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Mel Lawrenz
April 15, 2020

How to Live the Bible — Living in a Catastrophic World

howtostudythebible

This is the one-hundred-first lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.

Mel Lawrenz will be offering daily online ministry during this health crisis. Sign up here.

There are numerous causes of suffering in the world. One of them is the brokenness of the natural world as we see it in disease and earthquakes and hurricanes, and other ways.

Scripture tells us that suffering has become nature’s abnormal state. In Genesis 3 it says the world that has become cursed now has enmity and pain and conflict. That’s how even the natural order of things—the way nature itself behaves—has been disrupted because of this moral earthquake that has happened on earth.

Coronavirus crowd illustration

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Jonathan Petersen
April 14, 2020

The Unlikely Friendship from the Oklahoma City Bombing: An Interview with Jeanne Bishop

Jeanne Bishop, author of Grace from the RubbleHow is it possible that two men destined to be enemies were able to forge an unexpected bond in the wake of abhorrent terrorism and tragedy? What transpired in the heart-stirring story of how the father of a young woman killed in the Oklahoma City bombing and the father of her killer (Timothy McVeigh) became friends and found forgiveness?

Bible Gateway interviewed Jeanne Bishop (@jeannebishop), author of Grace from the Rubble: Two Fathers’ Road to Reconciliation after the Oklahoma City Bombing (Zondervan, 2020).

Buy your copy of Grace from the Rubble: Two Fathers' Road to Reconciliation after the Oklahoma City Bombing in the Bible Gateway Store where you'll enjoy low prices every day

Please set the context by briefly recounting the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing on April 19, 1995.

Jeanne Bishop: On a beautiful spring day in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 26-year-old Timothy McVeigh pulled a rental truck packed with explosives up to the building and lit the fuses. The explosion killed 168 people, including 19 small children. The attack stunned the nation and the world. It was the deadliest strike on American soil since Pearl Harbor. It remains, as of this writing, this country’s most lethal act of domestic terrorism.

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Guest Post
April 13, 2020

What Would Billy Graham Say If He Were Alive Today?

Eric MetaxasBy Eric Metaxas

The best way to answer this question is to look at what the late Billy Graham did say in the past, particularly after the September 11, 2001 attacks against the US.

It was September 14, 2001—three days after the September 11 attacks robbed nearly 3,000 people of their lives. A service of prayer and remembrance was taking place at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. After prayers and hymns, including O God, Our Help in Ages Past, a hush fell as an elderly man with a mane of white hair stood up. A church official helped him up the steps to the pulpit. From there, the man gazed through his spectacles at an audience that included every living former president, along with the current one, George W. Bush. It was to Bush that the 82-year-old known as “America’s pastor”—Billy Graham—addressed his first words, thanking him for calling a national day of prayer and remembrance, which the country badly needed.

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Jonathan Petersen
April 12, 2020

Bible News Roundup – Week of April 12, 2020

Read this week’s Bible Gateway Weekly Brief newsletter
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The Risen Christ Gives ‘Hope and Fresh Purpose’: Queen’s First Easter Message
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⇨ Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, The Faith of Queen Elizabeth: An Interview with Dudley Delffs
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Half of Americans Say Bible Should Influence US Laws, Including 28% Who Favor It Over the Will of the People
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Guest Post
April 12, 2020

The Gospel is the Message of the Second Chance

O.S. HawkinsBy O.S. Hawkins

Imagine you can smell the freshness of the cool Middle Eastern sunrise on the third day. The women arrive at the tomb early only to find that it is empty! Then they are startled by an angelic being informing them the Lord is not there but that he is risen. Then the angel says, “Go, tell his disciples—and Peter—that he is going before you into Galilee” (Mark 16:7).

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Guest Post
April 10, 2020

Easter Canceled? Not on Your Life!

Max LucadoBy Max Lucado

[Sign up to receive the once-a-week free email devotional, An Encouraging Word from Max Lucado]

There has been much discussion recently over what to believe. Are the coronavirus numbers accurate? Are the reports from other countries dependable? Dare we be optimistic about treatments and vaccines?
Like you, I’ve struggled to separate caution from overreaction.

There was one headline, however, that we can quickly discard. Don’t believe it. Don’t fall for it. The message just ain’t true. Here it is: “Easter Canceled.” The article detailed the sad reality that most church sanctuaries will be closed this coming Sunday. Hence, the announcement, “Easter Canceled.”

Hence, my reply, “Not on your life, friend.”

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Guest Post
April 10, 2020

Jesus Died so We Might Be Saved

O.S. HawkinsBy O.S. Hawkins

At some time or another, most of us have been caught in a “Freudian slip,” an inadvertent mistake in speech revealing an unconscious thought of some kind. This is closely akin to the “double entendre,” a particular way of saying something that has a double meaning.

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Jonathan Petersen
April 9, 2020

How to Follow Jesus: An Interview with Craig Springer

Craig SpringerHas following Jesus become unnecessarily convoluted by modern Christian jargon and heavy systematic theology? Are new believers in Christ paralyzed by being overwhelmed trying to master complicated doctrines, frustrated by a large list of rules for policing their lives, and bewildered by a new (and strange) vocabulary?

Bible Gateway interviewed Craig Springer (@CraigMSpringer), author of How to Follow Jesus: A Practical Guide to Growing Your Faith (Zondervan, 2020).

Buy your copy of How to Follow Jesus in the Bible Gateway Store where you'll enjoy low prices every day

Why did you write How to Follow Jesus?

Craig Springer: When I first became a Christian, I struggled. I came from a “Christian-y” sort of background but honestly, I had no foundation, no knowledge, no real experience to lean on. I struggled with all sorts of messed-up-living in those early years, but I was hungry for Jesus and I wanted to grow; I just didn’t know how.

I’d go into the Christian bookstore (they actually existed back then) and sift through the mountain of new beliefs and strange Christian vocabulary or heavy systematic theology and church history. Then I’d go to church and have a hard time understanding all that I should or shouldn’t be doing. I couldn’t find the primer I needed to grow which communicated in a way that wouldn’t push me away: “Will someone just tangibly and practically lay it all out for me! I just want to know and follow Jesus for the rest of my life. I want to make sure this isn’t just a hypocritical, half-hearted attempt to start something new and fail like so many other one-hit-wonder attempts at change from my past.”

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Guest Post
April 9, 2020

God Proved His Love Toward Us

O.S. HawkinsBy O.S. Hawkins

God proved his love toward us. He did not prove it by writing “I love you” in flaming letters across the sky. Instead, in “the fullness of the time . . . God sent forth his Son” (Galatians 4:4). Jesus was no remedial action or some kind of last-minute splint for a broken world when all else had failed. He came right on time, and he “demonstrate[d] his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

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Mel Lawrenz
April 8, 2020

How to Live the Bible — Christ Crucified and Resurrected: Why It Matters

howtostudythebible

This is the one-hundredth lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.

Mel Lawrenz will be offering daily online ministry during this health crisis. Sign up here.

CRUCIFIXION

They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. — Matthew 27:33-37

Now came the time for the clash between good and evil, heaven and hell. The crucifixion of Jesus is both the most horrific moment in human history, and humanity’s only hope. That’s why we call the Friday before Easter, Good Friday.

Crucifixion illustration

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    The Bible Gateway Blog features the latest news, announcements, and reflections from Bible Gateway. We hope what you find here will add to your understanding of and appreciation for the Bible.