Scripture in Action

The world lacks people of integrity today. It would be wonderful if we Christians could be men and women of integrity, people of their word. How do we begin? 

Studies have shown that the divorce rate has risen by 250% since 1960 and steadily rising despite the number of marriages falling. What can we do to stop the number of divorces?

Lust is something that nearly every single one of us struggles with. How do we resist it? Here are a few things we might want to try.

We all make mistakes. And despite our best intentions to the contrary, we will continue to make them. We will say things we shouldn’t say and do things we shouldn’t do. When we apologize, we take responsibility for our actions, admitting that we made a mistake.

Jesus used to get mad with the Pharisees, calling them a brood of vipers, because he didn't like their sense of self-righteousness. We can be guilty of this, too, so let us understand what self-righteousness is if we want to ensure that Jesus doesn’t say *we* belong to a family of snakes!

Jesus says that  anyone who breaks one of the commandments might be the least in the kingdom of heaven, but he will be IN the kingdom of heaven! Does he means what we think it means?

Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. This can describe two sets of people in Christian ministry: those in visible service and those who work unseen. We are all called to be one or the other, if not both.

The beatitudes - I like to call them BE Attitudes - are eight attitudes that Jesus says will bless us. They are not easily understood, but let me try to explain them in a sentence or two.

We need miracles in our lives today, perhaps more than the people needed them 2,000 years ago. So, how can we experience them? Here are ten ways to release God’s healing power. 

Seven of the twelve men that Jesus chose to be his apostles are believed to be fishermen.  Although fishing might have been a dominant profession in first-century Israel, the number of fishermen Jesus chose looks pretty disproportionate. So, why?

Every prophet of note in the Old Testament called people to repentance. However, although Jesus' message was the same, the context was now different because the “kingdom of heaven” was contained in Jesus himself. What are the implications?

This is a beautiful story of hope, encouragement, and inspiration to all of us because it shows us that we can resist temptation when it comes our way. 

When we read today’s passage about the baptism of Jesus, a question immediately comes to mind. Why was Jesus baptized in the waters of the Jordan? Was it a purely a symbolic gesture? Was it because he needed sanctification? Listen to find out.

John the Baptist was a “preparer.” The word describes somebody who is setting up something for someone else. It is a word that should describe all of us. 

In today’s reading, we have two instances of God speaking to Joseph in his dreams, which leads to the question: does God speak to us in our dreams too? The short answer is: yes.

During the slaughter of the infants by King Herod about two thousand years ago, Rachel is said to have raised her head and wept. Who is Rachel and why did she weep? And why should we weep with her? 

Herod was a man of great power. Not everyone becomes as powerful as Herod, but many of us would like to have power over other people: to dominate them and to be able to control them. That is the way of the world; not of heaven. 

One of the greatest heroes of the Bible is often relegated to the equivalent of a movie extra, which is a pity because we can learn some tremendous lessons from his life. This is Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. 

Why did Matthew start his gospel with a rather long genealogy instead of getting straight into the action like Mark did, or beginning with a tale of two miracle births like Luke did. Matthew had some important reasons. Here are a few.