Tag Archives: how to read the Bible

The Family Business: A Sermon from John 5

Posted on September 18, 2025 by salooper57

When bad things happen in our lives, we might think about God the way my parents thought about the police: Why isn’t he doing something? Someday, we’ll discover that he was. But, unlike the police, he wanted us to join him in his work. Continue reading →

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Why I Had So Much Trouble Reading the Bible

Posted on July 5, 2025 by salooper57

I would read some passage in the Gospels and, before I was done with the first paragraph, wander into some daydream or fretting episode. When I finally emerged and returned to my reading, the same thing would happen again within moments. Continue reading →

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The Working Word (1 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5)

Posted on July 9, 2023 by salooper57

In this part of 1 Thessalonians, Paul thanks God for how the Thessalonians received the word of God and how that word has gone to work in them. How does God’s word “work”? We’ll explore that in this message. Our … Continue reading →

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Look Into the Life and Times of God

Posted on June 25, 2022 by salooper57

(Reading Time: 3 to 4 minutes.) I bought two side tables for our bedroom, the kind made of pressed woods and veneer, and assembled them myself. They came with step by step instructions, complete with diagrams. Somehow, I could never … Continue reading →

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Four Ways that Reading the Bible Helps

Posted on April 23, 2022 by salooper57

I have a picture of baseball great Mickey Mantle. It had been my brother’s, but he died at age 14. After my parents passed away, the picture came into my possession. Mickey Mantle pictures are a dime a dozen, but … Continue reading →

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A Different Way to Read the Bible

Posted on April 2, 2022 by salooper57

(Reading time: approximately 3-4 minutes) My family started reading the Bible together when I was in middle school. Hearing my dad read the Bible was a new and unexpected experience, one that left a lasting mark on me. We started … Continue reading →

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Is the Bible Relevant to Your Life? Maybe Not

Posted on November 20, 2021 by salooper57

…many people use the Bible like the box top to a jig saw puzzle. They look at it, then try to order the pieces of their lives according to what they see. The trouble is that the pieces they are working with came from a different box. They try to use those pieces to construct the picture of peace and joy as it is presented in sermons, but no matter what they do, they cannot make the pieces go together. Continue reading →

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How to Read the Greatest Story Ever

Posted on October 2, 2021 by salooper57

In this way of reading the Bible, the story is a quest, and the object is to reach heaven. The problem is sin, which destines people to hell, which is so unthinkably bad that it must be avoided at all costs. Nevertheless, humans are ineluctably headed there. Then comes the eucatastrophe, when God sends his Son to rescue humanity through his own sacrifice, enabling people to enter heaven and live happily ever.

There is much that is true and helpful about this reading. However, there is another reading that is more consistent with the biblical authors’ intent. Continue reading →

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God The Builder (2 Samuel 7)

Posted on September 6, 2021 by salooper57

2 Samuel 7 has been called “one of the most important chapters in the Bible.” Here we explore its importance to the biblical story of Jesus and to our lives.

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