Have you ever heard this encouragement before? Perhaps you were at a conference, in a church service or involved in some ministry opportunity and you were charged with this grand statement. Perhaps you were even boldly told, “God has big plans for you!”

Chances are you have heard this challenge before. I heard it countless times growing up in the ...

Any spiritual explorer seeking to understand the Christian message must consider Jesus’ message about himself. You can join with him and embrace what he taught; you can reject him and call him a narcissist; you can step to the middle and let go of what seems perplexing; or you can throw up your hands and retreat into an agnostic ...

 
One of the most frequent objections to the Bible has to do with the apparent contradictions and errors found in the Bible itself. Many of these questions are easily answered, but others are more complicated.

Our starting point is very simple and something you need ...

Jesus was given many titles, like “teacher,” “rabbi,” and was sometimes even called “Messiah.” However, Jesus’ preferred form of self-reference was “Son of Man,” a phrase that occurs 66 times in the Synoptic Gospels and 12 times in the Gospel of John. But what does it mean? Who is the Son of Man?

1. “Son of Man” as a ...

The Bible claims that God is loving and all powerful. Yet we all know from personal experience that evil still exists in the world. We must admit that part of the question of the presence of evil and the biblical claim of the love and power of God simply cannot be answered. We are called, by faith, to hold the presence of evil and the character ...

 
New birth is about casting off our old, mortal life and entering into a new kind of life: the eternal life! By putting our trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, by accepting the beauty of the truth that he has died for our sins, we can start the process of Christlike growth and maturity.

We ...

 
Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to ...

Every person faces the daily decision of whether to choose God’s way or their own way. We are pressured to conform to the world and to the culture around us instead of submitting to God as our king. We are told to look out for our own self-interests instead of loving our ...

Old Testament Prophets

Prophets in the Old Testament largely advised the king, delivering words of warning, divine guidance, and encouragement. Nathan’s well known rebuke of David for his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba and his complicity in the death of her husband is a case in point (2 Samuel 12:1 – 14).

In the eighth century BC, the focus of the prophet’s message turned more to the people at ...