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Guest Post
March 12, 2019

The Wonder of Trees in the Bible and in Our Lives Today

By Christie Purifoy

Trees are not widows and orphans. Trees are not the ministry of the church. Yet trees spread their roots throughout the stories the Bible tells. Adam and Eve broke their close connection with their maker beneath the heavy-laden branches of a fruit tree. A felled tree held Jesus, the woodworker from Nazareth, as he died. In the Bible’s closing chapters, we read about the day when heaven and earth will be joined, and we will live beneath the shelter of a marvelous healing tree. In Scripture, the trees praise God. Do they not know that their days are numbered? Do the trees not understand that one day their home, this earth, “will wear out like a garment”?

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Jonathan Petersen
March 11, 2019

International Book Award Winner and Bible of the Year Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible Now Available in NRSV

Buy your copy of the NRSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible in the Bible Gateway Store where you'll enjoy low prices every day

Currently available in the New International Version (NIV) and New King James Version (NKJV) Bible translations, the award-winning Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible is now also available in the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) (Protestant canon edition), the translation renowned for its beautiful balance of mainline scholarship and readability. The NRSV is the popular and widely ecumenical translation vetted by Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical, and Jewish scholars.

The NRSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible features study notes by Bible scholars Dr. John H. Walton and Dr. Craig S. Keener, offering readers a “behind-the-scenes” tour of the ancient world and providing deeper insights into even the most familiar passages.

[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, By Popular Demand: The Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible is Now In Bible Gateway Plus]

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Guest Post
March 11, 2019

John Maxwell Profiles in Leadership: Peter – Plunge In

John Maxwell This is the fifth lesson in bestselling author and speaker John Maxwell’s Leadership by the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, tell them to sign up to receive John’s free email devotional here.

By John C. Maxwell

John 21

Buy your copy of The Maxwell Leadership Bible, Third Edition (NKJV) in the Bible Gateway Store where you'll enjoy low prices every day

Was Peter battling disappointment and discouragement over failing the Lord as he fished fruitlessly all night long? Did he feel he lacked the courage or right to be a leader of Jesus’ disciples?

[Sign up to receive the 30-day free email devotional by John Maxwell of biblical teachings to equip and encourage leaders and those who serve with them to meet the challenges of the 21st century]

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Jonathan Petersen
March 10, 2019

Bible News Roundup – Week of March 10, 2019

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The Bible Explained with Infographics: An Interview with Karen Sawrey
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Bible Marathon Aims to Help ‘Reignite’ Love for God’s Word, Says Priest
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Jonathan Petersen
March 7, 2019

Spiritual Maturity: The Big Picture of the Bible and How It Gives You a Better Life

Kevin Myers

This is the fourth lesson in the Spiritual Maturity Bible Gateway Blog video series by Kevin Myers (@KevinMyersPK), based on his book with Charlie Wetzel, Grown-Up Faith: The Big Picture for a Bigger Life (Thomas Nelson, 2019).


The book asks, “Why isn’t life everything we expected it to be? And why doesn’t our faith resolve our frustrations and problems?” Pastor Myers believes the reason we don’t experience a transformed life is that we fail to grow up spiritually. We focus on developing physically, intellectually, emotionally, and financially, yet our faith remains immature and anemic. In this brief video series, he introduces you to a simple road map to achieving a grown-up faith as you understand the Bible and the big picture of God’s story.

Lesson Four: The big picture of the Bible and how it gives you a better life

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Mel Lawrenz
March 6, 2019

How to Live the Bible — About Mourning

howtostudythebible

This is the fifty-fourth lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.

Mel Lawrenz is the author of Life After Grief

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Matthew 5:4

Don’t ever let someone tell you there is something wrong with you if you are grieving. You are walking through a valley, and the shadows can look foreboding and cold. Yet, if you keep walking, you will emerge. Or, to use an analogy from the Old Testament:

It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure (Eccles. 7:2–4).

Mourning Girl on Swing illustration

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Drew Reichard
March 6, 2019

What Is the Significance of Ashes in the Bible?

