The Bible Study Hour
thinkact_qklktp on 03/29/2024

Friday: When Opposition Comes

How perverse are the sinful hearts of men. When Jesus was dying on the cross the leaders had taunted him, saying, "Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him" (Matt. 27:42). But now Jesus had done something even greater than that. He had been raised from death. Did they believe

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/28/2024

Thursday: Go and Tell Others

We concluded yesterday by looking at what we should see when we look into Christ's empty grave. I had pointed out the first three of the five Spurgeon mentions. We'll continue that in today's lesson with the fourth point, the most important one. We must look into the tomb to see that Jesus is not in

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/27/2024

Wednesday: Four Angelic Imperatives

The way these accounts fit together makes the narrative compelling, and it may not be overstating the case to say, as Matthew Arnold once did, that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is “the best attested fact in history.” People who have studied the evidence for the resurrection have found this to be

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/26/2024

Tuesday: The First Easter Morning

It is not difficult to put the details of the narratives together. Jesus had been crucified either on Friday (which the church has traditionally believed) or else on Thursday (which is less widely held but, in my judgment, seems to fit the evidence better).1 In any case, Jesus lay in the tomb until

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/25/2024

Monday: Bodily Resurrection

The only resurrection that counts for anything is a resurrection of the body. The disciples knew Jesus' resurrection was real when they touched His body, and it was only because of their deeply grounded conviction that He was raised that they were willing to launch out from their obscure corner of t

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/22/2024

Friday: Our Highest Aim

In 1989, Westerners were astounded by the political changes in Eastern Europe. Country after country repudiated its seventy-two-year Communist heritage and replaced its leaders with democratically elected officials. We rejoiced in these changes, rightly. But, though the American media with its blind

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/21/2024

Thursday: The Answer to Materialism

If there is a God and if he has made us to have eternal fellowship with him, then we are going to look at failure, suffering, pain and even death differently. For the Christian these can never be the greatest of all tragedies. They are bad. Death is an enemy (1 Cor. 15:26). But they are overbalanced

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/20/2024

Wednesday: God Has Spoken

To avoid being conformed to the world we must also understand the doctrine of revelation. The God who exists has revealed Himself. Do you remember how Francis Schaeffer put it in the title of one of his books? He called it, He Is There and He Is Not Silent.1 That is exactly the point. God is there,

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/19/2024

Tuesday: Beginning with God

Where do we start if we want not to conform to this world? There is a sense in which we could begin at any point, since truth is a whole and truth in any area will inevitably lead to truth in every other area. But if the dominant philosophy of our day is secularism (which means viewing all of life o

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/18/2024

Monday: Thinking Christianly

As believers we need to reject the world's thinking and begin to think as Christians. This is what the apostle Paul is writing about in our text from Romans 12:2: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” This means that our thinking i

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/15/2024

Friday: Our Minds Matter

This week we've looked at different ways that "the pattern of this world" eases its way into our worldview. And this is the point at which we also need to talk about genuine mind renewal for Christians, which is what I will continue with next week.This week we’ve looked at different ways that “the p

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/14/2024

Thursday: Religion as Entertainment

Sadly enough, “the pattern of this age” weaves itself into even apparently spiritual things. This is especially true in many religious television programs. Religion is on television chiefly in an entertainment format. With the possible exception of Billy Graham, who has an international following qu

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/13/2024

Wednesday: An Attack on Thinking

A great deal of what Postman develops in his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, is reinforcement for what I have been describing as mindlessness. And “the pattern of this age” today is certainly mindless. So let me review two specific areas of bad influence, as he sees it. There is a chapter in the b

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/12/2024

Tuesday: The Triumph of Images

Television is certainly capable of imprinting "the pattern of this world" on us. An academic study of the negative impact of television on culture has been provided by a man named Neil Postman, a professor of communication arts and sciences at New York University. It is called Amusing Ourselves to D

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/11/2024

Monday: Mindless Times

In our time there is no longer a distinctly Christian way of thinking. There is to some extent a Christian ethic and even a somewhat Christian way of life and piety. But there is no distinctly Christian frame of reference, no uniquely Christian worldview, to guide our thinking in distinction from th

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/08/2024

Friday: Not Conformed, but Transformed

I want to look ahead one phrase to what Paul says we are to be: not "conformed," but "transformed" by the renewing of our minds. There is a deliberate distinction between those two words, as I am sure you can see. Conformity is something that happens to you outwardly. Transformation happens inwardly

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/07/2024

Thursday: Relativism and Materialism

Since we've been talking about humanism this week, we also have to talk briefly about relativism. Because if man is the focal point of everything, then there are no absolutes in any area of life, and everything is up for grabs.Since we’ve been talking about humanism this week, we also have to talk b

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/06/2024

Wednesday:  Philosophical Humanism

In yesterday's study I said that there is a proper concern for secular things but that secularism as a worldview is wrong. I need to say the same thing about this next popular "ism," humanism.In yesterday’s study I said that there is a proper concern for secular things but that secularism as a world

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/05/2024

Tuesday: The Secular Worldview

Secularism is an umbrella term that covers a number of other "isms," like humanism, relativism, pragmatism, pluralism, hedonism and materialism. But it, more than any other single word, aptly describes the mental framework and value structure of the people of our time.If worldliness isn’t smoking, d

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/04/2024

Monday: Worldviews

There are some verses in the Bible that are enriched when we read them in other translations. Romans 12:2 is one of them. In the New International Version the first part of Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.” This verse has two key words: “world,” which is act

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 03/01/2024

Friday: Worthy of Our Best

It is reasonable because God is worthy of our very best efforts. In the fourth chapter of Revelation we read, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being” (Rev. 4:11). And again, “Worthy

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 02/29/2024

Thursday: The Blessings of God’s Will

Let me make what I have been saying personal. Are you a believer in Jesus Christ? Are you trusting Him for your salvation? Has the Holy Spirit made you alive in Jesus Christ? If he has, what can be more reasonable than to give yourself to Him? What is more logical than to serve God wholeheartedly in

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 02/28/2024

Wednesday: God’s Work in the Past

The first thing Jacob did was send some servants ahead to see if they could find Esau and perhaps get a feeling for what he was planning to do. They had not gone very far, when they ran into Esau who was actually coming to meet Jacob. Unfortunately, he had four hundred men with him. This was a huge

t thinkact_qklktp
thinkact_qklktp on 02/27/2024

Tuesday: Giving Ourselves to God

To understand this verse well we must understand the kind of service that is required. We have already spent a good bit of time exploring what this kind of service is about. It concerns what Paul calls “sacrifice.” When we were looking at it in detail earlier we saw that it involves three things. It

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