Why did Jesus speak in parables, apparently not wanting everyone to understand the point of His teaching? Today’s question is a good one. We know that Jesus did often speak in parables, and one time his disciples asked Him why he was doing that. His apparent response was that He didn’t want everyone to understand certain mysteries; He was doing it to keep them ignorant. Let’s think about this.
Today, we’re talking about baptism. That’s a pretty big subject, and this is a Little Lesson, so we won’t be able to cover everything, but the question is sometimes asked, “Since I believed in Jesus, should I be baptized, even though I was baptized as a baby in my church?”
“How do I discover God’s will for my life?” That’s a great question that all of us have probably asked at one time or another or asked a lot, and it’s based upon the premise that we believe that God has a unique plan for every one of our lives. I think that this is obvious just from observation, but it’s also biblical.
Today’s question is about Paul’s thorn in the flesh. What was it? Paul wrote about his thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians 12. Christians have debated over what that thorn in the flesh was for a long time. Some think that it was some kind of a disease.
Imagine this:
John is an unregenerate drug-user who, during a weekend fling in Las Vegas, falls for a flirtatious bartender named Lisa and marries her at the Little Neon Chapel. Their marriage lasts one week.
Fast forward to 20 years later. John is a completely different man. He’s been born again and drug-free for 16 years, and he has been married for 15 of them to a devoted Christian woman named Karen. They have 4 beautiful children, ages 5 through 14, whom Karen homeschools, primarily because they want to make sure that their children are raised in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).
How do I know if I’ve committed the unpardonable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit?
Today’s question is a good one about the unpardonable sin and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which Jesus said is unpardonable. We find Jesus’ warning against that sin recorded in three out of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Synoptic writers. I think Matthew gives us the most context in order to try to come up with at least a semi-satisfactory answer to this question that we’ve posed about the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the unpardonable sin. So I’d like to start reading in Matthew, Chapter 12, verse number 22 to get the context,
If God knows everything, why do we have passages in the Bible that say things like, “God tested so and so in order to know all that was in his heart”?
Today’s question is a great one because we have passages in the Bible that talk about God testing people in order to find out what was in their hearts. One example that stands out early in the Bible is when God tested Abraham and it actually says God tested Abraham. He told him to go sacrifice his son, Isaac, up on a certain designated mountain. When Abraham lifted his arm to slay his son, the Lord stopped him of course and said, “Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (Genesis 22:12).
Is it wrong to get a tattoo? Today’s question is one that might be considered to be in the ‘less significant question’ category. However, tattoos are becoming very popular, they have been over the last several years in particular, and a lot of people are getting them. They’re a fashion statement and so it’s no surprise that Christians might be wondering, “Should I get a tattoo? Is it okay?” I want to commend you if you’re asking that question and wondering about this, because before we do anything, we ought to ask the question, what does the Lord think about what I’m thinking about doing?
I want to expand a little bit in today’s lesson on the previous lesson where we asked the question, what about people who have never heard the Gospel? Of course, we clearly showed from Scripture that God is speaking to everybody, not necessarily through the Gospel. He’s speaking to them, however, through Creation and through their conscience and, sometimes, through calamities. He expects people to seek Him.
Today’s question is a great one. What about people who have never heard The Gospel, never heard about Jesus? What’s going to happen when they stand before God? How could it be fair of God to judge them about believing in Jesus or not if they’ve never heard about Him, if they’ve never heard The Gospel?
