Wednesday in the Word

Most of the Old Testament references to the Holy Spirit involve his work empowering the leaders of Israel to protect the nation. But a second way we see the Spirit of God working in the Old Testament is giving revelation to the prophets. Passages: Numbers 11:14-29; 1 Samuel 10:5-11; 1Samuel 19:18-24; 2Samuel 23:2; Acts 1:15-16; Acts 4:23-25; Hebrews 3:7; Zechariah 7:12; 2 Peter 1:21; Isaiah 11:1-4...

One of the main themes in the Old Testament regarding the Holy Spirit is that God empowers Israel’s leaders through His Spirit to bless the nation and keep His covenant promises. Passages: Isaiah 63:7-14; Judges 3:7-11; 1Samuel 16:13-14; Psalm 51.  Series: Who is the Holy Spirit? Most people fail at Bible study because no one ever taught them how. Bible Study Boot Camp fixes that: one short email...

 In 1Corinthians 2, we learn two more important works of the Spirit: 1) The Spirit reveals the thoughts of God to His chosen messengers. This is revelation. 2) The Spirit gives understanding to all believers so that we embrace the claims of the gospel. Passage: 1 Corinthians 12.  Series: Who is the Holy Spirit? Most people fail at Bible study because no one ever taught them how. Bible Study Boot C...

1 Corinthians 12 teaches an important distinction between the type of work the Holy Spirit does. The “universal” work of the Holy Spirit is a work that he does for all believers to bring about the inner transformation of faith. The “individual” works of the Holy Spirit are works he does in some believers but not others. Passage: 1Corinthians 12.  Series: Who is the Holy Spirit? Most people fail at...

In John 3:1-8, we learn two themes that we will see repeatedly in this series: 1) The Holy Spirit is God’s agent of change, and 2) one of his most crucial works is the inner transformation of believers.  Passage: John 3:1-8.  Series: Who is the Holy Spirit? Most people fail at Bible study because no one ever taught them how. Bible Study Boot Camp fixes that: one short email a day for a week, plus...

On the cross in Mark 15:22–41, Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This episode walks through the illegal trials, the brutal crucifixion, and that agonizing question—not as a moment of divine breakdown, but as the clearest revelation of what it cost God to save people like us: priests and politicians, bullies and cowards, deniers and betrayers, the openly hostile and the q...

In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus faces the darkest night of his life and finds his closest friends asleep. In this episode on Mark 14:26–42, we listen to his anguished prayer, “Remove this cup from me… yet not what I will, but what you will,” and his piercing question to Peter: “Couldn’t you stay awake for one hour?” Along the way, we wrestle honestly with God’s sovereignty, human weakness, and...

In a small house in Bethany, a woman breaks open her most precious possession and pours it out on Jesus, only to be met with sharp criticism: “Why this waste?” In this episode on Mark 14:1–11, we sit with Mary of Bethany’s costly act of love, hear Jesus’ question “Why do you bother her?”, and trace the striking contrast between her lavish devotion, the religious leaders’ hatred, and Judas’s quiet...

Jesus’ question, “Whose likeness is on this coin?”, is not mainly about taxes—it’s about authority, allegiance, and identity. In this episode on Mark 11:27–12:17, we walk through Jesus’ clash with religious leaders, his parable of the vineyard tenants, and his famous answer about Caesar to discover a deeper truth: the coin bears Caesar’s image, but you bear God’s.  In this week’s episode, we explo...

Jesus asks the same question twice in Mark 10—first to ambitious disciples, then to a desperate blind man: “What do you want me to do for you?” In this episode on Mark 10:32–52, we follow Jesus on the road to Jerusalem as he predicts his suffering, meets James and John’s request for glory, redefines greatness as costly service, and stops for a forgotten beggar whose honest plea becomes a mirror fo...

When a wealthy, moral, spiritually serious young man runs up to Jesus and asks how to inherit eternal life, Jesus answers with a surprising question of his own: “Why do you call me good?” In this episode on Mark 10:17–31 (with help from Matthew 19–20), we explore what happens when our best efforts, our most impressive religious record, and even our generosity collide with the reality that “no one...

When the Pharisees test Jesus with a loaded question about divorce, he answers with one of his own: “What did Moses command?” In this episode on Mark 10:2–16, we trace Jesus’ response back to Genesis, explore why Moses ever made room for divorce at all, and consider what it means to hold together both the beauty of God’s design for marriage and the painful reality of life in a fallen world.  In th...

