Many people find the book of Revelation confusing. I’ve personally been helped a lot by the teaching of men from Ozark Christian College on this topic, such as Shane Wood, Matt Proctor, and Mark Moore. Mark Moore now is with Christ Church of the Valley in Arizona, and has written a book entitled: Quest 52, with weekly devotions about the life of Jesus that cover a year. Toward the end he covers a ...  Read More

In the previous Cross Point, I looked at how we cannot separate the teaching of Jesus from the teaching of his apostles in the New Testament. Jesus authorized them as his spokesmen once he ascended to heaven, and they (with a few apprentices) provide all the New Testament writing, even what we know about Jesus himself. They were inspired by the Holy Spirit to remember accurately and record Jesus’ ...  Read More

We live in an age when many people find fault with the church and with other Christians. There is a case to be made for that. Christians are not perfect, neither is the church, made up of disciples who must learn and grow and mature in faith and obedience. Plus, there are many who wear the name “Christian” who in fact are not. They inherited the name or chose to follow at some past point but have ...  Read More

We’ve looked at slavery from several angles in this series. Slavery in the ancient world, slavery in the modern world, slavery in the time of the Roman Empire, and now slavery and how it impacts us today. We are all slaves to the one we obey. We learned that from the words of the apostle Paul to the Roman church (6:16). We are either slaves to sin (through obedience to anything that contradicts Go...  Read More

The Bible is full of slavery. As we’ve said, it is an overarching theme of life, that we all are slaves to someone or something. We are made with free will; we can make choices. That freedom is real, but once we’ve chosen (or refuse to choose) we will discover who we will obey. The Hebrew word for slave, ebed, can speak of literal slavery to a human master, or be used metaphorically to describe be...  Read More

We ended the previous Cross Point saying, “In the end, the experience of a slave depended entirely on the master.” You might question that. Isn’t slavery always bad, regardless of the master, you might ask? Again, our thoughts about slavery in this country rely too much on the American experience. But the truth of the matter is, we are all slaves to something. From a biblical worldview perspective...  Read More

The Dahomey Kingdom of west Africa ruled during the days when African’s were being sold to the British, who in turn sold these men and women into slavery on the coasts of the United States. It was a sad situation, one African tribe would war against another African tribe, take captives, cage them, then sell them. We often imagine the “slavers” just taking these men and women, but that would requir...  Read More

 In Greek mythology Pandora was the first woman.  According to Hesiod’s Theogony, after Prometheus, a fire god and trickster, had stolen fire from heaven and bestowed it on mortals, Zeus, the king of gods, determined to counteract his blessing. He commissioned Hephaestus to fashion a woman out of earth and bestow upon her their choicest gifts.  Pandora (her name) had a jar containing all manner of...  Read More

In Mark Moore’s book Quest 52, he writes about the trial of Jesus, and how it shows us the preferred way to prepare in a crisis, versus the poor way to prepare when crisis occurs.  Let’s consider some related thoughts that we can learn from, as we gain insight into preparing for crisis.Once Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, he is taken to the high priest. Technically, the high priest...  Read More

In the previous Cross Point we looked at how our salvation must come from the Lord, we cannot create our own salvation.  We must be clothed with Christ, which allows him to cover our sins.  Instead of a Fig Leaf Faith, we need a faith that has at its foundation true discipleship, following Jesus, trusting in him.  In this second article about faith, we look at our need to build on the foundation C...  Read More

At one point in his ministry, Jesus said that if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can do great things (Luke 17:5, 6).  Does that mean just a little faith is all we need?  In context, Jesus said this about faith to his apostles, not to the bigger crowd of followers.  The apostles would have miraculous abilities, to heal the sick, to raise the dead; but even for them it wasn’t unbridled ability...  Read More

“It’s money honey, if you want to get along with me,” sang Elvis.  Unfortunately, that attitude penetrates many people.  In the movie All the President’s Men, about the Watergate scandal, we heard the famous refrain, “Follow the money!” meaning the source of corruption can be found if you follow the money trail.  The apostle Paul would famously say, “The love of money is the root of all kinds of e...  Read More