“Then one of the Pharisees invited (Jesus) to eat with him. (Jesus) entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. And a woman in the town who was a sinner found out that Jesus was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house. She brought an alabaster jar of perfume and stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to wash his feet with her tears. She wiped his feet with her hair, kissing them and anointing them with the perfume. When the Pharisee who had invite

“On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: ‘Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and to the remnant of the people’ ” (Haggai 2:1-2). Less than a month after construction began, God spoke to Haggai, giving him a message for the nation and its leaders. God’s message became Haggai’s second sermonette (Haggai 2:1-9). Interestingly, the twenty-first day of the

In Haggai’s first-of-four sermonettes, the prophet’s thesis is simple and direct. Get busy! Build the temple! Fifteen or sixteen years earlier, construction had begun. But now, weeds grew inside the foundation of the Lord’s temple. You’ve procrastinated long enough. It was time “for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt”(Haggai 1:2). The people had returned from exile and built comfortable homes for themselves, while God’s house was abandoned, ignored, forsaken. Your priorities

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). Every word in the Bible is “profitable!” Every word, from “In the beginning God...” (Genesis 1:1) to “Even so, come Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20, KJV), is written so that a Christ-follower might be “equipped” for kingdom activity. Is that true of the mostly-ign

Paul’s aim was to teach a “truth that leads to godliness” (Titus 1:1). The Apostle was very clear! He taught that salvation is not earned by works of righteousness, but according to the marvelous mercy and great grace of the Savior (Titus 3:5). Paul taught that we “are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared a

The Book of Titus was written by a pastor, to a pastor, about pastors. The old and wise senior pastor, Paul, challenged the younger pastor, Titus, to establish new churches on the Island of Crete with godly pastoral leadership. Paul’s command to, “appoint elders in every town” (Titus 1:5) seems very autocratic, though the process of this appointment is not defined. It is possible that Paul had verbally instructed Titus to assist small churches to recognize God-ordained men i

Crete, the largest and most populous of the Greek Islands, is a narrow island south of mainland Greece, running one-hundred-seventy miles east-to-west but never more than about thirty-five miles wide. Crete and the Cretans are only mentioned in three chapters of the Bible. First, Cretans were among the fifteen nationalities represented in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:11). It is possible that the Gospel first reached the island as the earliest spirit-filled discip

The book of Acts records Paul’s three missionary expeditions. On the first, Paul and Barnabas evangelized the Island of Cyprus, then Perga in the region of Pamphylia, Antioch in Pisidia, and Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe in Galatia (Acts 13-14). On the second missionary journey Paul, Silas, and others, left Syrian Antioch and “traveled through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches” (Acts 15:41). It is possible that he visited his hometown, Tarsus, located in the region o

The Book of Acts lists several of Paul’s ministry partners and traveling companions: Barnabas, Mark, Silas, Timothy, Aquila and Pricilla, and others. Dr. Luke does not mention Titus. So, to learn about this important New Testament character, we are left with Paul’s letters. Chronologically, Galatians is probably Paul’s first letter. It was written after the first missionary journey that took Paul and Barnabas into modern-day eastern Turkey where they saw great numbers come to

You can’t read the book of Daniel without being amazed at the miraculous way that God spoke through visions and dreams and how God enabled Daniel to understand them (Daniel 1:17). Visions and dreams are an important part of Daniel’s story. As a very young man, Daniel was called upon to interpret the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, and also to reveal the content of the dream. “Daniel went to his house and told his friends ... about the matter, urging them to ask the God of the heaven