My God and My Neighbor

“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....

The number one issue on the minds of Americans for years has been the economy. In other words, money. Part of this concern is understandable because we need money to buy food and clothes and medical care and shelter. But it is easy to take this concern too far and become obsessed with money and things. This is an age-old problem. The love of money has infected the souls of people for thousands of...

People all over the world pray. They pray to different gods about different things. Some pray without really knowing whom they’re praying to. They most often pray when they’re hurting or afraid. Regardless of differences in prayer, it is a universally understood practice. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught a lesson about prayer. It’s a general guide for how we should pray. Christians know tha...

God sees our heart. He knows why we do bad things and even why we do good things. That is why Jesus talks so much about our motive for doing right. Christianity is not just doing the right things. It is doing the right things for the right reason. But why would anyone go to the trouble of doing something good for a wrong reason? Often it is to draw attention, to win praise from others. Jewish lead...

We understand that we should love our family and friends, but love our enemies ? How is that possible? Books have been written about hard sayings of Jesus. If there is one command that has puzzled Bible readers for centuries, this is it. How are we to understand these words? As always, the key is to let the Bible interpret itself. This lesson will uncover principles in the Scriptures that will ena...

The world can be a dangerous place. Christians and non-Christians both agree on this point. But they disagree about how to respond to the problem of violence. Even Christians disagree on this point some believe in self-defense and others do not. The Sermon on the Mount has been somewhat of a battleground on this issue for centuries. Did Jesus teach non-resistance or does he approve of self-defense...

How many people do you know that do what they say they will do? Times haven’t changed. An honest, dependable person was hard to find in Bible times. The even sadder fact was that the very people who were supposed to be teaching people the Bible made the situation worse by their traditions. Jesus confronted this problem in the Sermon on the Mount. The Old Testament taught that if a Jew took an oath...

How many people in America would you say were divorced in the year 1900? One in one thousand. Eighty years later that number had jumped to over 22 women out of every one thousand. This is just one indication that the more people drift from God and the Bible the worse their morals become. But that is just America in recent years. When we go back to Jesus’ day we find that divorce and remarriage was...

We live in a visual age. As with all progress, there is a good and a bad side to the amazing potential of the screens we use every day. But we must remember that there is nothing really new (Ecc. 1:9). Behind the world of images is the same old human nature. In this lesson, we will look at what Jesus said about men looking at women in the wrong way. This topic could not be more timely and needed....

If you ask people to give an example of something really evil, chances are they will mention murder. There is something so horrific about taking the life of an innocent person that virtually any nation on earth has a law against it. The Bible certainly condemns it. But most people would be surprised to learn that hate is a form of spiritual murder. That means that someone who has never been convic...

One of the dividing lines between churches today is how we should look at the Old Testament. Should we keep its laws? Should we study it? Is the Sabbath for us? Jesus lived under the Old Testament law. In this lesson, He shows us how to view it. We should neither observe its rituals nor ignore its moral principles.  The scribes and Pharisees were the popular teachers in Jesus’ day. But they only u...

Episode Description Of all the people in your life, who has had the greatest influence on you? That question is usually easier to answer than the next: Of all the people around you, whom would you say you have influenced the most? Sometimes people tell us the impression we have made, but many times they don’t. That’s where faith comes in. The Bible assures us that our lives for Christ are not spen...

Persecution is on the rise around the globe. North Korea and Muslim countries like Yemen and Saudi Arabia are some of the most dangerous places for believers in Christ. But other “free” nations are becoming less tolerant of Christian beliefs and practices. That includes the United States which used to be called a “Christian nation.”  This episode reminds us that persecution is nothing new. In fact...