The Christian faith doesn’t have a large number of formal rituals, but it does have two that are considered essential in the life of the believer. One of those is baptism. But what is it? Let’s find out together. While denominations and traditions may have different nuances to how and when they choose to baptize, Christian baptism is shown...

The letters to the seven churches are filled with insight into what constitutes a faithful Christian congregation. In the first four, we see several important emphases. In the letter to Ephesus, we’re reminded of the need for a passionate, right relationship with God from which good works flow (and without which good works are dead). The letter to Smyrna...

One of the most common ways that we speak of the church is as a place or an event. It is somewhere to go to. But of all the ways that the Bible describes the church, this isn’t one of them. Instead, the Bible describes the church as something much more important. Virtually every time the Bible uses the...

I love reading through the Old Testament. The Old Testament is rich with threads of the gospel—hints of what God was planning from before the world began. However, it is easy to overlook look them. They are often understated—they’re not the main point of the passage, but they are present. There are several gospel themes in Genesis alone, more...

Revelation begins and ends with blessing. We see blessing in the beginning in verse 3, where the author blesses the one who “reads aloud the words of this prophecy.” And we see blessing at the end in Revelation 22:14: “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and...

When we read the Bible, we frequently see the term “world” appear in a few different ways. So what in the world does the Bible mean when it uses the word world? Let’s find out together. There are three common ways the term “world” is used in Scripture. The first is, naturally, to refer to the physical world itself....