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 went through the process I used to outline Acts 17, which marks the transition from observation to interpretation in the inductive method of Bible study. This post wraps up our study of the chapter, completing both the interpretation and application stages. In essence, the purpose…
Today we’ll finally resume our study of Acts 17. As always, the best way to understand a passage of Scripture is to study its context. For my last three posts pertaining to this study, I wrote about the person and character of the apostle Paul. Now we’ll briefly examine one…
My first four blog posts demonstrated the importance of context. We looked at elements in the story of Samson that are better understood in their textual, historical, cultural and geographic context. They illustrated why we need a systematic approach to Bible study, but they did not tell you how to…
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…
Throughout the story of Samson, we run into the Philistines. In Judges 14 alone, we read that Samson married a Philistine woman, lost an unfortunate wager to 30 Philistine wedding guests, and killed another 30 Philistines from Ashkelon to pay his gambling debt. Just who were the Philistines? That question…
Has anyone ever told you that you’ve taken her words “out of context”? You’re probably nodding, at least mentally, because almost all of us are guilty of this annoying little habit. Like me, you could be guilty because you’re not completely focused on what you’re hearing. One striking statement might…