Ash Wednesday cross

On Ash Wednesday—the first of the 40-day season of Lent—many Christ-followers commemorate the passage to Easter with meditation and repentance. And some also mark the day by spreading ashes on their foreheads in the shape of a cross.

Throughout Scripture, ashes are an important symbol of grief and repentance—a substance, like dust, to which our bodies return. The Israelites and their forebears were especially aware of this.

In Genesis 18:27, Abraham prefaces a question to the Lord by expressing his humility in God’s presence: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes…”

According to the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Abraham’s expression, dust and ashes, “contrasts the lowliness of mortals with the dignity of God.” It goes on to explain the cultural significance of ashes in those days as a sign of mourning.

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Guest Post
March 6, 2019

Sacred Pace: 4 Steps to Discerning God’s Will in Your Decisions / Step 1 – Consult Your Friend Jesus

Terry Looper

By Terry Looper, author of Sacred Pace: Four Steps to Hearing God and Aligning Yourself with His Will (W Publishing, 2019).

Plenty of things keep us from hearing the Spirit’s voice or being confident of God’s will in our decisions. Everything from our impatience or impulsiveness to unconfessed sin, cultural influences, even doubt. But if my own mistakes have taught me anything, it’s that one of my greatest hindrances is approaching the Lord with my mind already made up. In those instances, I’m actually not engaging God at all; I’m asking him to sign off on my wishes.

None of us does this consciously, but it’s very easy to fall into this trap.

Buy your copy of Sacred Pace in the Bible Gateway Store where you'll enjoy low prices every day

God’s sacred pace—my term for the four steps I use to peacefully and confidently discern God’s will for my important decisions—delivers us from both this “rush to conclusions” and the trouble that comes from relying on our own shortsighted understanding. Seventeenth-century theologian John Owen recognized, “We can have no power from Christ, unless we live in a persuasion that we have none of our own.” Jesus said in John 15:5: “Without me you can do nothing” (NKJV). He wasn’t using hyperbole; he meant nothing.

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Guest Post
March 5, 2019

Finding Hope and Purpose in the Midst of Your Suffering

Christina MeredithBy Christina Meredith

Suffering is an unavoidable part of the human experience. If someone tells you that all you have to do is a, b, and c and no harm will ever come to you, you’re being sold a bill of goods. Demand your money back and run away as fast as you can. Each of us will at some point experience loss, heartache, trauma, depression, anxiety, and misery. Suffering is not reserved for just some people; it comes to us all. Sometimes it comes at our own hand, and other times at the hand of another. However it comes, I encourage you to accept this fact of life rather than try to resist it or avoid it. In fact, I encourage you to embrace the idea of suffering, because it is coming—with or without your permission.

If you are in the midst of great hardship in any form, know this: the trial you are enduring may well lead to your purpose or be the stepping-stone that enables you to achieve greatness. Have you ever read heroic stories of those who overcame seemingly insurmountable odds? Or cheered for those who have suffered great loss but persevered and claimed victory in the end? Or rooted for the underdog? If so, then you have what it takes to be the hero in your own story—to overcome, to persevere, to be the underdog who beats the odds.

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Guest Post
March 4, 2019

John Maxwell Profiles in Leadership: Peter – Failing Forward

John Maxwell This is the fourth lesson in bestselling author and speaker John Maxwell’s Leadership by the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, tell them to sign up to receive John’s free email devotional here.

By John C. Maxwell

Matthew 26:30–75

Buy your copy of The Maxwell Leadership Bible, Third Edition (NIV) in the Bible Gateway Store where you'll enjoy low prices every day

If you’ve ever failed, you’re in good company. Look at Peter, the rugged apostle Jesus nicknamed the Rock. He collapsed in a pile of failure. During Jesus’ moment of greatest need, Peter denied him with a curse, saying, “I do not know the Man!” (Matt. 26:74).

[Sign up to receive the 30-day free email devotional by John Maxwell of biblical teachings to equip and encourage leaders and those who serve with them to meet the challenges of the 21st century]

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    The Bible Gateway Blog features the latest news, announcements, and reflections from Bible Gateway. We hope what you find here will add to your understanding of and appreciation for the Bible.