Wednesday in the Word

Why do you need God if you’ve got it made? What if you are in good health, you have a great marriage or romantic relationship, and you excel in your career? What if you have lots of friends, your children are healthy, cute and compliant? What if you have enough money to be comfortable and life is generally going well? Why should you bother with Jesus? Most people fail at Bible study because no one...

What does Scripture teach about the baptism of the Holy Spirit? While this topic is controversial, I think Scripture teaches that the baptism of the Holy Spirit has both an individual application (as applied to the apostles) and a universal application (as applied to all believers). Passages: Luke 3:15-18; John 14:25-26; John 15:26-27; John 16:12-15; Acts 1:1-8; John 20:19-23; Acts 2:1-18; John 7:...

As Paul deals with the issue of the “weaker” brother, he makes an important point about unity and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in all believers. Unity is not something that can be imposed from the outside or the top down. Unity is a work of the Holy Spirit bringing individuals together through their shared faith. Passages: Romans 15:1-13 Series: Who is the Holy Spirit? Most people fail at...

This series has been building to this podcast. In this podcast we put it altogether.  As a new believer, I thought the Holy Spirit was like the “force” in Star Wars: something I had to access to find success. Paul has a different view in this passage. The Holy Spirit is the active love of God intervening to make us people who will persevere in faith. Passages: Romans 5:1-5 Series: Who is the Holy...

Paul describes believers as sealed with the Holy Spirit. A seal fulfills a past promise and pledges a future inheritance. A King’s seal had a three-fold purpose: 1) to guarantee authenticity, 2) to name the rightful owner, and 3) to protect from being tampered with or harmed. Passage: Ephesians 1:13-23 Series: Who is the Holy Spirit? Most people fail at Bible study because no one ever taught them...

Both the Old and New Testaments speak about the need for God to spiritually renew us and change our hearts. Both associate this spiritual renewal with the Spirit of God. But there is only one really clear Old Testament passage on this topic. Passages: Deuteronomy 29:2-4; Isaiah 63:15-19; Deuteronomy 30:1-10; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:16-28; Romans 2:28-29; 2Corinthians 3:1-6.  Series: Who is t...

Most of the Old Testament references to the Holy Spirit involve his work empowering the leaders of Israel to protect the nation. But a second way we see the Spirit of God working in the Old Testament is giving revelation to the prophets. Passages: Numbers 11:14-29; 1 Samuel 10:5-11; 1Samuel 19:18-24; 2Samuel 23:2; Acts 1:15-16; Acts 4:23-25; Hebrews 3:7; Zechariah 7:12; 2 Peter 1:21; Isaiah 11:1-4...

One of the main themes in the Old Testament regarding the Holy Spirit is that God empowers Israel’s leaders through His Spirit to bless the nation and keep His covenant promises. Passages: Isaiah 63:7-14; Judges 3:7-11; 1Samuel 16:13-14; Psalm 51.  Series: Who is the Holy Spirit? Most people fail at Bible study because no one ever taught them how. Bible Study Boot Camp fixes that: one short email...

 In 1Corinthians 2, we learn two more important works of the Spirit: 1) The Spirit reveals the thoughts of God to His chosen messengers. This is revelation. 2) The Spirit gives understanding to all believers so that we embrace the claims of the gospel. Passage: 1 Corinthians 12.  Series: Who is the Holy Spirit? Most people fail at Bible study because no one ever taught them how. Bible Study Boot C...

1 Corinthians 12 teaches an important distinction between the type of work the Holy Spirit does. The “universal” work of the Holy Spirit is a work that he does for all believers to bring about the inner transformation of faith. The “individual” works of the Holy Spirit are works he does in some believers but not others. Passage: 1Corinthians 12.  Series: Who is the Holy Spirit? Most people fail at...

In John 3:1-8, we learn two themes that we will see repeatedly in this series: 1) The Holy Spirit is God’s agent of change, and 2) one of his most crucial works is the inner transformation of believers.  Passage: John 3:1-8.  Series: Who is the Holy Spirit? Most people fail at Bible study because no one ever taught them how. Bible Study Boot Camp fixes that: one short email a day for a week, plus...

On the cross in Mark 15:22–41, Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This episode walks through the illegal trials, the brutal crucifixion, and that agonizing question—not as a moment of divine breakdown, but as the clearest revelation of what it cost God to save people like us: priests and politicians, bullies and cowards, deniers and betrayers, the openly hostile and the q...