At the center of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus turns to his disciples and asks a question that still confronts us today: “Who do you say that I am?” In this episode on Mark 8:27–38, we explore this turning point where Peter finally confesses Jesus as the Messiah—and then immediately stumbles over what kind of Messiah Jesus intends to be, one who will suffer, be rejected, and killed before rising again. In...

Jesus’ question to a newly healed blind man—“Do you see anything?”—comes at the end of a long stretch of people not seeing what is right in front of them. In this episode on Mark 8:11–26 (with context from Mark 7), we watch the Pharisees demand a sign they’ll never accept, the disciples worry about lunch right after two miraculous feedings, and finally a blind man whose physical sight comes in sta...

When Jesus asks his own disciples, “Are you so dull? Don’t you understand?” in Mark 7:1–23, he is not scolding them for bad manners—he is exposing a much deeper confusion about what makes a person clean before God. In this episode, we step into Jesus’ confrontation with the Pharisees over handwashing, tradition, and ritual purity, and discover that the real issue is not dirty hands but divided hea...

When Jesus looks at a hungry crowd in a deserted place and tells his disciples, “You give them something to eat,” it sounds impossible. In this episode on Mark 6:30–46, we listen to his question, “How many loaves do you have?”, and discover that it is not really about bread at all—it is about who Jesus is, what he can do with our meager resources, and where we turn when we are painfully aware of o...

When the news comes that Jairus’s little girl has died, everyone assumes the story is over—everyone except Jesus. In this episode on Mark 5:35–43, we sit with the grief in that house, hear the mourners declare that death has won, and listen as Jesus quietly disagrees: “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” Together, we explore how Jesus meets us with deep tendernes...

Jesus is on an urgent mission to save a dying girl when an unnamed, unclean woman reaches for the hem of his robe—and everything stops. In this episode on Mark 5:21–34, we follow the woman who has been bleeding for twelve years, hear Jesus ask, “Who touched me?”, and watch as he draws her out of hiding to give not only physical healing but a new name, a new community, and a restored relationship w...

When Jesus steps onto the shore in Mark 5:1–20, he walks into a nightmare landscape—tombs, darkness, screaming, self-destruction—and asks one piercing question: “What is your name?” In this episode, we explore how that question exposes the real enemy within us, how Jesus confronts evil that no one else can tame, and how his authority not only sets a man free but gives him a new identity.  In this...

When the storm hits in Mark 4:35–41, the disciples don’t just fear the waves—they fear that Jesus doesn’t care. In this episode, we follow them into the boat, listen to their desperate question, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”, and hear Jesus’ searching reply: “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Together, we wrestle with what it means to trust God’s character when he seems...

Jesus walks into a Sabbath controversy and turns it into a heart question: will you choose good or evil, life or death? In this episode, we look at Mark 2:23–3:6 and watch Jesus confront the Pharisees’ tight grip on Sabbath rules, expose their murderous intentions, and reveal the Sabbath as a gift of rest rooted in God’s grace—not a burden we have to carry.  In this week’s episode, we explore: Why...

When Jesus heals the paralyzed man in Mark 2, he doesn’t start with the man’s legs—he starts with his heart. In this episode, we sit with Jesus’ unsettling questions to the religious experts and discover that they are really questions for us: What kind of God do you believe in, and do you actually trust his eagerness to forgive?  In this week’s episode, we explore: Why God’s questions are never fo...

Jesus is not only the promised King or the divine Son. He is the faithful Servant who gives his life as a ransom for many. This episode introduces the Gospel of Mark as a fast-moving, vivid portrait of Jesus’ authority and self-giving love, and explains why Mark’s perspective is both distinct from the other Gospels and essential for understanding who Jesus is and what he came to do.  In this week’...

Carrying your cross is not about heroic self-sacrifice for “super-Christians”—it is Jesus’ non-negotiable description of what it means to follow him at all. In this episode on Luke 14:25–35, we look at Jesus’ shocking words about “hating” family, losing your life, counting the cost, and renouncing all that you have, and we see how they call us to a decisive choice: will we cling to the security of...

At a dinner table filled with religious insiders angling for the best seats, Jesus tells a trilogy of banquet parables that quietly overturns their assumptions about status, love, and who will actually sit at God’s final feast. In this episode on Luke 14:7–24, we explore how these stories expose our craving for honor, our tendency to love people who can pay us back, and the deadly danger of shrugg...