Category: Bible Study

“Through Him we have been favored with apostleship, that we may spread His name.” –Romans 1:5 Paul, “set apart to proclaim the gospel of God” (Rm 1:1), wrote to the Romans to prepare them to be a home-base for future evangelism in Spain (Rm 15:24, 28). Paul was always thinking of reaching more people for Christ. He would use a courtroom as a forum for preaching the Gospel (Acts 26:1ff). He even stopped to convert the jailer during a jailbreak (Acts 16:28ff). Paul repeatedly risked his life to preach the Gospel (2 Cor 11:23ff). He was single-hearted; evangelism was the...

“Jesus looked at him with love and told him, ‘There is one thing more you must do.’ ” –Mark 10:21 The Lord’s will is not only that we love Him but that we love Him with all our hearts, all our souls, all our strength, and all our minds (Lk 10:27). It is relatively easy to give ninety-five percent, even ninety-eight percent, of our lives to the Lord. However, the great decision and the fiercest battle is about giving that last percent or two of our lives to God. That last percent is our all, the “one thing” more we...

“Crowd upon crowd in the valley of decision; for near is the day of the Lord in the valley of decision.” –Joel 4:14 In today’s first Mass reading, God invites the nations to gather in the valley of decision. He tells the nations, in effect: “Bring up your weapons of war; I want to see all your military might” (see Jl 4:9). The nations think they will be fighting; in reality, they are gathering to be judged. In the valley of decision, the angels apply the sickle to the harvest at the end of time. There is to be a...

“Next it goes out and returns with seven other spirits far worse than itself, who enter in and dwell there. The result is that the last state of the man is worse than the first.” –Luke 11:26 “No man can serve two masters” (Mt 6:24); there’s only room for one. That’s what Jesus refers to in today’s Gospel passage. We cannot be double-minded (see Jas 3:9ff). It’s important to empty ourselves of ungodly things and desires, but once that emptying is done, there is a vacuum, a void. Something will fill that void — either godly desires or ungodly ones....