In my last post, I laid out a plan for studying the behavior and consequent deaths of Ananias and his wife Sapphira, described in Acts 4:32-5:11. We’ll begin our study by looking at marginal notes. What does Scripture mean when indicating that to members of the early church, “all things…
In my last post, I wrapped up our look at Baruch and God’s message to him in Jeremiah 45. Today we’ll launch our three-part study of Ananias and Sapphira, whose misunderstood death has been the source of some wild speculation and some questionable conclusions. For instance, today there is at…
In my last post, I wrote about marginal notes, an often-overlooked study aid right in front of our faces. Today, using some of the clues we discovered in the marginal notes, we will consult the Encyclopedia of the Bible and a couple of commentaries, which will help us learn about…
In my last post I asked you to read Jeremiah 45 five or six times in preparation for this study of Baruch. Our look at this chapter will be the first in which I condense our studies to two or three posts. [In my previous studies, such as our study…
[Application is the last stage of the Inductive Method. By its very nature it is subjective, and it should be quite personal. My purpose in today’s post is not to preach to you. On the contrary, I am sharing my thoughts about how to apply Christ’s teaching to my life…
In the last blog post, we diverted from our intention to move into the interpretation stage of our study. Finally, the moment has arrived. We are ready to ponder what it was that Christ was telling the lawyer who asked, "Who is my neighbor?" This question, as we have already…
In my last blog post, I indicated that this post would continue the interpretation phase of the inductive method. However, I realized that we had neglected to consider one crucial element. That element is the lawyer whose question prompted Christ to tell the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Who is…
In my last blog post, we concluded the observation stage of the inductive method with a look at the Samaritans. In this post we will begin the interpretation stage by outlining the structure of Luke 10. “How is outlining interpretation?” you ask. In essence, you are interpreting what you read,…
This week we'll wrap up the observation stage of our study of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We'll do so by taking a closer look at the single most important note we made as we read through Luke 10. Just who were the Samaritans? This task is not as…
Last week we looked at the remaining five cities among the eight we discovered in Luke 10. This week we’ll take a look at most of the other significant concepts we noticed through the chapter. We'll begin with the Greek word Hades. What in the World is Hades? In Greek…
In contrast to the three relatively unimportant towns of Galilee in my last blog post are the five major cities. All of these cities of Luke 10 span the pages of the Old and New Testaments. We’ll divide the cities into two groups for our discussion. Benchmarks for Sin The…
In my last blog post, I asked you to look up the three cities in Galilee Christ condemned. This request was part of your assignment to look up the cities, people and customs in Luke 10. I did not mention, though, that not all of the information we gather pays…
In my last blog post I introduced the inductive method of Bible study and asked that you read through the Parable of the Good Samaritan (and the rest of Luke 10) six times, jotting down your initial observations. These should include anything that seems particularly noteworthy. I also asked that…
If you’re not careful, you might miss a couple of little words sprinkled throughout the story of Samson. Paying attention to these words—up and down—can enhance your understanding of geography and how it affected Israelite life during the period of the judges. The first verse of Judges 14 tells us…
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more tragic story of seduction and betrayal than that of Samson and Delilah in Judges 16. If you’ve already read chapter 14, you already know of one of Samson’s great weaknesses. It’s in that chapter that Samson’s new wife pesters him for the answer…