Strategies for Christian Living
Strategies for Christian Living
This page carries articles that aim to help our understanding and planning abilities. Its goal is to provide information which can better help us know what the Bible means and what it is saying to us. Our understanding of the strategic goals of Christianity informs our tactics as well as our spiritual aspirations. The more we understand God’s word, the more we understand what our goals should be in the Christian life and how we can best help ourselves and others.
Short Strategic Notes From Our Blog
Five Things You May Not Know About Saying “Amen”
We are all so used to hearing people say “Amen” at the end of prayers and saying it ourselves that we seldom think about the word, but the following points may show you that there is a lot about that small word you don’t know. 1) “Amen” doesn’t just mean “may it be...
Discipleship Illustrated
“We must hang together, or we’ll hang separately.” “. . . ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” These statements identify (and...
Sampson: Seriously Flawed, Used Seriously
We are amazingly reluctant to realize that our heroes have faults. When it becomes glaringly obvious, we toss them aside, capes torn, shields tarnished, heroes no longer.This must be why we find it so hard to realize that good people in the Bible do inexplicably bad...
I Am Barabas
He sits in the dungeon, knowing that before the day is over he will be executed in the most brutal manner that Roman law allows. He’ll be scourged within a hair’s breadth of death, and then nailed to a stake to die slowly and painfully, paying for his crimes of...
Why Do We Study the Word of God?
Many of us study the Bible every day. If we’re not, we should be. But why do we study the Word of God? Many of us frankly enjoy learning more “things” about scripture: more data, a fascinating Hebrew word picture, the meaning in the original...
What the Cavemen Learned
I’m not talking about prehistoric Neanderthal or Cro-Magnon “cavemen” here – I'm actually thinking of two men of God who at different times in biblical history both learned important lessons at the back of a cave.These men were both...
Strategic Articles
Five Bible Study Sites Compared
There are now a good many websites competing for your online Bible study time. Most publishers of individual translations have a dedicated site for their own Bible version, and there are numerous sites which compare multiple translations and offer other study helps....
Choosing a Bible Translation
If we don’t read the original languages in which the books of the Bible were written – Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek – we need a translation, and even scholars who can read those languages often don't read all of them, so ultimately everyone needs or can profit from a...
Understanding the Psalms of Vengeance
“My God … do not remain silent …Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy; let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayers condemn him. May his days be few; may another take his place of...
Two Views of Life
Christian Living in an Increasingly Polarized Age By R. Herbert Conservatives and liberals? There have probably always been two ways to look at life. We only have to look back to New Testament times to see the opposing views of the conservative Pharisees and...
“An Eye for an Eye”: A Law of Revenge or Restraint?
Was the Old Testament law of “an eye for an eye” a brutal law of revenge, or something very different? – And how can the answer help us understand Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount? The principle of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”(Leviticus 24:20,...
The Importance of Context
The English word “context” is derived from two Latin words meaning “to weave threads” (contextus, from con- 'together' + texere 'to weave') and so our word signifies that which is connected or woven together. The expression “context is...