In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus faces the darkest night of his life and finds his closest friends asleep. In this episode on Mark 14:26–42, we listen to his anguished prayer, “Remove this cup from me… yet not what I will, but what you will,” and his piercing question to Peter: “Couldn’t you stay awake for one hour?” Along the way, we wrestle honestly with God’s sovereignty, human weakness, and...

In a small house in Bethany, a woman breaks open her most precious possession and pours it out on Jesus, only to be met with sharp criticism: “Why this waste?” In this episode on Mark 14:1–11, we sit with Mary of Bethany’s costly act of love, hear Jesus’ question “Why do you bother her?”, and trace the striking contrast between her lavish devotion, the religious leaders’ hatred, and Judas’s quiet...

Jesus’ question, “Whose likeness is on this coin?”, is not mainly about taxes—it’s about authority, allegiance, and identity. In this episode on Mark 11:27–12:17, we walk through Jesus’ clash with religious leaders, his parable of the vineyard tenants, and his famous answer about Caesar to discover a deeper truth: the coin bears Caesar’s image, but you bear God’s.  In this week’s episode, we explo...

Jesus asks the same question twice in Mark 10—first to ambitious disciples, then to a desperate blind man: “What do you want me to do for you?” In this episode on Mark 10:32–52, we follow Jesus on the road to Jerusalem as he predicts his suffering, meets James and John’s request for glory, redefines greatness as costly service, and stops for a forgotten beggar whose honest plea becomes a mirror fo...

When a wealthy, moral, spiritually serious young man runs up to Jesus and asks how to inherit eternal life, Jesus answers with a surprising question of his own: “Why do you call me good?” In this episode on Mark 10:17–31 (with help from Matthew 19–20), we explore what happens when our best efforts, our most impressive religious record, and even our generosity collide with the reality that “no one...

When the Pharisees test Jesus with a loaded question about divorce, he answers with one of his own: “What did Moses command?” In this episode on Mark 10:2–16, we trace Jesus’ response back to Genesis, explore why Moses ever made room for divorce at all, and consider what it means to hold together both the beauty of God’s design for marriage and the painful reality of life in a fallen world.  In th...

At the center of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus turns to his disciples and asks a question that still confronts us today: “Who do you say that I am?” In this episode on Mark 8:27–38, we explore this turning point where Peter finally confesses Jesus as the Messiah—and then immediately stumbles over what kind of Messiah Jesus intends to be, one who will suffer, be rejected, and killed before rising again. In...

Jesus’ question to a newly healed blind man—“Do you see anything?”—comes at the end of a long stretch of people not seeing what is right in front of them. In this episode on Mark 8:11–26 (with context from Mark 7), we watch the Pharisees demand a sign they’ll never accept, the disciples worry about lunch right after two miraculous feedings, and finally a blind man whose physical sight comes in sta...

When Jesus asks his own disciples, “Are you so dull? Don’t you understand?” in Mark 7:1–23, he is not scolding them for bad manners—he is exposing a much deeper confusion about what makes a person clean before God. In this episode, we step into Jesus’ confrontation with the Pharisees over handwashing, tradition, and ritual purity, and discover that the real issue is not dirty hands but divided hea...

When Jesus looks at a hungry crowd in a deserted place and tells his disciples, “You give them something to eat,” it sounds impossible. In this episode on Mark 6:30–46, we listen to his question, “How many loaves do you have?”, and discover that it is not really about bread at all—it is about who Jesus is, what he can do with our meager resources, and where we turn when we are painfully aware of o...

When the news comes that Jairus’s little girl has died, everyone assumes the story is over—everyone except Jesus. In this episode on Mark 5:35–43, we sit with the grief in that house, hear the mourners declare that death has won, and listen as Jesus quietly disagrees: “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” Together, we explore how Jesus meets us with deep tendernes...

Jesus is on an urgent mission to save a dying girl when an unnamed, unclean woman reaches for the hem of his robe—and everything stops. In this episode on Mark 5:21–34, we follow the woman who has been bleeding for twelve years, hear Jesus ask, “Who touched me?”, and watch as he draws her out of hiding to give not only physical healing but a new name, a new community, and a restored relationship w...

When Jesus steps onto the shore in Mark 5:1–20, he walks into a nightmare landscape—tombs, darkness, screaming, self-destruction—and asks one piercing question: “What is your name?” In this episode, we explore how that question exposes the real enemy within us, how Jesus confronts evil that no one else can tame, and how his authority not only sets a man free but gives him a new identity.  In this...