When it comes to heaven, it’s easy to be confused by all the opinions. What is heaven like? Where is it? Who goes there, and why? Ask your neighbor, your dog groomer, or the person who delivers your mail. Or take a peek at social media. You might...
Is cursing a sin? Many Christians would instantly answer yes. But not so fast—it depends on what we mean by “cursing.” When you read the Bible, you’ll see that “cursing” and “swearing” mean something very...
It is natural at the turn of the seasons to reflect on the previous year. A question many of us may be asking during this time is: What’s next? What surprises await us in the coming year? The truth is that we don’t know what the coming year has in...
A few years ago as I was exploring spiritual disciplines, I found myself surprised at how often fasting came up. Fasting wasn’t something I heard much talked about in the churches and communities I’d been a part of. But it kept coming up...
The word selah is prominent in the Psalms, occurring 71 times (as well as 3 in Habakkuk)— but what does it mean?
“Shh—I’m listening to your opinion of God!” If you, by some secretive means, were able to eavesdrop on the private conversations between my husband and me, you would get a pretty good gauge on the status of our marriage. Though it...
“The Bible says that our real problem is that every one of us is building our identity on something besides Jesus.”— Tim Keller Our identity in Christ may be simultaneously the most important and most ignored part of our spiritual growth...
Is there a sin so terrible it can’t be forgiven? If so, what is the unforgivable sin? The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) all record Jesus’s teaching that the unforgivable sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Matthew 12:31–32Mark...
If spiritual disciplines are those practices which form us spiritually, there can be none so important as prayer—our conversation with God, our Lord and Creator. Yet this most simple and most important of the disciplines can sometimes be the hardest...
In the final hours of a hectic day, sometimes it’s all we can do to get the kids to bed, or rinse the dinner dishes, or whisper a quick prayer before crawling under the covers. And then the alarm is set for tomorrow, when we’ll do it all over again...
The alarm chimes and our busy day begins. Our to-do list is ready and our phone is fully charged. But wait! Are we forgetting something important? Here’s a collection of morning prayers, collected both from Scripture and from the sermons or...
I was staring at the back of The Man Sitting in Front of Me, the one who killed my little brother. First my sister, then my niece, stood and told the man what his act had taken from us. The murder had been vicious. My not quite thirty-eight-year-old...
“I need to hear a voice from heaven.” That’s what Robert, an atheist, told me after we met together to read the Bible for most of an academic year. We had studied John, Romans, and selections of the Old Testament to examine both the claims of Christ...
I heard the word “discipleship” frequently growing up. My Bible teachers and pastors spoke on this topic, explaining how it bolsters the Christian life. However, not until recently did I hear the related phrase “spiritual formation.”...
No church leader wants to admit it, but for many of us it’s true: we still don’t have a sustainable habit for personal Bible study and prayer. Here are five ways forward—true for anyone, church leader or not. 1. Know your why In Man’s Search for...
Everybody has heard of the 12 Days of Christmas. In fact, we’ve all probably sung about them. But what are the 12 Days of Christmas, and who actually celebrates them? What are the 12 Days of Christmas? For more than 1,400 years, the 12 days of...
Admitting this makes me cringe: too often, I gallop through my Bible reading as if it’s another thing to mark off my to-do list. It’s better than not reading the Bible at all, but I’m missing out on so much as I rush by. To help with that, I tried...
John 1:16 reads, “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” But what IS grace? The briefest definition of grace is “favor,” specifically “unmerited favor from God.” Put another way, it’s receiving what we don’t deserve. ...
Ryan J. Pemberton—author of Called: My Journey to C. S. Lewis’s House and Back Again and coauthor of Walking with C. S. Lewis—explores Advent ideas for your worship community. For Pemberton, Advent is a beautiful, counter-cultural...
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Faithlife! Enjoy this excerpt from the Lexham Bible Dictionary (included free in Logos) about the role of thanksgiving in the early church. *** Thanksgiving played an important role in the life of the early...
Watch Mark Ward’s full interview with Jonathan Leeman on the theology of love. Love is the most important commandment in the Bible. And the second most important. On love for God and neighbor hang both testaments. And at the center of the Bible...
For decades, Kay Arthur has devoted herself to mining the riches of the Word and guiding countless others to do the same. She’s championed the truth that every Christian can study the Bible for themselves, regardless of their background. The...
Many of us read Luke 2 at Christmastime, but what Scriptures can we read at Thanksgiving? Here are 54 Bible verses about thanksgiving and gratitude to meditate on during the holiday season or take turns reading around the table on Thanksgiving Day...
Reformation Day is October 31. In remembrance, keep reading to explore with David P. Barshinger how the Reformers offer us a model for Bible study. (Or dig deeper into Reformation exegesis with Reading Scripture with the Reformers or The Martin...
With more than 100,000 copies sold, The Unseen Realm by Michael S. Heiser has helped readers find biblical answers to tough questions, like: Why does the Bible use the word elohim to refer to other gods? And for that matter, does Psalm 82 (among...
Faith is one of those fancy Christian words we can find ourselves using a lot without truly understanding what it means. To many in American culture, “faith” is the opposite of reason and is best represented by a blindfold or reckless leap. For many...
Logos is built to help you dig deeper into the Word—but you can go about that in so many ways it can be overwhelming. I know. Even with the free version of Logos, I wasn’t sure where to go first. Then I got Logos Gold, and there...
Logos 10 has arrived! The new and improved version is simpler to use so that everyday Christians, small group leaders, students, professors, and pastors can easily uncover insights in the Word of God. Here are few highlights we’re particularly...
The Dead Sea Scrolls don’t interest only academics and scholars. Many average Christians have questions, too. Read on for the answers to the most common questions! What are the Dead Sea Scrolls? How were the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered? How...
I knew the NICOT and NICNT commentary series appeared often on bestcommentaries.com, but I was curious to see just how they stacked up, so I did some digging. A few titles especially stood out, and I highlight them below. Beneath that, I include the...