Simply Gospel

May my steps be worship. May my thoughts be praise.

  • Reinterpreting Ruth

    While doing some studies in Ruth lately, I couldn’t help but wonder what her interaction with Boaz might look like if it happened in 2009 with some modern sensibilities. *** Upon returning to Bethlehem, Naomi and Ruth found a homeless community that welcomed them. It was a shanty town on the edge of the big Continue reading

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  • The Incorruptible Seed

    Having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth. For, “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower falleth: But the word of the Lord abideth for ever.” And this is Continue reading

  • Connecting Judges to Ruth

    God connects the details in His word to one another. Sometimes we wonder why God includes certain chapters, passages, or details in His Bible. Such chapters may be 17-21 in which terrible wickedness is recorded with little divine comment. Serving almost as bookends to these events are chapter 17:6 and 21:25, which both say basically Continue reading

  • The Mustard Seed – Part 2

    And the apostles said unto the Lord, “Increase our faith.” And the Lord said, “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye would say unto this sycamore tree, ‘Be thou rooted up, and be thou planted in the sea;’ and it would obey you” (Luke 17:5-6). The natural world provided Jesus with Continue reading

  • Is It Vain To Serve God?

    “Your words have been stout against me,” saith the LORD. Yet ye say, “What have we spoken against thee?” Ye have said, “It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?” (Malachi 3:13-14). People tend to Continue reading

  • Suffering Before Glory

    In I Peter 2, Peter describes what Jesus underwent on our behalf, and he holds up that sacrifice as an example to us. In verse 21-25, Christ’s suffering is the basis of our calling. Philippians 2 then gives a clearer picture of what Jesus would go through before His exultation. In his book, Peter relates Continue reading

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  • The Choice of Sin

    C.S. Lewis, a widely cited Christian writer, once said, “It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick.” He observes that all sin moves Continue reading

  • The Mustard Seed – Part 1

    And he said, “How shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or in what parable shall we set it forth? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown upon the earth, though it be less than all the seeds that are upon the earth, yet when it is sown, groweth Continue reading

  • Where Is the God of Justice?

    Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, “Wherein have we wearied him?” In that ye say, “Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them;” or, “where is the God of justice?” (Malachi 2:17). The evils and inequalities of life can pose Continue reading

  • The Murderer & the Author of Life

    “But ye denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of life; whom God raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses” (Acts 3:14-15). The irony of it all was not lost on Peter. Jesus of Nazareth did good for people– He healed Continue reading