JESUS CHRIST, OUR ONLY MEDIATOR Job viewed God as so great and transcendent as to be unapproachable by man. For God worked in the realm of the heavens and the stormy seas, while man was limited to dry ground. He reasoned that if only there were a mediator that could stretch out his hands between
THE DESPAIRING NEED KINDNESS NOT CORRECTION Job’s friends came to share his grief, but ended up adding to his despair. They came to sit with Job after a series of terrible events had occurred. A hurricane had collapsed his oldest son’s house, killing all of Job’s children. Raiding parties had attacked his property and stolen
PRAISING THE LORD AT ALL TIMES Job worshiped the Lord both in happiness and in the midst of suffering. He recognized that all good comes from the Lord. When he lost all that he had, he did not lose his faith. In this, his faith was tested and found genuine. How we face good and
LOVE NEVER GIVES UP Paul’s love chapter (1 Cor. 13) is one of the most wonderful descriptions of “agape” love found in any literature in human history. Yet, love’s lofty attributes are beyond mortal humanity absent the Spirit which inspired Paul’s writing. For “agape” love is God’s kind of love. It is unconditional, enduring and
IS EVERY SPIRITUAL GIFT PRESENT IN THE LOCAL CHURCH? It is the Lord that gives out spiritual gifts to those who have believed and received Jesus. He gives them to each according to His will, so that the local church has every spiritual gift it needs to function and fulfill His commission. Yet, many churches
PASSING ON THE BATON OF FAITH The apostle Paul’s teaching concerning the Lord’s Supper was faithfully passed on from the Lord to the church at Corinth. Paul reminded them that his authority as an apostle came from the Lord, as did his message. Having established his credibility, he corrected the unworthy practices of the Corinthians
HAVE YOU NEGLECTED GOD’S HOUSE? After Nehemiah completed the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, he was recalled by King Artaxerxes. When he obtained leave from the king and returned to Jerusalem, he found that those he had left in charge had not kept their promise to support the house of God. Many of its
ONE BREAD, ONE BODY The apostle Paul instructed the Corinthians concerning the significance of sharing the Lord’s Supper together. He told them that those who remember the sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper are also giving recognition to their oneness as members of Christ’s body. Just as we eat from one
SERVANT EVANGELISM The apostle Paul described his approach to sharing the gospel as becoming “a slave to everyone, in order to win more people” (1 Cor. 9:19). In other words, he sought to find common ground with his hearers when sharing the good news. When Paul was in Athens, he used their monument to
ARE YOU ATTENTIVE TO THE WORD AND WORSHIPING TOGETHER? Nehemiah led a group of Israelites back to Jerusalem to rebuild its broken down walls. They had lost their nation and freedom to worship 70 years earlier when the Babylonians had invaded. Jerusalem was destroyed and its people and wealth were carried away. But after 70