Bible in Life

The greatest impact of the Bible I have ever experienced was at Boise Bible College. I attended there and was powerfully shaped by Scripture during my student days. Then I taught there for 19 years. And the transformative power of the being immersed in God's word day in and day out is truly evident for man or woman who humbly submits to God's work in his or her life. In this episode, Interview Der...

One of the dominant assumptions of Christians and non-Christians is that good people are in good with God. And good people can mean religious people - people who pray, read the Bible, serve at church, etc. Or good people can simply mean decent people - people who have a good job, work hard, have a nice family, etc.  Jesus has a different opinion about who's in good with God ... not good people but...

In Luke 14:15-25, Jesus offers a sharp warning to people who you'd think be the most likely to be a part of God's eternal kingdom ... to the very people you'd think were certainly gonna be there... to the people who were self-assured that they'd be there. A warning that ought to get our attention if we are "church people": you're not gonna miss the party, are you? It's also a parable that illustra...

What is one thing in life you'd give up everything to get? Jesus' answer is the "Kingdom of Heaven." What is the "Kingdom of Heaven"? And what is the Kingdom of Heaven like? We're in a series on the parables of Jesus and in this episode Jesus shows us how valuable the Kingdom of Heaven is. Here's a link to the Basics of Spiritual Growth course that I mentioned in the podcast:  https://learn.johnwh...

Did you know that it's possible to listen to the Bible's teaching and be worse off because of it? That you can be immune to the power of God's word? That hearing the Bible can be dangerous for your soul? Jesus believed this was true, and that has a lot to do with why He taught in parables.   In this episodes we begin a series of studies on the parables of Jesus by exploring Luke 8 and what Jesus e...

There is one Bible story I want everyone to experience. I don't just mean read ... I mean experience. I want you to experience it. To imagine yourself being there. To feel what the townsfolk felt ... and what the Pharisee felt ... and what Jesus felt ... and what the woman felt. To put yourself in the place of various characters in the story and experience what it was to be there. To see the look...

"Raising kids is is piece of cake" said no parent anywhere! Parenting well is hard work ... soul stretching work. Being a new grandpa (you need to follow me on Instagram and Facebook so you can see pics! No seriously, go check out the pics!) has me thinking about kids and parenting. So in this episode I explore a biblical view of children and how that should shape our parenting.  My Parenting Book...

In Philippians 3:20, the apostle Paul says that we are "citizens of heaven," and I think most modern Christians misunderstand what he means. We think he means that we've got our ticket and we're going to heaven when we die. While it may be true that Christians go to heaven when we die (although that isn't our final hope, by the way), that's not what Paul means by describing us as "citizens of heav...

Be good. I grew up thinking being good referred to my morality. But in the Bible goodness is less about morality and more about our interactions with others.  Goodness is something we show to people and give to people.  In this podcast we explore Galatians 6:7-10 and consider just how important doing good actually is ... and how long we should do it for.  If you want to stay in the loop and get up...

In this episode of the Bible in Life, John chats with Aaron Couch of Real Life Ministries about reading the Bible in context. Aaron is a preacher and pastor and has led a number of tours to the Holy Lands. John talks with Aaron about his experience in Israel and this significance of the Jewish background to the Gospels and to Jesus.  Aaron hosts a podcast called A Better Conversation and you can f...

You go to church pretty regularly. And Bible study too.  You read your Bible sometimes. You actually know the Bible pretty good. You even have passages in your Bible highlighted! Warning - that could be just enough to trick you into thinking you're a real disciple! And if that's the case, there's a good chance you might get disappointed - maybe even disappointed with God - when your life seems lik...

Jesus continues his final appeals at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, this time warning about pretenders who would lead genuine followers away from the narrow road. Such pretenders look good ... they look like genuine followers of Christ and they can perform impressive religious deeds; but they're fake. We have to be honest: not everyone who looks spiritual or religious is a sincere disciple of...

Choices.  We all have them. Everyday we make them. Most of our choices are small. A few are big. But all have them shape who we become. The small choice of what food to eat shapes our health. The small choice of how to start our day affects our mindset and forms our character.  Choices matter. In this episode we reflect on Matthew 7:13-14 where Jesus uses the imagery of a gate and a road to presen...

