I recently received the following question: Hi Bob, hope you’re well. Can you give me your thoughts on the word “should” in John 3:16 vs Ephesians 2:10? “Should” in John seems to have to mean “certainly will” whereas the one in Ephesians 2:10 seems to have to mean “ought to happen, but may not”. How

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17).

I was recently talking to an eight-year-old who worried that if I didn’t turn off my gas fireplace, Santa would not be able to come down and give us presents. I told him we turn it off at night. I had to bite my tongue, though. Not everyone will agree with this, but my wife

The following is a condensed version of a Christmas sermon I delivered in 2013 at Grace Chapel in Orange, CA. I hope you find it encouraging. What do you think of when you think of Christmas? Well, spiritually-minded Christians think of the Lord Jesus Christ becoming a Man, what we call the incarnation. We don’t

And the LORD said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them: for to morrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel: thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire (Josh 11:6). I spent a long time in the military. During that time, fortunately, I did not

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recently concluded a study confirming widespread sexual abuse of children in Roman Catholic institutions. Here are some blood boiling quotes: “Of the survivors who reported being abused in a religious institution, 61.4% said it occurred in a Catholic organization.” “In February 2017, the commission

What’s does Christian spirituality look like, in a nutshell? Jesus said: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15 NKJV ). Each of those words gives us an important insight. “If.” Wait, “If”? Shouldn’t He have said “When”? “When you love Me”? Isn’t loving Jesus inevitable? Many churches teach it is. They say every

Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. (Gal 5:26). So often we are blinded by our own traditions and culture. I think this is true when we talk about the fruit of the Spirit. Most of us have at one time or another memorized the fruit of the

Who are you following? One of the great indictments in the Old Testament is this: In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25 KJV). They did what was right in their own eyes. They followed themselves. They did what they wanted,