Bible in Life

Acts 2 The Day of Pentecost is the birthday of the church. Jesus pours out the Spirit, 3,000 people believe and are baptized. And the church becomes a reality. And the Acts describes what a difference the Holy Spirit made in the lives of people. And we see the marks of a Spirit-filled church.  Free 30 Page eBook to help you Hear and Heed the Bible:  https://www.johnwhittaker.net   Support this min...

Listener Q + R In this episode we consider three questions from listeners of the podcast.  1. Can people in heaven see what's happening on earth? 2. When is it permitted to remarry after divorce? 3. How do I understand predestination?    Free 30 Page eBook to help you Hear and Heed the Bible:  https://www.johnwhittaker.net   Support this ministry: Set up a recurring monthly or a one-time donation...

What are Bible stories (narratives) trying to communicate?  The most common type of literature in the Bible is historical narratives, what we typically call Bible stories. And there are some exciting stories. There are hard to makes sense of stories.  And it's not uncommon to turn those stories into allegories or to make them teach moral lessons. But this is not how they were intended to function....

How does Proverbs describe our aim when raising kids? And what are some things we need to do in order to achieve this aim?  Proverbs has great wisdom for parents. And what it teaches holds true for any who seek to mentor or guide young people, whether as a grandparent or aunt or uncle or even just mentor in general.  Take a listen to this message I shared recently at a church in my area.   Free 30...

Four Measures of Spiritual Growth How can we measure spiritual growth?  We can easily use the wrong metrics and arrive at the wrong conclusion. Pastors often measure how well the church is doing by things like attendance, buildings, and giving. But those are secondary measures, not ones central to the mission Jesus gave us - to make disciples.  Or individually we can measure ourselves by religious...

In this episode I share some reflections on two thoughts: 1. am I a disciple worth reproducing? And 2. obedience is the prerequisite to intimacy.  Free 30 Page eBook to help you Hear and Heed the Bible:  https://www.johnwhittaker.net   Support this ministry: Set up a recurring monthly or a one-time donation at the link below. http://worldfamilymissions.org/john-whittaker/   The Listener’s Commenta...

We often make two opposite errors when reading the Bible. On one hand, too often we bypass understanding the original meaning altogether and go straight to "what this says to me." On the other hand, we exegete the text and strive to grasp the author's intended meaning (Inductive Bible Study from last week's episode) and stop there thinking we've completed the task.  Neither of these approaches to...

How do you study the Bible? Sine the Bible is an old book and a big book, how can you read it to understand it? In this episode of the Bible in Life, John explores the Inductive Bible Study method and gives an example from Psalm 1.  Inductive Bible Study consists of three parts: Observation, Interpretation, Application.    Free 30 Page eBook to help you Hear and Heed the Bible:  https://www.johnwh...

Have you ever read the Bible and got nothing out of it? It was just kind of blah? You weren't even sure what it was about. It didn't inspire you or stir any sense of devotion in you.  Why is that? And what should you do about it? Tune in to this episode as I share my own experience of this, diagnose it, and encourage you how to respond to it.  Free 30 Page eBook to help you Hear and Heed the Bible...

Everyone says to plan ahead and work hard. But if God's in charge and his he's going to do whatever he does, then what difference does our planning make?   Proverbs has some wisdom on that.   Free 30 Page eBook to help you Hear and Heed the Bible:  https://www.johnwhittaker.net   Support this ministry: Set up a recurring monthly or a one-time donation at the link below. http://worldfamilymissions....

Perhaps you were told as a child "sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you."  But you know that's not true! Words are incredibly powerful. In fact Proverbs says words have the power of life or death.  Death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit. -Proverbs 18:21 So in this episode we look at some of the wisdom of Proverbs concer...

Proverbs 9:10 says, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."  What is the fear of the Lord? And how is it the beginning of wisdom? That's the question we explore in this episode.    Free 30 Page eBook to help you Hear and Heed the Bible:  https://www.johnwhittaker.net   Support this ministry: Set up a recurring monthly or a one-time donation at the link below. http://worldfamilymissions....

