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 the marginal notes pertaining to the viewpoint that “all things were common property to them” (Acts 4:32),…
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. [NOTE: The various references I cite,…
In my last post I asked you to read Jeremiah 45 five or six times in preparation for this study. 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 of the…
[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…
Finally, the moment has arrived. We are ready to ponder what it was that Christ was telling the lawyer whose question prompted the Parable of the Good Samaritan, as well as what Luke wanted his readers to understand as he related the events recorded in the tenth chapter of his…
In my last blog post, I indicated that for this post we would continue the interpretation phase of the inductive method. However, I realized that we had neglected to consider one crucial element of the story, and that is the lawyer whose question prompted Christ to tell the Parable of…
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 Luke 10. “How is outlining interpretation?” you ask. In essence, you are interpreting what you read, at least in…
This week we'll wrap up the observation stage of our study of the Parable of the Good Samaritan by taking a closer look at what is probably the single most important note we made as we read through Luke 10 – 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 terms (and one concept) we noticed through the chapter, beginning with the Greek word Hades. What is in the World is…
In contrast to the three relatively unimportant towns of Galilee I discussed in my last blog post are the five other cities mentioned in Luke 10. All of them span the pages of both Old and New Testaments. We’ll divide these cities into two groups for our discussion. Another Three…
In my last blog post, I asked you to look up the eight cities named in Luke 10. I also asked you to look up the classes of people and the customs we encountered in the chapter. One thing I neglected to mention, however, is that not all of the…
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 anything that seemed particularly noteworthy. I also asked that you write down questions that arise…
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 the circumstances of Israelite life during the period of the judges. The first verse of Judges 14 tells us that Samson…
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…
