Fighter Verses

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.—John 15:7 This verse is so sweeping in its scope and seems beyond the experience of many of us that it strikes us as unbelievable. We don’t even attempt to cash this check at […]

…give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19Do not quench the Spirit. 20Do not despise prophecies, 21but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22Abstain from every form of evil.—1 Thessalonians 5:18-22 Since we can’t tackle all five verses in a couple hundred words, let’s […]

Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! 10Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.” —Psalm 96:9-10 Trembling is what you experience when you’re afraid. And you don’t only feel afraid of […]

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger. —Ephesians 4:26 __________________ Taken from Jon Bloom’s article “How Can We Be Angry and Not Sin?” __________________ Is this even possible? Not if perfect, sinless anger is the requirement, since sin infects everything we think, say, and do. But […]

9Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends. 22A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.—Proverbs 17:9, 22 Some cover-ups are lies and some cover-ups are love. It depends on who’s doing the covering. When President Richard Nixon and his aides attempted […]

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved…—Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God.” These two words are filled to overflowing with gospel. For sinners like you and me who were […]

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”—Matthew 22:37-39 There are no commandments in the Bible more […]

The same man who wrote the verses above also wrote, “by grace you have been saved through faith…it is the gift of God, not a result of works.”[1] So why do we need to work out our salvation when works do not save us? Because though we are saved by God’s unconditional electing grace[2] through […]

To see just how breathtaking this statement really is, we must understand what Paul has in mind here. He is quoting the Lord speaking through the Prophet Isaiah: Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from […]

What did it mean for Jesus to humble himself? We must simply admit that this is beyond us. Of course it was humbling for the Lord of glory, who created all things, to become part of the creation. He became “for a little while lower than the angels” and lived 30 years unrecognized by anyone […]

What a simple command: “have this mind.” But nothing is harder for fallen human beings like you and me than to make ourselves nothing. Our Mind We are like Jesus’ disciples who, just hours before deserting him at Gethsemane, engaged in a debate over which of them was the greatest. We think more highly of […]