My God and My Neighbor

The argument had come to a standstill and God wasn’t speaking. That’s how the debate ended between Job and his three friends. They said their peace (and then some) and reverted back to the silence we see in chapter two. But unknown to the first-time reader of this book when Job chapter 31 ends was someone else. A younger man had been there listening to them argue. By the time they finished, he was...

It is very easy to get things out of perspective when we're stressed and hurting. We pull into ourselves in a self-protective mode. In a sense this is a natural response to suffering. It's part of the healing process. But we must not allow self-protection to become self-pity. And, when life has been very unfair to us, we naturally want to defend and justify ourselves. But we can go too far. We can...

We can only go so long without encouragement before we feel like we’re going to break. Christians are children of God, but we are human. We need encouragement from likeminded people. We need the support of others, especially when we’re down. “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad” (Prov. 12:25).  But sometimes we must face trials without encouragement for a w...

Do you remember the great prophets in the Bible who reached the point where they wanted to die? Moses did. Elijah did. And now we are seeing that Job felt the same way. But there are some interesting differences between his situation and the circumstances of Moses and Elijah. Moses and Elijah were not suffering physical pain. Moses was feeling extremely stressed, and Elijah was both stressed and a...

There are times we feel like the devil has us in his grip and is doing everything he can to torment us. That was Job's situation, but the difference is that Job didn't think the devil was doing this to him. He thought God was torturing him, and it was almost driving him crazy because he couldn't figure out why. Sometimes the troubles of life—one right after another or at the same time—cause so muc...

There's nothing wrong with saving and protecting what you have. There's nothing wrong with planning ahead in case a catastrophe strikes. That's why we have insurance.  Jesus tells Christians not to worry about the necessities of life in the Sermon on the Mount. But sometimes we wonder, "What if…?” What if the worst does happen? How would we deal with it? Would we keep our faith or lose it? Would w...

The book of Job has been recognized as a great work of literature for centuries. But it is much more than that. It is an incomparably profound book on the most perplexing of human questions. It shows not only that bad things happen to good people, but that the worst of things can happen to the best of people.  We will never fully relate to the sufferings of this man. But we do know something he di...

People have debated this question for thousands of years. We read about it many times in the Bible. We seem to be agreed on the general principle but divided as to how it applies to specific situations.  This is not just some abstract, philosophical discussion. It is very practical. It is very personal. And we will learn important lessons in the examples we will look at in this episode. Read about...

When God told Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice, Abraham faced a dilemma. On the one hand, he loved his son. On the other, God told him to do it. So he worked out away in his mind to fit these seemingly incongruent elements together. He concluded that after he offered his son, God would raise him back to life again. That's what we read about his thinking in Hebrews 11:17–19. But he lef...

We do strange things when we’re desperate. Pain can cause us to deny the obvious if we convince ourselves it will give relief. This is why some turn to atheism. The thought of an all-powerful, all-loving God is a heavy weight to bear in a world of suffering and sin. For these atheists, the only way to live with this problem is to deny that such a God exists. But as we will see in this episode, tha...

Much of the trouble we have in living the Christian life comes from not looking at ourselves. We examine and cross examine others and even God Himself but fail to ask ourselves the same questions. This is true of the problem of evil. We want to know why when that same question is staring at us in the mirror.  In this episode we find God turning the tables and asking man this question. Sometimes we...

We need to tread carefully when we ask questions like this. After all, we are talking about God’s intentions, and we must not be guilty of putting words in God’s mouth. Thankfully, there is a passage in the Bible that talks about why God made the world and placed us in it.  There is a reason why we are here. Many live their lives not knowing what this purpose is. Some even say there is no purpose,...

“Why, Lord?”Series When you're dealing with a difficult problem, it helps to go back to the basics. That's true with the problem of evil which is the most perplexing question man can ever consider. In this lesson, we will look at two different kinds of evil in the world. One is moral evil which is sin. The other is sometimes called natural evil. This is suffering. If we are too understand this sub...

The Mother of All Questions: Why? You're not the only one who has asked this question. In fact, many great prophets and holy men in the Bible struggled with it. That's one of the benefits of reading the Bible. We are not alone facing hardships and not being able to understand why they happen. As we begin this study of the problem of evil, we will notice two questions that have at times tormented g...

G. Campbell Morgan said no man is an accurate interpreter of his own generation. We are too busy trying to get through the challenges of the day to be able to see the overall picture, to connect the dots and to determine what caused the situation and where it will end. We have to wait until the smoke clears, and that takes time. Still there are indicators that are hard to miss. The decline of a cu...

Sometimes people ask what will happen to those who have never heard the gospel. Sometimes they need to think about the reverse. What will happen to those who have heard but don’t obey? That’s what Jesus talks about at the end of the famous Sermon on the Mount. He began early in this sermon saying that the Jews had heard much teaching from the scribes and the Pharisees. At the close He’s saying: No...

“Talk is cheap.” There's a lot of empty chatter today. We hear it in politics. We hear it in business. Most tragically, we hear it in religion. In an age of bells and whistles, we long to see Christians who back up what they say with how they live—not for show, but out of love and faith. Jesus said it will take more than talk to enter heaven. As He nears the end of this famous sermon, He warns and...

What do you think of when you hear the words “false teacher”? Jim Jones? Joseph Smith? Muhammad? Jesus said false prophets are not as obvious as people might assume. They appear to be just the opposite of what they are. But if they are that deceptive, how can we know what they really are? In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus explains this. There is a way to see through all the charisma, eloquence and...

We often talk about the path life takes us on. It’s true that there are unexpected things on life’s journey, but the truth is that, in regard to eternity, we choose the path we’re on. Jesus talks about these two roads in the Sermon on the Mount and utters some startling words to modern ears about how many choose the wrong road. These are roads that lead to our eternal destiny, not paths to success...

Those who serve in the military talk about having a code. Businesses have standards they expect employees to follow. Communities have rules and customs they want everyone to respect. Anywhere you go, you will find basic beliefs about how you should treat others. Jesus said one rule of life summarizes the Old Testament. We call it the Golden Rule. If this one verse in the Sermon on the Mount were p...

In this special episode of My God and My Neighbor , we feature a powerful lesson from Glenn Ramsey, who has preached the gospel for 70 years and taught at Tennessee Bible College for 45. Speaking at TBC’s 50th Annual Lectureship, Brother Ramsey delivered an unforgettable message on Treasure in Earthen Vessels from II Corinthians 4. But what made this lesson truly special was the wisdom and persona...

God blesses, but we must seek those blessings. God will do His part if we do ours. The Creator put mankind here “so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27). When we find Him by becoming Christians, we still seek His blessings. We strive to do better. We ask Him for help and strength. Jesus made a...

There are some people you can't teach. Even Jesus was not successful every time He taught people. This is a hard lesson to learn when you love others and try to help them to be saved. After all, Jesus said to go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation in Mark 16:15–16. But it is a fact that some people are so hardened against God and against his Word that they will only bera...

How do you feel when someone criticizes you? We don’t like it, especially if the criticism is unfair and harsh. That is understandable. But not all criticism is bad. Sometimes it is for our good.  Today there is an idea among Bible readers that is not scriptural. It is the belief that any and all types of judging are wrong. One of the reasons this happens is because society frowns on saying that a...

One of the most common problems anywhere in the world is worry. Some have a harder time dealing with it than others. But at different stages of life, and in certain circumstances, we all wrestle with this challenge. Anxiety is not a problem that is unique to our modern age. Some stress may be due to advances we have made in communication and travel, but the human race has always dealt with worry....