Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

A startling reality confronts us in this passage. We see two wildly different responses to the same event. On the one hand, there are hundreds, possibly over a thousand people, who repent and believe, and on the other hand, there is a much smaller group who seem to feel no inclination whatsoever to repent and believe, but instead actively work to find a way to stop others from doing so. Both group...

When I meet an unbeliever, I need to watch and listen in order to discern what kind of unbeliever that person is. Is this someone who has simply never heard? Is this someone who has heard but didn’t understand? Is this someone who has been taught a very distorted picture of Jesus Christ? In other words, is the “Jesus” they are rejecting the real one? Or is this someone who does know the truth but...

Healing is an emotionally-charged topic. There are people who believe healing is for today and those who don’t. There are people who have been healed and those who haven’t. There are people whom God has used to heal others, and those who’ve tried and “failed.” There are even people who’ve walked away from God because they sought healing for a loved one, but that person died. So, by just mentioning...

We’re often told a person will be saved if they pray the sinners prayer. But that’s not true. Reciting a short prayer won’t save anybody. We’re often told if we raise our hands to receive Jesus we’ll be saved. But that’s not true either. And a lot of people have been misled into thinking they’ve done what it takes. The problem is that reciting a prayer or raising my hand can be done without really...

This is a very challenging passage. It describes people living out their faith in a way that is so different from our own experience that it leaves us confused or even suspicious. Their lifestyle was radical and we might feel the need to explain it away as an initial burst of enthusiasm which would soon be dimmed by the realities of life. I’ve even read someone who described it as a misguided atte...

If Jesus is Lord, why is there still so much rebellion? On that Pentecost morning Peter announced that Jesus is now seated at the Father’s right hand, and that the Father is bringing all of His enemies into submission to Him. Yet if we look around us we see a lot of spiritual warfare. The devil is still very active. The human race seems to be dividing and hardening in its attitudes. People are eit...

It’s almost like there were two men named Peter. The one we meet in the gospels is good-hearted, but often says the wrong thing at the wrong time. Only a few weeks earlier, that one fearfully denied to a servant girl he even knew Jesus. But on this Pentecost morning we’re listening to a very different man. This one has the courage to stand in front of thousands and tell them in unmistakable terms...

People don’t have to learn to be spiritual because essentially every one of us is a spirit. This is because God made us in His own image. Please notice, I’m not talking yet about people who are born-again. All human beings are spiritual, by virtue of the way God made them. People actually have to be taught not to be spiritual. In the secular western society in which we live each of us is trained t...

As we read this passage we’re watching a new era begin. The relationship between God’s Spirit and His people has changed forever. Never before had the Holy Spirit been able to live inside the sin-contaminated bodies of believers. Never before was such intimacy with God possible to all of God’s people, not just a special few. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and His resurrection from the dea...

So this is what Jesus meant when He spoke of the “promise of the Father” (Ac 1:4). Wow! What an amazing event! But, frankly, it’s so amazing that if I don’t understand what’s happening to these people I can easily end up in the same condition as the watching multitude: amazed and bewildered, which is to say, confused and frightened. Luke’s description of that Pentecost morning raises a lot of ques...

Have you ever wondered why Jesus chose Judas? It was a choice He made after intense prayer. Luke tells us, “He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named apostles (Lk 6:12-16). Eleven of these worked out very well, but one ended badly. Does that mean a mistake was ma...

When God promises us something He’s revealing His heart. He’s showing us what He wants to do in our lives, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will actually take place. When God gives us something it’s ours, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we will actually receive it. There are forces within and without that can prevent us from receiving what God has given us. Not understanding this fact causes...

There is a place called heaven. It’s a real place, not some “fairy-land” tucked away in another “dimension.” Way too much philosophical speculation has gone on here, until some descriptions of heaven begin to sound more like the land of Oz than the beautiful place the Bible describes. Yes, of course, it’s a spiritual place, but we need to keep in mind that the spiritual realm is real, not imaginar...

