“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
— 1 Peter 2:24, ESV

Holy Spirit, please guide my words in all truth.

I was watching a podcast featuring Lee Strobel and Shawn Ryan, and Lee (a former atheist) brought up a very simple thought experiment that I’d like you and me to explore together today.

Imagine that you have committed a serious crime: murder. You’ve been indicted and found guilty. Now, standing before the judge, you hear your life-shattering fate: life in prison or a $100 million fine.

For ordinary people like you and me, the fine might as well be $100 billion. There’s no chance we could pay it, so the grim reality of spending the rest of our lives behind bars starts setting in. You look toward the gallery and see your mother weeping, your spouse distraught, and judgmental stares from the jury and everyone else who decided to attend your funeral.

However, just as you’re being taken away, the judge speaks again:

This fine is too much for you to bear. I will pay it under one condition:

Admit to yourself, in your heart, that this burden is too great and that you need me to intervene. Believe that, as your judge, I am able to do this and have already done it for you out of compassion and mercy.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the perfectly wise and absolutely necessary logic of Jesus Christ. We have all sinned at least once in our lives, and because God is perfectly just, a fine has been imposed on us. Community service won’t save you from this, and money is useless here. This penalty requires payment in a currency no one but God Himself can afford.

Knowing this, there is only one way out: God Himself must intervene.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
— Ephesians 2:8–9, KJV

Do you not see? How can you—a mortal, diseased and corrupt, evil down to your very core, regardless of how much “good” you claim to do—even begin to think, for a second, that your filthy rags could ever absolve you of this penalty?

Isn’t Jesus’s beautiful sacrifice absolutely necessary for you?

God’s intervention: a perfect man, His Son, sent on your behalf to pay the debt for your sins—past, present, and future. A free gift, the perfect culmination of love, mercy, and compassion for the sin you were born into as a result of Adam’s fall in the garden.

No more guilt. No more atonement. No more feeling bad about last week’s sin and allowing it to keep you up at night. No more living in death’s shadow, trying your very best not to sin, then sinning and falling into depression because you tried your best but failed, as usual.

Brothers and sisters, please listen.

I get no reward for passing this on, nor am I fulfilling a quota given to me from above. I am preaching this to you because I was you. I was a “good person.” I tried my best, gave to the poor, and turned my back on sin as often as I could. But none of that matters, don’t you see?

Our human efforts are nothing to the LORD—not because He has no compassion, but because He is God. He doesn’t deal in worldly atonement, but in perfect sacrifice and perfect justice. You cannot pay this debt. Let Him pay it for you! It’s free, beautiful, perfect, and, again, absolutely necessary.

Every other religion teaches works.

In Islam, you must pray five times a day, give obligatory charity to those who qualify, fast during Ramadan, and make the pilgrimage to Mecca…

Filthy rags.

In Judaism, you must keep all 613 commandments from the Old Testament, yet the Law was given to make sin known to the world, not to save us.

Filthy rags.

The thousands of other religions—Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism—all teach that you must do this and that and reach a level of enlightenment…

All. Filthy. Rags.

The penalty for sin must be paid by God. He must intervene.

God so loved the world that He came into it, died at the hands of His own creation (imagine the humility needed), and freed you and me once and for all from our fate by paying the impossible debt for us.

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
— 2 Corinthians 5:21, KJV

It’s a free gift. All you must do is believe, and you will receive it.

Until next time, and as always, stand firm in Christ.

“When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?” — John 5:6, KJV

Like all verses in the Bible, its secrets aren’t revealed to us until we knock and seek Him. I’ve read this verse countless times and never stopped to ask: Why would Jesus ask a man who’s been disabled for thirty-eight years if he would like to be healed? Surely, the answer is yes.

But is it?

I believe there is a lesson here that goes deeper than physical healing. Many people are either born with disabilities or acquire them later in life, and the LORD certainly has the power to heal us of them. But He is much more concerned with the well-being of our souls—specifically, our salvation.

Holy Spirit, guide my words in all truth.

There is a reason, I believe, that Jesus asked, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Those words invite us to consider more than physical wellness. I believe there is a lesson here about the healing we’re all in need of: spiritual healing. Jesus clearly stated during His ministry that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can tell a mountain to move, and it will move. We can trust Him for physical healing, too, while remembering that it does not always come in the way or timing we hope.

So now the question becomes, “Wilt thou be made spiritually well?” And that is a very deep question. If you’ve come this far, if you are a believer and trust in the truth of the Bible and the miracles of God, then there’s no doubt about what He can do. But do you want Him to do it?

Do I want to be spiritually healed?

Or, more practically: Would you be willing to lose everything you have—your job, money, family, and relationships—for Him?

“Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.’” — Luke 9:23, NKJV

Do you want a new name? A new life? To turn away from the pleasures and comforts of this world and welcome a complete transformation?

Your worldly friends may not recognize you anymore. Your time-wasting, sinful hobbies won’t satisfy you anymore. You’ll turn away from cursing. You may feel led to give up any music that isn’t worship or instrumental. You’ll learn discipline and take care of the body that Christ paid for.

