Part of the unique nature of humankind, God’s highest creation, is language
Language allows both the expressing and transferring of knowledge, feelings, thoughts, dreams, and history
It also allows – through similes, metaphors, parables, and other forms of symbolic expression – the describing of otherwise unknowable things using comparisons to those things that are known
The Bible has many descriptions of spiritual realities by means of this symbolic imagery. Examples: Jesus’ parables and the amazing “pictures” in the Book of Revelation
This imagery is also used to reveal spiritual realities involving prayer
Here we will look at just two aspects of prayer through these images:
Another key character in our story is Goliath, typically referred to as a “giant.”
It is interesting to me that the term “giant” is not actually used in Scripture of Goliath, even though his size clearly would satisfy our modern definition.
Modern skeptics question the whole concept of giants in biblical times.
So, as part of our background research for the story of David and Goliath, we want to look at some of what we find in the text of the Old Testament.
My favorite Bible software program has just had a significant update to v. 12.0.1 for the Windows version. I believe I first discovered e-Sword, this FREE Windows Bible program, back at V. 5 in about 2001. At the time I was giving about equal time to two other packages, Quickverse and PC Study Bible. I soon abandoned those programs altogether in favor of e-Sword because it just seemed so much more intuitive and easy to use.
With this new version by Rick Meyers and his team, some of the features I noticed right way include:
App Themes for changing the color of the basic interface window borders. Before, only gray was available.
The ability to choose low light (soft off-white) and night light (black) backgrounds in addition to the standard white.
A revised Resources Window making access to books in that windows easier to manage and use.
The return of Jesus and the end of the world is a topic as controversial and misunderstood today as it was in the First Century.
Non-believers then and now mostly reject the whole idea of a “doom’s day” – especially one brought about by a Jewish preacher who lived 2,000 years ago.
But even in the Christian community there is a wide diversity of beliefs about His coming… from disbelief (liberal views) to fanatical fascination about end-time signs and predictions.
Paul is addressing this subject and trying to clear up misconceptions and ignorance in his two letters to the Thessalonians.
The Bible Project (www.thebibleproject.com) is a unique and valuable internet resource I greatly enjoy and regularly use for personal study. The project began in 2014 when Timothy Mackie and Jonathan Collins wanted to present the overall story, themes, and beauty of the Bible in a way that would connect with our modern media-centric culture.
Eventually they assembled an entire animation studio which is funded by freewill donations. They describe their misson on their website homepage this way: “We believe the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus and our mission is to make the biblical story accessible to everyone, everywhere.”Continue Reading
The foundation for effective Bible study (in addition to the Scriptures) is a good library of resources, mostly in the form of books. As a result, most of us who preach or teach have invested heavily over the years in printed books – Bible translations, dictionaries, commentaries, atlases, word studies, original language reference works, etc. My own personal library is comprised of several thousand such books. And my library would be even larger except occasional moves and space constraints have forced me over the years to weed out and give away less-used books to keep the overall quantity down.
Being bi-vocational and working in technology along with teaching and preaching, I have longed for a way to digitally access my most needed resources. This dream first started being fulfilled with the introduction of Bible software packages. I believe I purchased my first such software around 1990, when the interface was still DOS based (black and white text only with no graphics) before the days of Microsoft Windows. And I still own and actively update and expand some 5 different major Bible software packages even today.Continue Reading
One of the most significant lessons I have learned about interpreting and teaching the Bible is captured in a small poem written by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). This is not to say that Kipling was specifically writing about the Scriptures at all. Rather, he had begun his career as a journalist, and continued to intermittently work that craft even though he became famous for his books, short stories and poetry.
Since God chose to reveal Himself and His will to us through the seemingly ordinary means of human language and writing, it makes sense that we can understand that revelation using the same principles with which we seek to discern other communications in human language.
The “Jesus Documents” is a study of the writings we call the New Testament, but which are, in fact, the “Jesus Documents,” because they are the primary sources of our information and knowledge concerning Jesus. In this 8-lesson sermon series, we look at the criticism and challenges to these documents, and the reasons I believe we can trust in their reliability. Click here to access these messages, or find our title, The “Jesus Documents” in the Series list in the right-hand column of this page.
