Bible Insights
Print Still Rules
Print Still Rules
Innovative formats keep print Bibles popular in a digital age.

Everyone has heard the expression, “print is dead,” and there is no shortage of opinion about the explosion of digital publishing in the past few years. This massive shift in how people read has been changing the publishing industry, but ...

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How to Form a Lifelong Habit
How to Form a Lifelong Habit
Seven tips for introducing new Christians to the Bible.

While most Christians want to read their Bibles regularly, we often fall short of integrating Scripture reading into the daily rhythm of our lives. We rely mostly on Christian “professionals”—pastors and popular Christian teachers—to ...

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A Review of Logos 6 Bible Software
A tool filled with resources for in-depth Bible study

If you're the kind of person who has a million new questions pop up every time you hear a sermon, Logos 6 is the perfect resource to help you explore the Bible. Whether you start wondering about the original Greek, find yourself curious about ...

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Kingdom Imagination
Kingdom Imagination
What we can learn from Joshua and Caleb

Moses sent spies to the Promised Land to check things out. They brought back a mixed report.

They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live ...
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Watching and Waiting
Watching and Waiting
Advent reminds us of an even greater event coming.

Sometimes, I catch myself getting frustrated with some of the people in the Bible. They doubt, challenge God, and flat-out ignore his commands even though it seems like there's really tangible proof of his presence all over the place. Consider Zechariah, ...

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Jesus in His Own Words
In John 14:1, Jesus reassures Thomas when he tells his disciples that he is going away. Let's listen in.

"Don't worry about my going away. I know you trust in God, so put your trust in me as well. There's plenty of room for everyone in my Father's house. If it weren't so, would I have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you? And once that ...

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Overwhelmed by God
Overwhelmed by God
What we can learn from Moses' story

Moses's life started off on a less-than-usual note. A Hebrew baby, Moses was born during a time when Egypt's Pharaoh was killing Hebrew boys in hopes of protecting his throne from the people he was keeping in slavery. In desperate response, Moses's ...

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Dance in the Rain?
Dance in the Rain?
We can't dance until we learn to lament.

Just about everyone has heard the anonymous saying, "Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to dance in the rain." I wonder what the original author meant by "dance"? If they meant that we just tell ourselves ...

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What Is Your Heart Worship?
What Is Your Heart Worship?
A look at what it means to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

What does God's Word tell us are appropriate songs for church worship? Let's look at what two passages say about this. Where these guidelines stop is where we must then apply taste and good judgment.

"Speaking to one another with psalms, ...

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He's Risen, Just as He Said
He's Risen, Just as He Said
We all have a Mary Magdalene moment.

She awoke with the same ache, disappointed it wasn't a bad dream. He was gone. The one who knew her the best and loved her the most was gone.

Putting on her sandals, she was ready to go. It would be her last act of love. It gave her purpose to somehow ...

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The Light of Christmas
The Light of Christmas
Lights are a hallmark of the holiday season, but they are not what will ultimately illuminate our hearts.

Hanukkah commemorates the astounding victory of the Jewish people over the pagan king Antiochus Epiphanes in 165 B.C. Antiochus had set up an altar for Zeus in the temple in Jerusalem, and even offered swine flesh on the altar. Antiochus forbade circumcision ...

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Imagination at Christmas
Imagination at Christmas
Because we do not get to see, smell, taste, or touch the events of the gospel story, we must visualize it.

Most of us remember those things that affect our senses: sights that are imprinted on our memories, smells that linger in our thoughts, tastes that make us hungry just thinking about them, or a touch that soothes our cares.

Luke wrote his gospel because ...

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Why Thanksgiving Matters
Why Thanksgiving Matters
When we're thankful, we gain so much more.

One day Jesus encountered thanklessness while traversing what Puritan commentator Matthew Henry calls "the frontier-country, the marches that lay between Samaria and Galilee." The story is found in Luke 17.

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus ...
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A Meditation on Psalm 103
A Meditation on Psalm 103
Bless the LORD, O my soul.

Walking with Christ in a moment-by-glorious-moment relationship provides benefits that go far beyond anything this world has to offer. Psalm 103 describes some of the benefits we can expect. It begins, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is ...

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Bible Study Methods and Applications
Bible Study Methods and Applications
A review of Bible study methods and research tools

According to Richard Warren in 12 Dynamic Bible Study Methods, the secret of effective Bible study is knowing how to ask the right kinds of questions. There are different questions for each Bible study method. Write down insights as they come; the ultimate ...

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How to Treat One Another
How to Treat One Another
Scripture tells us a lot about interpersonal relationships.

Scripture is full of specific instruction on how we should treat each other. If we're serious about following Christ, we will heed his admonition that "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew ...

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Obedience and Awe
A meditation on Matthew 14

What a day. It started with Jesus learning of John the Baptist's death and ended with him walking on water. In between was the feeding of the five thousand. What an emotional roller coaster. Down, then up, then down, then further down, then really up. ...

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The Way of the Righteous in the Muck of Life
A worldview from the second Psalm

Psalm 2 (as I have translated it) 1 Why do the nations rage? And why do the peoples keep plotting hopeless plans? 2 Why do the kings of the earth take their stand and why do the rulers conspire together —against Yahweh and against his Anointed ...

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Everything Depends on the Resurrection
Everything Depends on the Resurrection
If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, our hope is in vain.

Way before Jesus rose from the grave, Jews were arguing about whether there would be a resurrection of the dead. Pharisees and Essenes believed firmly in an afterlife. The Sadducees, another party within the religious leadership at the time of Jesus, ...

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Two Men in the Garden
I find myself there too.

I connect the season of Easter with a wide variety of images, symbols, and experiences. I think of the sun rising over an old stone fort in Saint Augustine, Florida, where my family spent our Easter vacations when I was a child. I also think of jelly ...

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