Tagged: Bible Study

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

“When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, who adopted him as her son and called him Moses; for she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’ ” –Exodus 2:10 Pharaoh’s daughter named Moses. This is very significant because in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, to name a person means to give them their identity. Thus, the Lord often changes the names of people in the Bible. However, the Lord did not change Moses’ name but let him struggle for most of his life with his identity. After God revealed His own name to Moses,...

TAMING OF THE SHREWD

“Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase.” –Exodus 1:10 We live in a modern-day Egypt. Many groups conspire to stop our increase: doctors, nurses, therapists, talk show hosts, magazine authors, government agencies, groups such as Planned Parenthood, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances. At the head of this conspiracy is Satan, who is still dealing shrewdly with God’s people to keep children from being conceived, birthed, and raised to healthy Christian maturity. Shrewd remarks and putdowns may stop increases as effectively as artificial contraception, abortion, and sterilization. Satan has used his pawns to shrewdly attempt to take control...

Keep yourself from idols…

1 John 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (WEB) I love the simplicity, yet pround nature of John’s final words in 1 John. Throughout this whole letter, John is addressing his readers as his ‘little children’. In his parting words to them, he simply says… ‘keep yourselves from idols’. In the pagan world system that John lived in, it would be easy to spot an idol. There were actual temples dedicated to false gods throughout the Gentile empire. Idol worship was considered the norm back then. In many cultures today, we still see temples erected to false gods, but...

THE “IN” CROWD

“In Him…” –Ephesians 1:4, 11, 13 St. Paul is completely preoccupied with being in Jesus. In today’s passage from Ephesians, Paul mentions benefits and blessings that come from being in Jesus numerous times in twelve verses. Paul is underscoring the critical differences of our location: it makes an eternal difference whether we live our life in Jesus or outside of Jesus. Paul proclaims that in Jesus we: have “every spiritual blessing in the heavens” (Eph 1:3), have been “chosen” before the world began, to be holy and blameless (Eph 1:4, 11, 13), have been chosen “to be full of love”...

He will keep you from stumbling…

Jude 1:24-25 Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. (WEB) I am thankful that it is God Himself that is able to keep us from stumbling. Our salvation began in our Father’s heart before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1) and it will culminate on that day when we all see Jesus face to face. And every day in between, the...