"How is it possible that Israel forgot who their God was? In actuality, they did not forget Him as much as they moved their beliefs slowly away from Him through the years. God had put His Law in place along with well-documented signs and wonders to help the people remember; escaping Egypt was one...

"Amos was a sheep breeder from Tekoa, a village about 10 miles south of Jerusalem. Though he was a farmer, God called him as a prophet. And though he was from Judah, his ministry was to Israel. Amos spoke against the insincere religious institutions of his day. The problem was that the people wer...

"As we continue to study Amos, we can clearly see why he is called the angry prophet. Anger really seems to ooze out of him as he speaks, and no wonder! Though Israel is experiencing tremendous success in their economy, they were spiritually dead. They had no life at all. They believed themselves...

"The descendants of the twin brothers, Jacob and Esau, became two distinct nations. But during their lives, Jacob and Esau lived at odds with each other. The Bible records the unflattering tale of how Israel’s forefather, Jacob, stole Esau’s rightful blessing from their father. When Jacob left th...

"There are whole countries, and whole movements that not only want to see the physical country of Israel wiped from the map but would be happy if Israelis and even Jews were gone too. When we look at history, there have always been nations that have hated Israel. There is also no doubt that God h...

"Micah prophesied to Israel and Judah at the same time that the prophet Isaiah was ministering. The prophets routinely called out the sins of the people and their cultural failings. During King Hezekiah’s reign in Judah, Micah and Isaiah would have seen part of God’s message come true in the fall...

"Habakkuk, whose name is thought to mean “to embrace”, deals with the problem of understanding the ways of God, and critically questions Him on behalf of the people. He was upset that so much evil was seen all around him. The book begins with us hearing Habakkuk cry out to God in prayer, ""O LORD...

"One of the minor prophets, Zephaniah is a powerful minister in a time of a great revival. Although the last great king of Judah, King Josiah, reformed his kingdom, the hearts of many people had not changed. The book of Zephaniah confronts the fact that God will judge the sin inside our hearts, b...

"The name of the prophet Haggai means, “festive”. The book records the words and results of Haggai’s work through God’s calling on his life. Haggai was frustrated after the return of the exiles because the people were preoccupied with their own needs. They were building their own places of living...

"We begin today in Zechariah 1, during the eighth month of the second year of Darius, king of Persia. Zechariah’s name means, ""Yahweh remembers"". In his book, he writes eight visions about the end of time. He uses Israel’s devastating past experiences as exiles to encourage and inform them of t...

"Wickedness generally refers to being evil or morally depraved, but more specifically among philosophers and theologians, wickedness is a deeply profound evil committed consciously and voluntarily. When Bible translators used this term to describe what was happening in Zechariah 5, they were defi...

"God often uses analogies and parallels to help us better understand the gravity of sin, and this is what God does in the book of Ezekiel. The word of the LORD came to Ezekiel with a parable about two sisters who played the harlot: Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her younger sister. Oholah represe...

"Matthew is the first of the four gospels that greets us as we move into the New Testament. Though Matthew likely wasn’t the first gospel that was written, it does have a very strong connection to the Old Testament and so makes good sense to come first. Matthew purposefully presents the life of J...

"We know that there is nothing so fatal as giving into temptation. Yet, our culture too often encourages us to indulge our temptations rather than reject them even when they may be harmful to us. When we look at the life of Christ, however, we see that we can resist our temptations and avoid sin ...

"A big part of the ministry of Jesus Christ in your life is other people. How we treat one another is critical to our faith. To many, faith is just a personal way they worship God, but to those who follow Jesus Christ, faith is in how we treat others. We are commanded by Jesus to be careful that ...

"In Matthew 10, we see how Jesus calls His twelve disciples together to Him and gives them an assignment. There was nothing extraordinary about these men, except that God had called them from their livelihoods to follow Him and was now sending them out with a specific task. It was not about what ...

"In 2001, many things happened that changed the course of history.. The Twin Towers were destroyed in New York City by the enemies of free world. But there was something else happening throughout the United States that radically changed society: Marriages were under attack. The societal foundatio...

"In spite of our unworthiness, God calls and invites us into His Kingdom. In Matthew 22, Jesus tells a parable about a wedding banquet given by a king for his son. With everything prepared and ready, the king sends out his servants to call the invited guests to come, but each guest has an excuse ...

"While Jesus’ life and teachings have already come to earth, and so been revealed to us, there is a part of Jesus that hasn’t yet come to fruition. One day, human hearts and actions will be judged by Him. Revelation 19 talks about Jesus bringing the wrath, the judgment of God to the people of the...

"In Jesus' time, the application of oil had a few different purposes: it was used daily to moisturize face and skin, it could be used medicinally, and it could be used ceremonially to prepare someone for a special event. This preparation was what the woman did when she anointed Jesus with her cos...

"There was a great plan in play. Jesus was completing His assignment. Nothing that was happening was a surprise to the LORD. God had accounted for the cost of human sin. It needed to be paid for. Sin’s power needed to be defeated, so that the faithful could enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We read fr...