Articles

John 17 gives us a glimpse into Jesus’ prayer life—the Son praying to the Father for the disciples who are immediately present and for all those who would later believe.

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Prayer is essential to the Christian life. Some of us take a more systematic approach, writing down requests and scheduling time for focused communion with the Lord. Others of us are more spontaneous, bringing our requests to God as they come to mind and throughout the day.

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In Mark 4, Jesus tells a parable in which a farmer sows seed in his field. As he scatters, the seed falls on four kinds of soils: on the path, on rocky ground, among thorns, and then on good soil (vv. 3–8). The sower in the story, as verse 14 makes clear, is the one who declares God’s Word, beginning with Jesus and extending to faithful Bible teachers in every age. Jesus’ parable teaches that whenever God’s Word is faithfully proclaimed, it is met with different kinds of responses.

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In medicine, certain vital signs—breath in the lungs, a pulse felt on the wrist, movement in the eyes—show that a person is alive. The same is true in the church, spiritually speaking: If a local body is truly alive, a few indicators will make it easy to tell. Where these vital signs are present in a congregation, they prove that Jesus Christ is in fact the head of that body.

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“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets” (Heb. 1:1). But, the book of Hebrews tells us, the situation has changed. God’s Word has come to us in its fullness not as a series of propositions or promises but as a person: “In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (v. 2). In Jesus Christ, presented to us infallibly in the Scriptures, God essentially says about Himself and His eternal plan, “Here is My final word. There is nothing better to say.”

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“Dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh” (Col. 2:13) is not the most pleasant way to describe someone’s past. This, however, is precisely the diagnosis that Paul gave the believers in Colossae. The Colossians had been sinners against God, deserving His just punishment; and they—like the Ephesians—had been “strangers to the covenants of promise” (Eph. 2:12) in which the Jewish people found hope. In other words, the Colossians needed forgiveness but had no obvious expectation of receiving it. They were as good as dead and in need of a radical intervention.

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A story is told that one year at the Summer Olympics, three men hoped to get into the stadium as spectators: an Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scotsman. Standing outside the stadium with no tickets in hand, the three noticed a construction site nearby and got creative.

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If we are going to stand in the ranks of Christ’s army, we cannot be naive about the battle in which we fight. The same grace that reconciles us to God antagonizes us to the devil.

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Jonah was a prophet on the run from the Lord. When the command came to preach to Ninevah, he “rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.” In the port city of Joppa, conveniently, he “found a ship going to Tarshish” (Jonah 1:3).

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In Romans 16, the apostle Paul sends his greetings to dozens of his friends and fellow workers in Rome. Some, like Prisca and Aquila, are familiar names. Others, like Epaenetus, appear nowhere else in the Bible. They played a role in Paul’s monumental ministry, yet we know next to nothing about them. Even so, God knows them. They share Christ’s reward, and they’ve added their voices to the chorus of heavenly praise.

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