Note: this episode was originally released on 6/15/23 but due to a tech issue never distributed to any podcast apps.   Proverbs are part of the Bible that is often called “Wisdom literature.” Several Bible books are grouped into this category... Proverbs Ecclesiastes Job Song of Solomon Wisdom literature seeks to describe what is usually true in day-to-day living...it offers "wisdom" for right liv...

The book of Proverbs.  Many Christians love it and read it regularly. Some read a chapter day every month.  But... What is a proverb? And what is it not? That is, How do you read Proverbs wisely?   In this episode, we begin a short study of Proverbs to help us gain wisdom from them and use the Proverbs wisely.  Free 30 Page eBook to help you Hear and Heed the Bible:  https://www.johnwhittaker.net...

Matthew Bates is a theology professor at Quincy University. He's written extensively on the nature of faith as allegiance and the gospel. His latest book is titled Why the Gospel? and it's a helpful study of what motivated the gospel. Matt is also a family man with seven kids (!) ranging in age from 17-5.  In this conversation we explore some of the confusion around what the gospel actually is and...

Life is marked by uncertainty. And uncertainty often leads to distress.  Not knowing what to do, not knowing what’s going to happen, not knowing what other people are thinking and feeling—these situations are ripe to breed anxiety in anyone. Ultimately there’s no escape from living with uncertainty, for anyone.  But there is a way to have peace in the midst of uncertainty. And Paul shows us that i...

Values.  Custom. Ambitions.  Practices. Every culture has them.  Where do you get yours? Your way of life/being/acting displays the values of the culture you belong to. As followers of King Jesus, we are citizens of heaven and heaven's culture must shape our way of life as we live in the midst of the culture around us.  Phiippians 3:20 says, "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also ea...

What do you really want in life? What do you want so much that it would be worth giving up whatever is necessary for you to get? In Philippians 3, Paul uses his example to show us that Christ is the supreme treasure that is worth forsaking all other treasures in order to acquire. Everything in our life is like trash compared to gaining Christ.  Everything we think is valuable is nothing compared t...

Peace and harmony with your fellow Christians is God’s will, and that means it’s also your responsibility. If God’s wants it, then we have to want it … and want it enough to work at it.  So how do we do it? In Philippians 2:3-8, Paul gives what I believe is the single most important bit of relational advice you’ll ever get for having harmony in your relationships. Free 30 Page eBook to help you He...

Philippians 1:12-21 In this passage Paul models for us what it would it look like to measure our circumstances in light of the gospel. So often our answer to the question “how are you doing?” has to do with whether our circumstances are positive or negative. But what would it look like for us to put the wellbeing of the gospel first? What if we lived our life for the sake of the gospel?    Free 30...

Is the KJV the best Bible translation? This question is so important because unfortunately there is a contingent of people who keep spreading falsehoods about the KJV versus the newer translations. So... Is there an "inspired" translation?  Why are there some differences between the KJV and other versions?  And how do Bible translations work?  Free 30 Page eBook to help you Hear and Heed the Bible...

“What keeps you encouraged?” That was the question. And my answer in short is, I know where we're at in the story.  In this episode, I unpack what that means.  Free 30 Page eBook to help you Hear and Heed the Bible:  https://www.johnwhittaker.net   Support this ministry: Set up a recurring monthly or a one-time donation at the link below. http://worldfamilymissions.org/john-whittaker/     The List...

The way of the cross changes our use of power. Mark 10:32-45 32 Now they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful. And again He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him,33 saying, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the ch...

In this final episode of our Be and Make Disciples series, we answer the question: What is the disciple's mode of operating?  And to answer that we reflect on two passages from Galatians 5.  Galatians 5:5-6 5 For we, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love....

How do you disciple someone else?  In this episode, we explore just a few specific tips and practices for have an effective discipling relationship with someone else.  Free 30 Page eBook to help you Hear and Heed the Bible:  https://www.johnwhittaker.net   Support this ministry: Set up a recurring monthly or a one-time donation at the link below. http://worldfamilymissions.org/john-whittaker/   Th...