Monday: Read Luke 7:1-35 The speech of Jesus in Luke 6 ended with Jesus’ question: “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (6:46). Now, Luke narrates several stories that manifest how people respond to Jesus. More significantly these stories illustrate for us what love looks like. The first episode involves a Roman centurion. As a Roman commander (in charge of 100 men), it was a good idea for him to win the favor... Read more
Monday: Read Luke 3:1-4:13 As we noted, the Gospel of Luke was written by Luke, who was likely a Gentile, and it was written Theophilus, who was most certainly a Gentile. With this in mind, Note the message of John the Baptist. His message is much stronger in tone in Luke than in the other gospels. He begins by calling them a “brood of vipers” (i.e., children of snakes; 3:7), which certainly alludes to Genesis 3. John demands “fruits in... Read more
I have noted before that we all agree that the media is biased and can’t be trusted. Yet, it seems to me that we all believe the media anyways. Ask most anyone for their opinion on a current event and they will likely recite the “facts” they downloaded from their preferred news source. I wonder, then, if, when we say that the media is biased, we actually mean that the media is biased when it disagrees with what I believe,... Read more
The following letter is by Dan Culbertson and used by permission “Many people have been asking us how ordinary Russians are responding to the situation in Ukraine and the resulting sanctions. While there are lots of different responses across the whole spectrum from active protest to denial and apathy, the response that strikes me as being most uniquely Russian is fatalism. As a foreigner who has lived in Russia for 15 years, I have been heavily influenced by parts of... Read more
A devotional guide to the Gospel of Luke[1] Monday: Read: Luke 1:1-4; 1 Sam 1:1-2:11 If you are able to do so: watch the Bible project video on Luke 1-9: We begin the Gospel of Luke with a reading of 1 Sam 1:1-2:11 in order to prepare us for the story of the births of John the Baptist and Jesus which we will investigate in tomorrow’s reading. Luke 1:1-4 serves as a preface for the Gospel of Luke (Although we... Read more
Many have experienced those who thump their Bibles as justification for why they are right and everyone else is wrong. Such people decry the dangers of Muslims, Communists, and liberals. They vehemently reject the conclusions of godless scientists who are trying to undermine the plain, literal reading of the Bible. They are convinced that the Covid outbreak is clear evidence of the fourth Seal of Rev 6:7-8, and a governmental conspiracy so that we will unwittingly receive the Covid-vaccine, which... Read more
Monday: Read Matt 24-25 Today’s reading presents us with Jesus’ fifth sermon (Note 26:1 clearly marks the end of Jesus’ speech). Since I have written much about this sermon,[2] and since it corresponds to Mark 13, which we have already discussed in our Mark devotional, and since today’s reading is longer, I will keep the remarks here brief.[3] The 5 sermons in Matthew are quite likely another example of Matthew’s effort to portray Jesus as the new Moses. Sermon on... Read more
So here we go again. Prophetic pundits have seized the opportunity to grab the limelight. Instead of encouraging Christians to weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15) and to serve as peacemakers in the midst of conflict (Matt 5:9), these self-proclaimed prophesy “experts” want us to believe that the war in Ukraine serves as evidence that the end times are among us. As a result, they see war as a time to rejoice because in the midst of war God... Read more
Monday: Read Matt 20:1-34 The Parable of the Workers in the field has been widely debated. We have a couple of textual clues that may assist us. First, the last verse of the parable (16) is a repetition of 19:30. This inclusio suggests that the Parable illustrates Jesus’ assertion that “the first will be last.” Since 19:30 appears to be a response to Peter’s statement that the disciples have left everything to follow Jesus, it may be that the Parable... Read more
As some of you know, I have been blessed to be teaching a number of groups of pastors and leaders via zoom for the past 9 months now. When we began Determinetruth last Spring, I didn’t imagine I would be ministering to pastors in India. But the Lord has opened the door and now I am meeting several times per month with pastors from all over the country of India. Recently I was talking with another pastor, and he was... Read more
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