Luke 2:22-52 – What Child Is This?
Luke reports two events between Jesus’ birth and the beginning of his ministry. These are not reported out of idle…
Luke 24 – The Road to Emmaus
It’s a familiar story, so I’ll just go through it quickly, and save my comments for the end. In Luke…
Luke’s "Orderly" Account – An Examination of Biblical Precision
Luke tells us that his book is an “orderly” account of the story of Jesus Christ (Luke 1:3, NIV). What…
Luke’s Legacy to Women
“Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women” (Luke 1:28, King James…
Lunch Basket Extraordinaire
Matthew 14:13-21; John 6:1-15 The bread was still hot, fresh from the hearth. I had just milled the flour the…
Majors and Minors
“Mom, when can I get my ears pierced?” my 12-year-old son asked. “Mom, I want a tattoo,” my 17-year-old daughter…
Making Friends With the Disabled
We all have things we want to say and ideas we’d like to share, and we love it when someone…
Making Grace Look Good (Titus 2:1-10)
In the second chapter of Titus, Paul tells us that people often judge the gospel by the way we live….
Making History in Montana
During 2006, the United States will continue to celebrate the bicentennial of the epic journey of exploration by Lewis and…
Malawi Summer
They didn’t know the country. They didn’t know each other. But for Carrie, Alberta and Kayla, a summer spent teaching…
Managing the Postmodern Church
A conversation with Dr. Karl Moore, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Management, McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He also…
Manual of Early Evangelism – Introduction
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a…
Mark 1:1-8 – A Lesson About Power
Baptism is not unique to Christianity. The use of water in purification and cleansing rites is as old as recorded…
Mark 1:1-8 – A Lesson in Humility
Who would you say was the greatest man ever born? If you are a Christian, you might say, “Why, Jesus…
Mark 1:1-8 – A Lesson in Transition
How would you describe the message of John the Baptist? Mark said that John preached “a baptism of repentance for…
Mark 1:12-13 – A Lesson About Temptation
“I can resist anything but temptation!” says the bumper sticker. It’s funny, but as with so many things, one of…
Mark 1:14-15 – A Lesson About Fulfillment
John’s message of repentance was over; the time had come for Jesus’ message to begin. Jesus’ message is not identical…
Mark 1:16-20 – A Lesson About Fishing
When I was a small boy growing up in northern Louisiana, I went fishing every chance I got. By age…
Mark 1:21-28 – A Lesson About Authority
The teachers of the law didn’t speak with their own authority. They necessarily prefaced their comments with something like “There…
Mark 1:29-34 – A Lesson About Asking
Even Jesus needed a rest. The synagogue let out in time for the Sabbath meal at noon, and Jesus went…
Mark 1:35-39 – A Lesson About Priorities
What’s important? We usually consider whatever is the most urgent to be the most important. When we need to use…
Mark 1:40-45 – A Lesson About Misperception
We are not going to talk about begging Jesus on our knees for healing. I suppose many people have taken…
Mark 1:9-11 – A Lesson About Baptism
Have you ever wondered why Jesus, who was sinless, would need to be baptized? After all, baptism is a sign…
Mark 11:12-16 – The Fig Tree and the Temple
Jesus’ cursing of the unfruitful fig tree presents Christians with a dilemma unique in the Gospels. A cursory reading of…
Mark 2:1-12 – A Lesson About Healing
This is a story about a lame man whose friends believed that Jesus could heal him. At last they found…
Mark 2:13-17 – A Lesson About Assumptions
The Pharisees assumed that if a person ate with sinners, that person was a sinner, too. Levi was a Jew…
Mark 2:18-22 – A Lesson About Old and New
The primary fast of the Jews was the Day of Atonement, one of the seven annual solemn assemblies of the…
Mark 2:23-28 – A Lesson About God’s Love
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads…
Mark 3:13-19 – Another Lesson About Authority
Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed…
Mark 3:20-27 – A Lesson About Envy
Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able…
Mark 3:22-30 – A Lesson About Damnation
The teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of…
Mark 3:7-12 – A Lesson About Appearances
Things are not always as they appear. That was certainly the case with Jesus. The crowd saw a miracle-worker, a…
Mark 4:10-13 – A Lesson About Hard Hearts
Again Jesus began to teach by the lake…. The Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He…
Mark 4:14-15 – A Lesson About Satan
He taught them many things by parables…. The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where…
Mark 4:16-20 – A Lesson About Seeds
Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they…
Mark 4:21-25 – A Lesson About Measurement
He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t…
Mark 4:30-34 – A Lesson About Lessons
Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to…
Mark 4:35-41 – A Lesson About Storms
The crises of life have often been compared to stormy seas. They come upon us whether we like it or…
Mark 5:1-18 – Jesus Is Coming
They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man…
Mark 5:21-43 – A Lesson About Hope
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| When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped… |
Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and
when he saw
Mark 6:1-13 – Lessons About Faith, and Instructions
Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach…
Mark 6:14-29 – A Lesson About Guilty Consciences
But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!” Herod Antipas was…
Mark 8:27-38 – Everyone Must Die!
Jesus did most of his ministry in the Jewish areas of Galilee and Judea. But on at least one occasion,…
Mark 9:1-13 – The Transfiguration
The disciples are discouraged — even dismayed. They thought they were following a Messiah into a glorious kingdom. But then…
Marketing the Gospel
In one of his earliest movies, John Wayne tells another cowboy, “I don’t like branding—it hurts in the wrong place!”…
Mary Jones and the First Major Worldwide Bible Society
Mary Jones was born Dec. 16, 1784 in the Welsh village of Llanfihangely Pennant. From an early age, Mary longed…
Mary Magdalene
John 19:25-30; 20:1-18 I probably have more reasons than anyone to respond with fierce loyalty to our Lord. He lifted…
Mary Sister of Lazarus
Matthew 26:6-10; Mark 14:3-10; John 12:1-7 I stood silently in the doorway of the common room where a special meal…
Materialism or idealism?
A good friend recently told me about his new diet based on portion control and healthy food choices (like tofu)….
Mateship: Imago Aussie?
A few years ago a book was published about Australia, called The Lucky Country. Although the term found its way…
Matthew 1:1-16 – Forty-Two Men and Five Women
Many modern readers feel that the New Testament begins in the most boring way possible: a list of unusual and hard-to-pronounce…
Matthew 1:18-23 – The Virgin Will Give Birth to a Son
In his book about Jesus, Matthew frequently says that Jesus fulfilled verses from the Old Testament. One example comes in the…
Matthew 13: Parables of the Kingdom
We need to make sure that our description of the kingdom is compatible with the description Jesus gave. Jesus often…
Matthew 16 – What Kind of Messiah?
Jesus praised Peter for accurately identifying him as the Messiah, and he promised him great authority. But in almost the…
Matthew 18 – Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
It’s Hard to Forgive Jesus often said that God is merciful. But he also said, in a statement that can…
Matthew 20 – Parable of Workers in the Vineyard
A parable of unfairness In Matthew 20 is the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Some men worked all…
Matthew 24:20 – Why Pray Not To Flee on the Sabbath?
Jesus told his followers to “pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath” (Matthew…
Matthew 5 – Sermon on the Mount
Even non-Christians have heard of the Sermon on the Mount. Christians have heard many sermons on it, but still find…
Matthew 5:17-19 and the "Law"
Do Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:17-19 tell Christians they must keep the seventh-day Sabbath and other Old Testament commands? Some…