After a kingdom that was once united divided into Israel and Judah, a man by the name of Jehoram became the fifth king of Judah. It would be an understatement to suggest that he was not one of their better kings. The book of 2 Chronicles is not the only place in The Bible that has information about him, but I will confine my thoughts here to what we find there.  The twenty-first chapter of 2 Chronicles uses only twenty verses to sum up the entire reign of this man. The verbal picture it paints is (again to use another understatement) not at all pretty. If you have the interest and the tim ..read more

Does this ever happen to you: You are reading about a topic you have studied many times before but a particular phrase or concept seems to jump off the page at you? Often when this happens to me, as I continue to study I realize that I have used my love of language to glean a meaning that isn’t actually present in what I just read. However, those nuggets often become food for thought and further study. That happened when I was studying about all the ways the writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is better. He is a better High Priest of a better covenant, with better promises, and so on. I had ..read more

[NOTE: Rarely do I post my bulletin articles from Central on our blog, but I made an exception in this case. The funeral for Mary Jane Kizer is being held on the day this article is being released and I wanted to share these words as a tribute to a lady who means a lot to Leah and me. I also chose to leave the “cover photo” blank out of respect for this emotional time. I hope this post honors Mary Jane.] Many of you have read the New Testament through. Some have read it numerous times, from Matthew to Revelation. In reading the entire New Testament, you have come across passages that have ..read more

I’ve noticed what (at least for me) is a relatively new trend at politics events. To be honest, the trend may not be new, but a label may be. Now that both political parties have had their conventions, it may be safe to post this without seeming to take sides (I hope). At conventions, rallies, etc., there are always the usual types of speakers. Well known political people and other “important people” are part of the lineup. Most of them need no introduction. There are others, though, who do need some sort of introduction. Their names are not well-known and are probably forgotten not long after ..read more

(Player not displaying or working? Click here to listen.) Find our podcast on… Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher TuneIn Radio RSS The post Episode 177: Adam’s Bible Corner: Ruth 1:15-18 first appeared on ..read more

I suppose one of the most common ways to refer to what some call “Sunday School” is to refer to it as the “Bible school program.” Children, teens, and adults attend classes and, over the years, hear hundreds of lessons. But today I want to give three times when calling it the “Bible school program” is not accurate, and each one provides something to honestly evaluate. First, don’t call it the “Bible school program” if it is not actually a program; in other words, if there is little-to-no organization. A great deal of time and attention needs to be paid to evaluating curriculum, for example. An ..read more

PTP. What in the world do those three initials stand for?  At times you may hear people (including Donna and me) using these initials, but you may have no idea what we are talking about. While PTP is under the oversight of an eldership of a church of Christ in Alabama and is intended to strengthen and encourage churches of Christ, sadly (in my opinion), even some of “us” may not know that PTP stands for… Polishing the Pulpit. Contrary to what may first come to mind, we are not discussing what I guess could be called a piece of furniture used in some places during worship services. Rather ..read more

I don’t know about where you live, but where I am in Tennessee, it has been HOT! My 3rd graders come in from recess looking like their heads are about to explode from their brief time outside. Yesterday when I had car duty, I could feel sweat on my shins. Shins aren’t supposed to sweat! Perhaps that is why, as I was studying for a Bible class, the idea of refreshment seemed to jump off the page at me. My class is using the materials provided by ValleyBibleStudies.com to study through the New Testament. We are looking at Philemon this week.  After appealing to Philemon to receive Onesimus ..read more

I won’t go into any details, but something I heard recently caused me to do a little research about what is known as The Hubble Space Telescope. Specifically, what intrigued me was some of the things that scientists have learned from this telescope that was launched into what is called “low earth orbit” in 1990.  During my admittedly limited research, I came across this information from NASA: One of the most fundamental questions in astronomy is that of just how many galaxies the universe contains. The landmark Hubble Deep Field, taken in the mid-1990s, gave the first real insight into th ..read more

(Player not displaying or working? Click here to listen.) Find our podcast on… Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher TuneIn Radio RSS The post Episode 176: Adam’s Bible Corner: Ruth 1:6-14 first appeared on ..read more