Between his gospel and the Book of Acts, Luke has given us enough information to recreate in our minds a rough sketch of the Lord’s final day with His disciples. When we go back to the carefully chosen words Luke uses, a beautiful picture emerges of our risen Lord preparing to leave. We know what He talked about during the 40 days following His resurrection, and we know what He said, and probably...

How far did God have to go to reach you? Some of us came to Him quickly and easily as children, others not until late in life. But taking that first step toward God was not the end of the matter. However and whenever we came to Him, as life progressed, we found that holding on to Him is a challenge. Events happened that caused us to question God’s goodness or power. Doubts arose about the historic...

Welcome to the Book of Acts! Today we begin an adventure. We will regularly be traveling back in time, nearly 2000 years, to watch our forefathers and mothers live out their faith. Many of them actually knew Jesus. They had watched Him minister and had listened to Him teach. And what we read in this book is their obedience to what they heard Him tell them to do. He had been a good teacher, and the...

A profound inner change takes place when a person is born-again. Not only are our sins forgiven, but our spiritual capacities are radically increased. After being born-again a person is not the same person as they were before (2Co 5:17). This does not mean that all our attitudes and behaviors are instantly “Christ-like.” But our potential to become Christ-like has changed dramatically. Probably th...

As Moses interceded for his rebellious nation he made a remarkable statement. He told the Lord that if He would not forgive Israel for its sin of worshipping the golden calf, he wanted his own name removed from God’s book. His words surprise us and make us want to ask, “What book?”, because up until now the Bible has not mentioned such a book. But Moses had a level of relationship with God which i...

Humans can live without food much longer than without water, but to survive 40 days without water is inconceivable apart from a miracle. When Moses failed to return from Mt. Sinai the nation naturally assumed he had died, either from thirst or possibly he’d been burned to death by the fire which still could be seen on the mountain’s peak (24:17,18). Considering themselves leaderless they turned to...

Oil had been used symbolically since at least the times of the patriarchs. In Genesis 28:18, 22 (also: Ge 31:13; 35:14) Jacob poured oil on a stone which had been his pillow during a vision of God. In this way he acknowledged that the place was filled with God’s presence. Elsewhere in the Bible the “anointing” with oil is used as a symbol of receiving the Holy Spirit (1Sa 16:13; Ac 10:38; 2Co 1:21...

Jesus Christ has called us to be priests of God. So, as we read the instructions for the priests of Israel we find many basic principles which apply to us today. In fact, we discover that each article of the priests garments, each form of their worshipful service and each object in the tabernacle holds a remarkably clear prophetic meaning. Over the past weeks we’ve looked at the ark of the covenan...

The subject of repentance tends to bring to mind certain troubling questions. We’re always grateful to hear the truth that God forgives us when we repent, but somewhere in the back of our minds questions may lurk about certain sins or passages of Scripture we’ve read which may have left us confused. Last week we asked the questions: What is repentance? How does God convict us of sin? And, if Chris...

Beginning at the moment a child first recognizes right from wrong each of us enters into a lifetime of choices: choices whether or not to tell the truth when the truth will get me in trouble; choices to be generous or selfish; choices to indulge harmful bodily impulses or control them; choices to let my temper flare or control it; choices to play by the rules or break them; choices to promote myse...

Sometimes God’s grace may seem too good to be true. Our ears hear sermons and songs about His forgiveness, but doubts still linger in the back of our mind. Is that really the way God is or are people merely telling me what they hope is true? Maybe these promises of mercy have been taken out of context and really don’t mean what we think they mean. After all, it’s hard to believe anyone could forgi...

God never asks us to do anything He will not empower us to accomplish. Christians are not simply people who are trying in their own strength to do good things for God. At least that is not what God intended. His plan has always been to work miracles through people of faith. In other words, He’s the One who does the real spiritual work. Our part is simply to obey. Not only did He give such power to...