In this Preaching Series, we are focusing on people with whom Jesus had relatively brief contact, but which were chosen by the Gospel writers to appear in the records about Jesus. We hope these studies illustrate the use of Biblical research resources to help assemble a coherent and appealing story about each person.
We don’t see Jesus spending much time with people in “high places,” and most of those important people He did encounter produced negative results:
Pontius Pilate, Caiaphas and Annas the High Priests, and King Herod
Sadducees, Pharisees, lawyers, scribes, teachers of the Law, and priests
To the contrary, He was criticized for those He did often keep company with:
Tax collectors (publicans) and “sinners” (outcasts) – Matthew 9:10; 11:19
Prostitutes and sinful women – Matthew 21:31; Luke 7:37; John 4 (Samaritan woman at a well)
Fishermen, common people, and the poor
Non-Jews like Samaritans, a Canaanite woman, and possibly a Roman centurion (Luke 7:1-10)
The “Be Series” commentaries by Warren Wiersbe are a favorite of many, including me. The series consists of 50 volumes with titles like Be Confident (Hebrews), Be Right (Romans), Be Resolute (Daniel), etc. The individual volumes are usually available in paperback or Kindle ebook format on Amazon for about $10 each. At the moment, at least eightfive volumes of the Kindle edition are on sale for 79¢ to 99¢ each through either the Kindle app, Kindle readers or the Amazon website. Those are Hebrews, Ezekiel, Deuteronomy, Genesis (12-25),and Acts (13-28). Purchasing them on sale now would cost under $5.00 versus about $50.00 regular price. You can click here if you want to check the website to see what is available. At the website ask to sort results with “Price: Low to High” so the low priced items will appear near the top. Also look only for those titles beginning with “Be.” (Updated 08/14/2019) Note that EBS may earn a small commission off any merchandise purchased through links on this page.
Over about two years I was able to purchase the entire 50 volume series in Kindle format just this way. It just required checking at least weekly in the Kindle Store. Remember that you can then read all purchased books on any tablet, phone or computer which has the Kindle app available.
For the past three years (2017-2019) I have taught a “Christian History & Doctrine” course at the Sunset International Bible Institute where I work in Lubbock. I recorded all the classes during the 2018 school term and have posted them up on my channel on YouTube.
This is about 30 hours of video and includes the Powerpoint slides and video clips that were presented in the class. Here are the resources my students were required to use for the class:Continue Reading
In this series on the story of David and Goliath we are trying to provide four things:
Demonstrate the value and importance of digging deeper into the context, background, and details of biblical stories and passages.
Create useful research results for teachers and students wanting to see what “digging deeper” looks like.
Make it possible for a teacher or student to use this research to teach others, as well as repeat this process in their own studies of other passages.
Helping the Bible student realize that research and notes created for one study, even if unused immediately, then become resources already in hand for other studies further down the road.
The Privilege of Prayer
INTRODUCTION:
INTRODUCTION:
The Bible Project (
The foundation for effective Bible study (in addition to the Scriptures) is a good library of resources, mostly in the form of books. As a result, most of us who preach or teach have invested heavily over the years in printed books – Bible translations, dictionaries, commentaries, atlases, word studies, original language reference works, etc. My own personal library is comprised of several thousand such books. And my library would be even larger except occasional moves and space constraints have forced me over the years to weed out and give away less-used books to keep the overall quantity down.
One of the most significant lessons I have learned about interpreting and teaching the Bible is captured in a small poem written by 
The “Jesus Documents” is a study of the writings we call the New Testament, but which are, in fact, the “Jesus Documents,” because they are the primary sources of our information and knowledge concerning Jesus. In this 8-lesson sermon series, we look at the criticism and challenges to these documents, and the reasons I believe we can trust in their reliability. 
For the past three years (2017-2019) I have taught a “Christian History & Doctrine” course at the Sunset International Bible Institute where I work in Lubbock. I recorded all the classes during the 2018 school term and have posted them up on my channel on YouTube.
In this series on the story of David and Goliath we are trying to provide four things: