Category: Bible Knowledge

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14 When Mary and Joseph were engaged to be wed, something happened that would change their lives completely. Of course, what we often forget is that the impact that Jesus’s arrival would bring had the potential to actually be either completely positive or destructive for the parents-to-be. I can only imagine Mary being told, “I’m going to give you the son of God, and He’s going to be ‘Immanuel’ or a promise to the whole world that God is with us,” and then Mary probably thinking, “Well, that’s great for the world, but what’s going to happen to me?” During this time, premarital pregnancy was not only embarrassing but could also mean the end of a mother and her child’s life. On top of that, all she had to go on was that she was pregnant because the Holy Spirit gave her a child. So aside from being labeled immoral, people could most likely call her crazy. And imagine what Joseph must have been going through as well. His fiancee was pregnant with a child that was not his and the choice to have her stoned or have his name stained forever was in his hands. In all of this, one can only imagine what weight and magnitude the promise of Jesus being “Immanuel” must have been to them. God was not only with the whole world. He was also with Joseph and Mary, and they held on to that every step of the way — when Mary got pregnant, when they had to travel miles on her due date and when they ran out of rooms when she was giving birth. Often, we hear God speak to us that He is Emmanuel, that He is “God with us,” but what does that do to us? Does it just become another name to add to the many sets of names that Jesus is given? Or does it assure us of the character of God, thus giving us the faith to hope and trust that in every situation, God is indeed with us? Life can get a little challenging at times, and the world, our circumstance or even our own minds will tell us that God is nowhere near us, but God made it clear that Jesus is our “Emmanuel.” Just before He was taken to heaven, Jesus gave us the promise that “I will be with you until the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20), solidifying the assurance we have that He is indeed Emmanuel.

Most of us consider ourselves to be generous people. Yes, there’s always a little extra we could give but between our online donations to our Facebook friends’ marathon fundraising pages, our enthusiastic purchase of our colleague’s homemade baked goods at the work charity bake sale and our weekly contribution to the offering at church each Sunday, we’re not doing to badly. Or are we? According to data compiled as a result of the Science of Generosity survey, 45 per cent of Americans gave no money to charity in the past year. Among this 45 per cent are almost 4 in 10 who, in the same survey, said they believed having a generous self identity was important. While the survey doesn’t reflect the charitable attitudes of Americans as a whole, what it does highlight is that we can fundamentally believe in the virtue of giving but it’s something that can take a backseat in our day-to-day lives. Can you remember the last time you gave spontaneously? How about the last time you increased your giving? These Bible verses will help remind us why we need to make being charitable a priority. Psalm 41:1 – Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble. Proverbs 19:17 – Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done. Isaiah 58:7 – Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Isaiah 58:10 – And if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday. Matthew 5:42 – Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. Luke 14:13-14 – But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Luke 21:3-4 – ‘Truly I tell you, he said, ‘this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.’ Hebrews 13:16 – And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

What comes to mind when you think about heaven? White clouds, pearly gates, everyone clothed in white, angels? It’s not hard to become obsessed with heaven – how we get there, what it looks like, who we’ll meet there – and it’s not hard to get it wrong when it comes to describing or defining it. Our perceptions and understanding of heaven can easily be skewed by how it is portrayed in the media, in literature and by our own personal desires of what we want it to be. These seven Bible verses detail some of the imagery of heaven, answer the burning question of how we get there and help put our thinking about heaven back on the right track. Matthew 7:13-14 – ‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only few find it.’ John 6:44 – ‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.’ John 6:50-51 – ‘But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live for ever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.’ John 14:2 – My father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 2 Corinthians 5:1 – For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Revelation 4:8 – Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: ‘”Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,” who was, and is, and is to come.’ Revelation 21:1-2 – Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

Everyone loves Jesus; it’s just the Church they can’t stand. Everyone loves the message of Jesus, if only the Church practised it. In this series so far I hope you can see how we have been gradually climbing the mountain towards greater enlightenment. We have examined the evidence gate, stepped up the science ladder, bounded along the Bible path, wrestled with the perceived Old Testament view of God, and waded through the quagmire of evil and suffering, until we have finally reached the summit of God’s self-revelation – his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the summit. This is the centre. From now on every path we take goes from Christ and returns to Christ. The teaching of Jesus, the message of Jesus, continues to fascinate. Consider this – Jesus Christ never wrote a book but thousand of books have been written about him. He never wrote a peer-reviewed research paper and yet he was wiser than any academic. He never blogged or tweeted and yet has more followers that Justin Bieber or Stephen Fry! People say, “I love the message of Jesus, but I don’t like the Bible,” – which then begs the question, how do they know what the message of Jesus is? How do we know Jesus’ teaching? Pope Benedict put it beautifully: “Jesus’ teaching is not the product of human learning, of whatever kind. It originates from immediate contact with the Father, from ‘face-to-face’ dialogue – from the vision of the one who rests close to the Father’s heart. It is the Son’s word.” The words that Jesus speaks come from the Father. He himself is the ultimate revelation and as such what he says, God says. Of course there are those who have real difficulty in accepting any concept of God being able to reveal himself, but that is an emotional difficulty rather than a logical one. It is deeply prejudiced. Does this mean that we should all be ‘red letter’ Christians? You know, the ones who have Bibles with the actual words of Jesus in red, with the implication that the rest, especially the Old Testament, can be sidelined? No, because to do so would be to go against the message of Christ. Jesus himself regarded the whole Bible as the Word of God, and as being about him. For example, after his resurrection Jesus met two of his disciples and rebuked them for their lack of faith. He said to them, “‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” (Luke 24:25-27) Jesus Taught. He not only explained the Old Testament (which we should always read through his eyes) but he brought new revelation and appointed apostles to record that revelation. In the first century, religious teachers were often boring, irrelevant and incomprehensible (not much has changed then?!), but he was different. “When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.” (Matthew 7:28-29) His authority was not the authority of the tyrant, the bully, or the show off. It was simply the authority of truth, the authority of God. It rang true to the people. And they were amazed. But does it apply today? How can we understand it? To answer that we need to do two things. First of all, get rid of our chronological snobbery – just because we are 21st century people does not necessarily mean that we are more intelligent, perceptive and wise than first century people, or that our essential needs are different. Secondly, we need to hear the message and to realise that there is no Bible code, no special mystical experience, no guru, and no theology degree needed. Of course, there are difficult parts and some things you will keep coming back to. But the great thing about the Bible is that reading it for the first time you can learn so much, just as you can if you’re reading it for the thousandth time. It is not simplistic. The amazing thing about the Bible is that there is incredible depth to it. I have been studying the Bible for more than 30 years and I am still amazed by it. Sometimes it is depressing for me to go to a church or watch a Christian TV programme and hear teaching that is shallow, superficial and as useful as a chocolate teapot. Somehow some of us in the modern Church have got it into our heads that the teaching of Jesus is not suitable for our age and that we need to make it more relevant. We don’t need to make the Bible relevant – it is relevant. It requires a special skill to make the Bible irrelevant and yet that is a skill that seems to be acquired quite easily! It is not easy and trite. The Bible is not full of Hallmark-style sound bites. The teachings of Christ are radical. FF Bruce has a wonderful book called The Hard Sayings of Jesus, one example of which is Jesus apparently telling people to hate their parents. “Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.’” (Luke 14:25-27) The key to understanding difficult passages is to interpret Scripture with Scripture, and always in context. Jesus taught that those who follow him should honour their parents. So what did he mean? He was talking to large crowds that were following him because of his miracles. He wanted to warn…

Marriage remains a significant aspect of Christian life but the way that it is valued has undergone a shift in wider society. Higher numbers of couples are moving in together and cohabiting for years before even considering walking down the aisle, if they contemplate it at all. For the couples that do decide to make their union official, many of them become caught up in the superficial elements of the wedding day – the dress, the venue, the decorations, the entertainment – and risk these distracting them from the central and most important part of the whole event. I love attending weddings and witnessing two people in love make their union official in the eyes of God as much as the next girl but I can’t help but wonder about the impact that the pressure to make the day perfect can have. When we look beyond the excitement of the big day and past the intense and meticulous planning that’s often required to bring it all together, what is marriage really about? These verses will help you to build up a picture of how this special union is described and alluded to in the Bible. Proverbs 18:22 – He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favour from the Lord. Proverbs:19:14 – Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord. Ecclesiastes 4:12 – Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Mark 10:6-9 – ‘But at the beginning of creation God “made them male and female”. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’ Ephesians 4:2-3 – Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 5:25 – Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. 1 Peter 4:8 – Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.