"Mark is the shortest gospel. He seems to have been less focused on giving us plenty of details and more focused on getting out a concise and clear, authoritative record of Jesus’ ministry. He set the record, which was an important job. Thankfully, one of the roles of the other gospel writers was...

"Human beings love traditions. We create routine, ritual, and generally systemize our lives. Just look at all of the different religions that we have built. Even within one religion there are often so many varying traditions that it can be really difficult to figure out what everyone believes. Wh...

"What is with our tendency to accept only parts of Jesus’ teaching? It is very popular to accept Jesus’ moral message. It is common to know that history proves that He lived, taught, and died by crucifixion, but much less popular to accept that He taught, He was the Messiah, and even less popular...

"The gospel authors do a great job of recording events from Jesus’ life that fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. There are obvious ones like how the Messiah will ride into Jerusalem on a colt, and less obvious ones like the timing of His arrival as outlined in Daniel. But whatever way you look at...

"When we listen to the words of Jesus, we learn so much about history, God’s plan for humanity, about ourselves, God’s plan for us, and even about the future. Christ taught not only about events that would happen soon after His ministry on earth, but also about what would happen to the world as G...

"It would be nice if we could stay true to the Scriptures while also preaching how great people are, and that God will endorse every lifestyle choice of ours. But that isn’t reality, is it? Or at least it should not be happening. It is not enjoyable to have to preach about sin or the devastation ...

"Details are important. And details are what the gospel writer Luke does best. In Luke 5, we are introduced to Simon Peter, a fisherman who’s minding his own business after fishing all night without any success. Luke’s portrayal of Simon Peter lets us in on some of Peter’s personality and charact...

"What does it mean to be worthy? Many of us in the modern West are a part of a democracy which deems us worthy to vote; worthy to have a voice in the shaping of our nations. This concept has become so central that to some people voting is the most important thing that we can do for our future. Wh...

"The Kingdom of God offers us so much more than this world ever could. God’s forgiveness and redemption give us an amazing hope for the future. As we read the gospels there is a lot of talk about the Kingdom of God, and we will learn that without it we are in severe trouble. You see, our citizens...

"It is clear that prayer is very important to God. Not because we have to pray a certain way, or a right way, but it is about being honest with God, inviting God into our lives, hearing God, and being heard by Him. It is also an important way that we can give praise to God. Being honest with Him ...

"It is very easy to have life objectives that are wrong. Our natural inclinations are so often against the commands of God. Our own human natures team up with our cultures and the voices and lives of people around us to shape how we live, and what we prioritize. When we come to Christ though, we ...

"Luke 21 repeats what we have also read in Matthew 24, and Mark 13. It always strikes me as so interesting to see the similarities and differences between these three accounts. Each author had their own perspective, their own themes to highlight and audiences to reach, and we get the benefit of t...

"As you read the fourth gospel, the gospel of John, you’ll be able to notice how different it is from the others. First, the gospel is organized around seven miracles of Jesus and seven “I AM” statements of Jesus. But John approaches the life of Jesus in a very different way. To open up his book,...

"Like Nicodemus, it is all too easy for us to misunderstand the meaning of the phrase “born again.” Many may equate it with the word “Christian” without considering its meaning: we take for granted what it means and move on. When we really think about it though, it is far from a platitude, it is ...

"Jesus challenged the thinking and priorities of the religious leaders of His day simply by going about His ministry. Jesus didn’t worry Himself to keep traditions of men, the modifications that had been made to the Mosaic Law. When He went to the pool of Bethesda on a Sabbath day, people may hav...

"God isn't just all-knowing, He sees our hearts and knows our reasons. We read in John 12 that it was Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, who anointed Jesus with expensive oil and wiped His feet with her hair. Deeply touched by Jesus, Mary wanted to honour Him by giving Him something of deep ...

"When I was young, I remember waiting, on my knees, at the altar in the front of the church, seeking deeply after God to do His will and not my own. I never was satisfied and thought that I had missed the will of God. I was an active young man, and the need to make decisions came before I felt th...

"I find the accounts of the arrest of Jesus to be really interesting. Consider Jesus as He was praying in the garden with His disciples. He knew that Judas and an armed group of soldiers and temple guards sent by the chief priests and Pharisees would arrive to confront Him. When Jesus asked who t...

"When Jesus rose from the dead, He completed the work of His first coming. He also left behind some significant signs for us. After the crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had prepared Jesus’ body by wrapping Him in strips of linen with a mixture of many spices, which was a common Jewi...

"Many avid readers of the Bible, as well as Bible scholars, have noted that the book of Acts is a sequel to the Gospel of Luke. It is what happened next. Like Luke, Acts was written by Luke to Theophilus. This time however, the book focuses on the fulfillment of Jesus’ words that the gospel will ...

"The recording of the Kingdom of God's early expansion continues in the book of Acts with a new soon-to-be apostle named Saul. Saul was directly confronted by the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. Originally from Tarsus, Saul had trained to become a Pharisee in Jerusalem, a strict party within...

"It sounds great that the Kingdom of God will grow and expand. It warms our hearts, it gets us excited, until we realize that the Kingdom of God is going to include people that we don’t like, or even that we deem as unworthy. Thankfully, God is not bound by the human traditions and thinking that ...