In 2 Corinthians 12:1-6, Paul writes about someone who was permitted to visit the third heaven. He was too humble to admit that he was the one who saw the third heaven, although in verse 7, however, Paul admits that he had the revelations.  He then states that a thorn in the flesh was given to him, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, lest he be exalted above measure. Paul asked the Lord three times to take the thorn away, but his request was not granted. Instead of being upset over his thorn, however, Paul states that he took pleasure in his infirmity for Christ's sak ..read more

There are churches, both Catholic and Protestant, with church names that start with "St.", the abbreviation for Saint. "St.", like "Mr." and Mrs.", are honorifics, which is a word that means "a title or word implying or expressing high status, politeness, or respect." You will notice, however, that most evangelical churches are not named for a saint.  The Catholic church has a process for how a person becomes a saint, a/k/a canonization.  Here's an abbreviated Dummies.com explanation of canonization:  1.  The person must be dead for at least 5 years; 2. W ..read more

In part one, I wrote about Paul’s epistle to Philemon, which was addressed to a person and not to a particular church like his other epistles. The apostle John wrote three epistles and two of them are also personally addressed to a person. 2 John is the first of John's two epistles directed to a person as opposed to the church in general, as in 1 John. In modern times, we write (or type) the names and addresses of the person or people we are writing to, and put our signatures at the end of the letter, but in Biblical times, it appears that the writer puts his name first, and then addresses t ..read more

Most of the books of the New Testament are epistles (or letters) written by Paul to the various churches that he either founded or visited. These letters contained Paul's greetings to the church that he was addressing, corrections in doctrine, instructions for church worship or organization, and personal greetings to some of the members of the particular church that Paul was addressing.  It appears from reading the last chapter of most of the epistles that Paul has dictated the letter to someone else to write because there will be a verse added where Paul is writing with his own hand. In ..read more

"That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." So goes the quote from the tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare. Parents choose the name of their newborns carefully, whether it is a new-fangled name or the name of a favorite relative, and they also have to see how the chosen name fits with the surname. In the Bible, people's names and place names reflected their character traits. Most of the time, the actual text does not provide the meaning of the name; you can usually find the meaning of a name in a footnote. Sometimes, however, the meaning of the name is fo ..read more

Wrestling is one of the few sports mentioned in the Bible.  In Genesis 32:24, Jacob wrestled with a Man all night after he sent his wives and the rest of his entourage over the brook.  The heading for this section of the chapter is "Wrestling With God" in the NKJV.  In Ephesians 6:12, Paul states that we wrestle against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of the age, and against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  This is spiritual wrestling and not physical wrestling.  Those of you who are modern wrestling fan ..read more

A while back, I wrote a blog post about how sin is like weeds in our garden. You can read that blog post here. I’d like to take the gardening metaphor in another direction and write about how growing our faith is much like growing a garden. When you start a garden, you dig up the soil (or plant in a raised garden bed or a large pot if digging’s not your thing or you’re physically unable to dig) and plant the seeds and/or bulbs.  We plant the seeds of our faith in Jesus in our hearts so that it will take root and grow larger over time, much like our plants grow larger.   ..read more

April 1 is known as April Fool’s Day. It is not an official holiday, but it is a day when people play practical jokes and hoaxes on others. It has been celebrated in many countries around the world for many centuries. April Fool’s Day can also be called Atheist’s Day, as per Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1, where David writes: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” David’s son Solomon, who had wisdom given to him by God, wrote many proverbs about fools to contrast the fool’s behavior to that of wise people and in order that people would not become fools. Here is a summary of these pro ..read more

The book of Revelation is a book of the Bible that a lot of people say they don't understand, or maybe they just don't want to understand.  "It doesn't apply to us today, " they say. "It's about the future. I don't care about that."  Yet over twenty-five percent of the Bible is prophecies about the future. If God didn't want us to know what was going to happen in the future, He wouldn't have told us.  And Revelation is the only book of the Bible that promises blessings to those who read it and follow it. Revelation 1:3 reads: "Blessed is he who reads and those who he ..read more

I own an Apple Watch (yes, I'm a gadget girl).  Every day-and-a-half or so, the low battery warning appears on my watch.  The message says: "Low Power You have 10% power remaining." There is another box below the message which reads "Power Reserve." When I see the Low Power message, I hurry up and connect my watch to its charger so that it will charge back up.  It usually takes about an hour to an hour and a half to recharge my watch and then I can wear it again. Our personal batteries can wear down too, can't they?  Unfortunately, our bodies don't give us the low power wa ..read more