no mention of Jonah telling the people of...

“If you forgive the faults of others, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours. If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive you.” –Matthew 6:14-15 The above Scripture passage from today’s Gospel reading is blunt and clear. “The measure with which you measure will be used to measure you” (Mt 7:2). Our eternal forgiveness and salvation depend upon whether or not we have forgiven those who have wronged us. Yet we are only human, and our sinful nature inherited from original sin makes forgiveness impossible from a human standpoint. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing, particularly...