Do you believe that God can heal you? And if so, do you accept?

This is at the core of true Christianity. When Christ died for our sins, He was resurrected. But before He rose, His flesh was nailed to the cross, and as followers, we are called to take up our own cross and put our sinful desires to death. This looks different for all of us, but the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth and convict us when it’s needed.

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” — Romans 12:2, NKJV

This isn’t legalism. This is tasting the pure and holy waters of His love and mercy and trusting Him to transform your heart and renew your mind.

Ask yourselves, brothers and sisters: Wilt thou be made whole?

Until next time, and as always, stand firm in Christ.

The purpose of this article is to shed light on the wise, friendly, and gracious friend living inside of us as followers of Christ: the Holy Spirit. Inspiration for today’s writing came from the Book of Matthew, which illustrates many times the disciples’ lack of faith, regardless of the fact that they were eyewitnesses to the truth and saw firsthand the miracles of the LORD.

For example, Matthew 16:6, KJV:

“Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.”

In response, the disciples:

“…reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.”

To you and me, full of the Holy Spirit as followers of Christ, Jesus’ message is quite simple: the spreading of false doctrine by the Pharisees and the Sadducees is similar to leaven in that, though it’s small, it can spread and corrupt the entire dough. However, to the disciples, Jesus was just asking about their food.

It’s so interesting, and it has always baffled me that a lot of the things Jesus said to his apostles weren’t understood. In fact, I found myself so many times switching places with them and convincing myself that, after seeing a man restore eyesight and raise a man from the dead, surely I would have a better understanding than the apostles did. But all this did was humble me further for even making such a comparison and bring me face to face with the truth.

Our Father in Heaven knows the diseased and evil nature of our minds and hearts, and He hasn’t left us alone:

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” — John 14:26, KJV

And then it became clear to me that the apostles didn’t understand His teachings and the things from above because they hadn’t yet received the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells us this clearly:

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” — John 16:7, KJV

After Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit entered them:

“And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” — Acts 2:4, KJV

The Father sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, not only to die for our sins and thus free us from the grips of death, but also to give us the Holy Spirit, because only by trusting in what He did on the cross for us do we receive the Helper.

Thanks to the Holy Spirit, the mysteries of Scripture are known to us.

Thanks to the Holy Spirit, we pray and worship in an acceptable way to Him.

Thank you, Most High, for your design. Before your Son came into the world, you spoke to the prophets. While your Son walked the earth, He spoke to us. Since your Son left, the Spirit has continued to speak. You have never left us.

For non-believers, this is hope. The reason you can’t see God or know Him is that the Spirit who knows Him isn’t in you. Accept your sinful nature and that you need a savior. Humble yourself to see the free gift that knocks on your door every day. He loves you, and He wants to save you.

But as for us believers, a warning: although the Spirit lives in us, it is possible to suppress Him and resist His work:

“Quench not the Spirit.
Despise not prophesyings.
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”
— 1 Thessalonians 5:19–21, KJV

Until next time, and as always, stand firm in Christ.

I debated whether to title this article “The Importance of Knowing the Character of God.” But some readers might immediately ask, “Which God?” I believe there is only one God, revealed to us in Jesus Christ, but I want to be clear with those who do not share my faith.

Then I considered “The Importance of Reading Your Bible.” That subject has been covered a million times, but the two ideas are closely connected. If you have made it this far, here is today’s message:

Reading the Word of God is learning the character of God.

As usual, let’s start with Scripture. If you picked up the Bible for the first time and opened it to Lamentations, you would encounter a devastating account of suffering surrounding Jerusalem’s destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BC:

“The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.” (Lamentations 4:10, KJV)

Here, “pitiful” means compassionate, and “sodden” means boiled. The verse describes famine during Jerusalem’s siege becoming so extreme that mothers cooked and ate their children. For someone looking in from outside the faith—or even for the Christian I was a couple of weeks ago—the immediate question might be:

“If God is so good and sovereign, why does He allow evil?”

Believers and nonbelievers alike have wrestled with this question for centuries. It is a serious question, and asking it does not automatically make someone arrogant or faithless. But when I asked it while reading Lamentations, I realized how quickly I was judging God’s character without considering the wider biblical account. I was reading the devastation without first understanding the warnings, the invitations to repent, and the generations that preceded it.

Here is what I had overlooked.

First, if God didn’t allow evil, He would effectively be removing free will from the world, thus no longer being a God of love but of control. If you want to cook and eat your babies out of hunger instead of praying to the LORD and asking for food in a time of famine, God won’t stop you. But rest assured He also won’t stop your descent into hell when Judgement arrives. Your decision.

Second, context matters. Reading one isolated passage can leave us with an incomplete understanding. Turning to Jeremiah, the book immediately before Lamentations in our Bibles, reveals warnings and appeals that help explain how Jerusalem reached this point.

From Solomon’s late-reign idolatry, around 940 BC, to Jerusalem’s destruction in 586 BC, roughly 350 years passed. This was not an uninterrupted period of rebellion: kings such as Hezekiah and Josiah led significant reforms. Nor does Scripture present these 350 years as a single countdown to destruction. But across those generations, we see a recurring pattern of disobedience, correction, repentance, and renewed rebellion.

