Exploring the Scriptures Together
Romans 15:14-16:27;Acts 20:3b-21:16 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. Romans 15:14 That’s what Paul writes to the first-century church in Rome. Would he write the same thing to us today? Why? Or why not? Or look …
Continue reading “December 14 / Romans 15:14-16:27; Acts 20:3b-21:16”
Romans 12:1-15:13 I appeal to you therefore… Romans 12:1a So, what is the “therefore” there for? It strikes me that Romans 12:1 is often quoted all by itself. Or sometimes one hears Romans 12:2 all by itself. Now and then one hears both verses quoted together. But rarely (i.e., almost never) does one hear them …
Romans 9-11 So what about Israel? What about the Jews? In light of the Gospel of faith in Jesus Christ, what about all those promises to “God’s people”? These are a few of the questions that Paul addresses in today’s reading. Unfortunately, it seems that many Christians widely ignore these chapters altogether. For example, many …
Romans 5-8 Most of us, I think, are missing out. Most of us read these chapters of Romans and nod our heads in agreement but do not really believe what we read. Or, rather, we’ve been conditioned to interpret Paul’s words narrowly as applying only after we physically die. We read “saved”, and we think …
Romans 1-4 What is your standard? What rules or guidelines do you think people should follow? What’s the bare minimum for acceptable conduct? It does not matter what the standard is. The standard could be God-given, like the Ten Commandments or the rest of the Torah, or it could be societal norms, or it could …
II Corinthians 8-13;Acts 20:2-3a But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, …
Continue reading “December 9 / II Corinthians 8-13; Acts 20:2-3a”
II Corinthians 1-7 Today we are racing through several chapters that I find to be some of the most difficult to understand in all of Scripture. Part of the problem that we have is that the context is very unclear. In Acts, Luke does not tell us absolutely everything about Paul’s comings and goings, so …
I Corinthians 15-16;Acts 19:23-20:1 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. …
Continue reading “December 7 / I Corinthians 15-16; Acts 19:23-20:1”
I Corinthians 12-14 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. I …
I Corinthians 9-11 Americans often seem to be obsessed with “rights”. Insofar as we stand firm to protect the rights of others, particularly those who might otherwise be powerless or oppressed, that is a good thing, for without the protection of individual rights or the rights of a minority, a democracy can quickly become indistinguishable …