Tagged: Bible Study

“If a prophet presumes to speak in My name an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die.” –Deuteronomy 18:20 If prophets prophesy something God did not tell them to say, they risk death. This makes prophets feel like being quiet. However, if prophets “do not speak out to dissuade the wicked man from his way, he [the wicked man] shall die for his guilt, but [God] will hold [them] responsible for his death” (Ez 33:8). If we are silent in the face of evil, we are held...

“Faith is confident assurance concerning what we hope for, and conviction about things we do not see.” –Hebrews 11:1 Faith is an assurance. This confident assurance concerns what we hope for but can’t see. We are saved by faith in Jesus (Eph 2:8). “All depends on faith” (Rm 4:16). Without faith, it’s impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). The conquerors of the world are those who have faith that Jesus is the Son of God (1 Jn 5:5). When Jesus comes back a second and final time, He will be looking to see if there is any faith on this...

“Do not, then, surrender your confidence; it will have great reward.” –Hebrews 10:35 Satan is trying to get us to surrender our confidence, to draw back (Heb 10:38-39), to give up, to commit spiritual suicide. To keep the faith, we have to endure “a great contest of suffering” (Heb 10:32). This contest lasts a long time. Relief in our sufferings seems indefinitely delayed (see Heb 10:37). Any benefits from our sufferings seem to be invisible or negligible. Under these circumstances, we naturally feel like giving up. Satan will even let us give up without appearing to give up everything. He’ll...

“We should not absent ourselves from the assembly, as some do, but encourage one another; and this all the more because you see that the Day draws near.” –Hebrews 10:25 This Scripture passage is used to encourage people to go to church on Sundays, but it also applies to many other gatherings. How many have made worship a Sunday-only obligation? These too are absenting themselves from the assembly for almost all of the week. Some go to the assembly but stay to themselves. They are present in body but absent in spirit. Most Christians absent themselves from the assembly by...

“But those sown on good soil are the ones who listen to the word, take it to heart, and yield at thirty- and sixty- and a hundredfold.” –Mark 4:20 Jesus tells the crowds about the fruitfulness of good soil and the reasons why soil does not bear fruit. He also gives advice on how to turn unproductive soil into fruitful ground. Jesus can soften the hardest, rockiest ground, as He did with St. Paul. But we are God’s coworkers, and Jesus plans to use us to till the ground and care for it (see Gn 2:15). This includes the care...