Let that sink in: generations of warnings and opportunities to return to God.

We also need to take sin seriously. It is easy to condemn the wrongdoing we find most offensive while excusing our own. “But I only told a small lie to my neighbor,” we might say. Yet calling a lie small does not make it truthful or harmless. God’s justice challenges the standards we conveniently adjust for ourselves—and His mercy offers forgiveness we cannot earn.

Now consider Jeremiah, whom God called to warn Judah and Jerusalem of coming judgment:

“Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.” (Jeremiah 25:9, KJV)

Jeremiah’s ministry began around 627 BC, roughly 40 years before Jerusalem fell. Across those decades, he repeatedly warned the people and called them to return to God. These were not warnings delivered only days before disaster struck.

And alongside the warnings came an invitation to repent:

“Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.” (Jeremiah 26:13, KJV)

Here, “repent him of the evil” means that God would relent from the announced disaster—not that God had sinned. The warning itself was an expression of mercy: an opportunity to change course.

This does not mean judgment could be postponed indefinitely. Later, Jeremiah was told not to pray for the people, and Jerusalem was told to surrender to Babylon to preserve life (Jeremiah 7:16; 21:8–10). The invitations to repent were real, but so were the consequences of persistently rejecting them.

So, to reiterate, here is a brief summary of God’s patience and mercy before Jerusalem’s destruction:

Over roughly 350 years, God repeatedly called His people back through prophets such as Shemaiah, who urged humility; Azariah, who called for faithfulness; Zechariah son of Jehoiada, who confronted rebellion; Micah, who condemned injustice; Huldah, who announced judgment for idolatry while acknowledging Josiah’s humility; and Jeremiah, who repeatedly pleaded for repentance.

My concern—and please hear me, because I am speaking to myself first—is that we can claim to know God while spending very little time learning what Scripture says about Him. As Christians, we need to examine whether we know the character of the God we profess to serve. If you do not share this faith, I invite you to consider the whole account, including its difficult passages, its warnings, and its promises of mercy.

This is one example of the patience and grace the Bible reveals. As a Christian, I believe their fullest expression is found in Jesus Christ: God sent His only Son to bear the judgment our sins deserve and offer us forgiveness and eternal life. We do not earn that gift. We receive it by grace through faith, turning to Him in repentance.

The gift is free. Will you accept it?

Until next time, and as always, stand firm in Christ.

“And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” (Mk. 9:24, KJV)

Behind this verse is a desperate father whose son had suffered from an unclean spirit since childhood. Jesus’ disciples had been unable to deliver the boy. We hear the father’s uncertainty when he asks Jesus for help:

“If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.” (Mk. 9:22, KJV, excerpt)

In many ways, I see myself in this father. Although I have been deeply blessed by what the LORD has done in my life, I cannot confidently say that, if my own son were suffering like this, I would approach Him without fear or doubt. I would want to trust that He was in control, but I would also be desperate to know when—and how—He would answer.

I believe suffering like this is one reason so many people struggle to believe in God.

Why does God allow suffering? Why does He allow His people to be persecuted and murdered around the world? Why would He allow a child to suffer from an unclean spirit since childhood? These are painful questions, and they deserve more than a quick answer.

This passage does not tell us why the boy’s suffering began. But it does show us how Jesus responded when the father brought his uncertainty to Him:

“Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” (Mk. 9:23, KJV)

The father answered with the words that opened this post: “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” He did not pretend to have perfect faith. He brought Jesus both his belief and his struggle to believe.

And Jesus delivered his son.

In this encounter, we see Jesus’ authority and compassion. We see a father turn toward Him in his weakness. And we receive a testimony that continues to strengthen believers today—including me.

Could things have happened differently? What if God had never allowed the suffering?

I cannot know what would have happened. Scripture does not tell us that this suffering was the only way the father or his son could have come to faith. What it does show us is that their suffering was not beyond Jesus’ power, and the father’s uncertainty did not keep him from asking for help.

That gives me hope, even when I do not understand what God allows. I am learning to trust Him without pretending to know all His reasons:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:8–9, KJV)

Scripture describes God leading Israel “unto a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:8, KJV). It also speaks of seasons of trial, in which faith is tested and patience grows. Walking with God includes receiving His provision and trusting Him through hardship:

“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” (Jas. 1:2–4, KJV)

This does not make suffering easy or mean we must pretend it does not hurt. It gives us hope that God can work within our trials, strengthening our faith and bringing us toward maturity.

As Job asked in the midst of his own suffering:

“What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10, KJV, excerpt)

Here, “evil” means adversity or calamity. Job’s words express trust amid loss, even though he would go on to grieve deeply and ask difficult questions.

So, what keeps you from believing in God? Is there a question burning in your heart? Is there a tragedy you cannot reconcile with His goodness?

I do not have an answer to every question. But this father’s prayer reminds me that we can bring our questions and our weakness to Jesus honestly: “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”

If you feel comfortable, please share in the comments. I would love to hear your story and pray for you.

Until next time, and as always, stand firm in Christ.