Was Jesus really born in a barn? Did Mary ride a donkey to Bethlehem? Were Joseph and Mary all alone at Jesus' birth? All of us bring assumptions and pre-understanding to our reading of Scripture and that is certainly true when it comes to the common (western) understanding of the Christmas story. The goal is not to pretend like we don't have such assumptions but to acknowledge them and try to inf...

Christmas invites us into a familiar story, a story told in Luke 2 and Matthew 1-2: In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a tax census should be taken of the entire Roman world... Mary and Joseph and the little town of Bethlehem. Shepherds and wisemen and angels and stars.  But, according to Revelation 12, there's more to the story than all of that. Revelation 12 presents anot...

What if instead of criticizing each other prayed for each other? If instead of blaming and faultfinding, we prayed?  In context, Matthew 7:7-12 instructs us to do just that ... to treat others the way we want to be treated. Wouldn't you want people to refrain from self-righteous criticism of you? Wouldn't you want them to avoid pushing their "pearls" on you with a holier-than-thou attitude? Wouldn...

Like many of you I have been afflicted by a plank in the eye. As a follow up to my first podcast on Matthew 7:1-6, this episode explores in more detail what plankeye looks like and what are some spiritual practices that will help cure it.   if we want to be disciples of Jesus and follow Him into surpassing righteousness, Jesus' wisdom on this topic is crucial to us. We must listen to Him with an e...

Like many of you, I've been confronted by a blaming, faultfinding spirit. From others for sure. But also in myself. That posture towards someone that makes our heart resistant - a little stiff and hard- towards them, so that even if our behavior is technically fine they can sense something's off in us. We've all experienced that from others and I'm pretty sure we've all done that to others. Jesus...

Wouldn't you love to live without worry? But it doesn't seem possible, does it? There's so much to worry about! The bills. The kids. The future. The job doesn't seem secure. The ... So how can Jesus say, "Stop worrying!"  "But Jesus," we protest, "you don't understand." But what if Jesus understands the world far better than we do? What if He understands the cause and cure for worry like we never...

Just about all of us struggle with believing that if we just had a little more, then we'd really experience the good life. If I just had a nicer house ... If I could afford to go on vacations like that ... If I could buy ... If I ____  you fill in the blank. Have you ever felt that way? I know I have.  Now let me be clear about one thing right up front: wanting nice things is not bad. Poverty is n...

Prayer is central to our walk with God, but prayer isn't always as easy as we'd expect. I have struggled to be a person of prayer for years and I've wrestled with the Bible's teaching on prayer.  Listening to Jesus' teaching on prayer in the Sermon on the Mount sparked listeners to ask some of their questions on prayer, so in the last episode and this one we pause teaching through the Sermon on th...

Prayer is central to our walk with God, but prayer isn't always as easy as we'd expect. I have struggled to be a person of prayer for years and I've wrestled with the Bible's teaching on prayer.  Listening to Jesus' teaching on prayer in the Sermon on the Mount sparked listeners to ask some of their questions on prayer, so in the next couple of episodes we pause teaching through the Sermon on the...

A friend stabs you in the back. A spouse is unfaithful. A parent abandons you. The fact is, life is full of people who wrong us in both big and little ways.  So how do you respond?  Jesus teaches us to respond with forgiveness, which is exactly how He Himself responded. In this episode, I explore Jesus' teaching on forgivness and reflect on what's involved in forgiving others.  Forgiveness is the...

Have you ever wondered how to pray? What to pray for? In this episode we continue listening to Jesus' guide for how to pray, what we call the Lord's Prayer. And then I conclude with some observations about prayer in general that emerge from Jesus' instructions here.  I plan on putting together a short series on prayer and I would love to hear some of your questions about prayer, so that I can answ...

To stay in touch with John and receive updates and offers from him, subsribe to his webstie at johnwhittaker.net . The Lord's Prayer. A well-known phrase. For some a well-know passage. But what does it teach us about God and about prayer? How could we learn how to pray by absorbing and reflecting on Jesus' model teaching on prayer in the Lord's prayer?  In this episode, John reflects on the very f...