By Bill Fiess Recent research suggests that a significant number of Americans both want and plan to be wealthy. Americans, on average, feel they need to make over $186,000 per year just to live comfortably. A 2022 survey by Charles Schwab found that Americans’ expectations of what they would need to consider themselves or others

By Bill Fiess Recently, a friend from Zambia (a young student studying to be a pastor) asked me about tithing. In the Zambian churches, tithing is considered by many to be a condition for keeping your salvation. He stated (in an email): Some do question someone’s salvation if they can’t give the tithe. I can

By Bill Fiess Many examples show how failing to obey a general’s command led to ultimate defeat. In 1968, American troops in Vietnam were ordered to search for Viet Cong insurgents in the village of My Lai. However, some soldiers misinterpreted the command and engaged in a brutal massacre of unarmed civilians, including women, children,

By Bill Fiess Recently, my 102-year-old father died and left an inheritance to each of his four children. My parents were not extremely rich, but they were both college-educated professionals, and they left us a very nice inheritance. I would have been extremely disappointed if I had not been included in my father’s will. I

By Bill Fiess There is a word in the NT that all believers need to be aware of. In Greek, it is the word dokimos. A NT Greek dictionary will tell us that the word means either “approved” or “tested.” These two ideas go together. Something can be put to the test to see if

By Bill Fiess and Pam Esteven In a recent study, I noted that some form of the Greek word family agapaō (verb, noun, participle, adjective) occurs in every single book of the NT. As many Grace in Focus readers know, agapaō and its various forms denote love in the highest sense of the word, both

By Bill Fiess The Hebrew root LMD (teach) is found 94 times in the OT. But there is no chapter in the Bible that contains as many occurrences (13) of this verb as Psalm 119 (vv 7, 12, 26, 64, 66, 68, 71, 73, 99, 108, 124, 135, 171). Listed below are a few representative

By Bill Fiess This morning I was really struck by the presence of a single Greek participle elthōn (= coming or when He comes) in connection with Jesus Christ’s imminent return: Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes [elthōn], will find so doing (Matt 24:46). Watch therefore, for you do not know

By Bill Fiess and Ken Yates At the end of 1 John 2, the Apostle writes about the day when Jesus Christ returns (“He appears.”). John writes: And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming (1 John 2:28). This