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Christian Living

How to Discern the Difference Between Biblical Commands and Biblical Narrative

We Must Distinguish Between Prescriptive Text and Descriptive Text The Bible contains a lot of versus that tell us what to do and what not to do. These verses stand as commands from God. Bible scholars call these prescriptive texts, as they prescribe the behavior God expects from us. However, many more verses in the […]

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Bible Insights

Disobedience Can Have Long-Term Consequences

When God Tells Us to Do Something He Has a Reason and We Should Obey After Joshua leads the people of Israel into the Promised Land and takes control of it, he divides the territory among the tribes. Though they have conquered enough of the area to occupy it, remnants of other people, such as […]

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Christian Living

How Many High Priests Are Named in the Bible?

The Bible Talks about Priests, Chief Priests, and the High Priest What’s the difference between priests, chief priests, and high priests? From Mark 14:53 we see there are several chief priests but only one high priest. This is also confirmed in Matthew 26:3. With this as our basis, let’s explore each of these three roles: […]

Coming Soon…

Buy now from my online store. Releases everywhere June 19, 2024. Target publication: summer 2024. Target publication: fall 2024. Future books in the Dear Theophilus Bible Study Series will cover: People receiving my newsletter will help me pick the next one (or send me a message). Receive Updates I’d love to email you when these books […]

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Christian Living

The Bible Provides Direction for Our Life

Read the Holy Scriptures as a guidebook more so than a rulebook Though some people read the Bible out of a sense of obligation—and granted, sometimes we have seasons where we just need to push through—others read its words to inform their daily living, among other things. Yet, we must exercise care in how we […]

Categories
Christian Living

The Bible Reminds Us of Our Heritage

Reading the Bible Helps Inform Us of Who We Are I love reading the Bible. While the entire Bible is useful to teach us about God and inform our faith journey (2 Timothy 3:16), I particularly enjoy the stories about the people, our spiritual ancestors. I like reading about Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, […]

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Bible Insights

Amen in the Bible

Say, “Amen” I recently blogged about the use and meaning of amen. Although its use in modern circles is a bit perplexing—especially from preachers—amen does occur in the Bible. The NIV uses amen fifty-two times. Scriptural Uses of Amen In forty-nine instances, over 90 percent of the time, the Bible uses “Amen” to conclude a […]

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Bible Insights

Judge Deborah

Deborah is another familiar judge, with two chapters in the book of Judges devoted to her. There are some noteworthy facts about her: First, she is the only female judge in the entire book. This was very counter-cultural for the day—and very cool! Second, she was the only judge who actually “held court”—which would be […]

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Bible Insights

Hananiah, Shelemiah, Zadok, Pedaiah, and Hanan

You’ve heard about Hananiah, right? How about Shelemiah? Zadok? Perhaps Pedaiah? Or Hanan? Although these men are all mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible, don’t feel bad if they’re not familiar to you. They did not accomplish great feats, rule a kingdom, lead an army, spark a revival, or do anything seemingly notable. […]

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Bible Insights

Summary of Adding or Taking Away From the Bible

While some may have been distracted—or irritated—by my series of posts about adding to or taking away from the Bible, I feel it is an important question to consider. Here is a list of the relevant posts on this subject—in the order presented—in case you want to reread them or catch one that you might […]