Category Archives: Bible Study

Topics and Themes from the Bible

Trees in the Bible

There are many places in the Bible that talk about trees. Let’s start with the two most significant. This picture is one of the most beautiful trees I photographed while in Israel about two years ago. Over 100 Bible verses mention or use, the word “tree“.

Beautiful Tree in Israel, Near the Sea of Galilee

Psalms 52:8, But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.

Psalms 104:16, The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that He planted.

Isaiah 55:12, … shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Galatians 3:13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

The tree of life is first mentioned in Genesis chapter 2. Then the last mention is in the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22. Genesis 2:9, And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; and the tree of life, in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Revelation 22:2, In the midst of its street, and of the river, on this side and on that side, the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, in each month yielding its fruit; and the leaves of the tree for healing of the nations.

The next passage I want to talk about is John 15:1-2, where the word “tree” is not mentioned, but John does use the word, “vine”. To me the words “tree” and “vine” are closely related. John 15:1-2. “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” John uses the words vine, vinedresser, branch and fruit.

To me the vine and tree indicates that God wants us to have an intimate close relationship with Him so that our Christan life flows out of His life. More about this later. But in John 15:7 is a great Bible verse on prayer, “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall come to pass to you”.

John 15:16, You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and have set you that ye should go and that ye should bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name He may give you.

Notice the relationship between “tree“and “fruit” in Matthew. Matthew 12:33, Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.

Here are some more great Bible verses which contain the word “tree“.

Revelation 22:19, And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

Revelation 2:7, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Two Beautiful Trees, Chorazin, Israel

Remember God’s Promises

Remember God’s Promises – Two trees, lake and mountains in Idaho

The Bible verse is Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Unfortunately God’s people at that time were not happy with God or themselves. They had no faith in God that He could deliver them. So they doubted God, and only had “evil” thoughts about God, His plan and His purpose.

God still remembers His plan, purpose and promises towards the nation of Israel. God’s plan had not changed, but their thoughts about God did. So let’s remember God’s promises.

Look at God’s promise in this Bible verse in Deuteronomy 30:1 “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, 2 and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.

What Happens When We Die

What Happens When We Die – in simplicity, we actually meet God.

What Happens When We Die – Chorazin, Israel – north of the Sea of Galilee

Look at the pictures above and below of Chorazin, Israel, a Bible city, in northern Galilea. The city is a few miles from Capernaum on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. The city is also called Korazin. Jesus talked about Chorazin in both the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Today no one lives in this ancient city, the residents (as far as we know) have all died. What happened to each of them after death?

God, on His calendar has a date for our birth and a date for our death. It is usually non-negotiable, at least I know of few who been able to change those dates. Life and death is in the hands of God. Death is unknown to us, it just happens.

Here is one of Jeremiah’s Prayer in Jeremiah 23, I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.

John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Read more in the article: What Happens When I Die.

Jeremiah’s Prayer – a man’s life is not his own – picture of Chorazin, Israel – north of the Sea of Galilee

Recognizing the Sovereign Lord

God created and owns the earth. We need to acknowledge this fact in the universe.

Recognizing the Sovereign Lord – a river in Washington

After all man’s attempts to ignore God, and replace God with other things, God takes full control and restores the earth back to the owner, who is God. This is the story of the book of Revelation. Sometimes when man forgets God or ignores God, bad things happen. There are many examples of this in the Old Testament. But eventually God gets all the glory.

Eventually there will be the New Jerusalem, with God fully in control. Again this is talked about much in the last book of the Bible, the conclusion of the whole Bible, the book of Revelation. Revelation 11:15 … The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.

Maybe one of the best Bible verses on God’s sovereignty is Isaiah 6:1-3 In the year of the death of king Uzziah, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. 2 Seraphim were standing above him…. 3 And one called to the other and said, Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.

Prayer is Talking to God

Prayer is simple. Prayer is just talking to God. Nothing formal is necessary.

Olive Trees In Jerusalem Israel – Prayer is Talking to God

God exists and listens, we just need to talk to Him. Prayer does not need to be formal or in some special place. Prayer is just talking to God in reality. So we don’t need make-up something, just start saying what is on your heart as you talk to God. Prayer is just a dialog between us and God. Prayer can be alone for with others. Prayer can be when we love God and when we hate God. Sometimes we are hurting because of something that happened, so tell that to God. Prayer can be what we feel when we are very encouraged and when we are very depressed and low. Prayer can be when we think we are perfect (only God is perfect), and when we are a sinner (and we all are sinners) and when we feel we are a saint. Prayer can be when we are happy and when we are sad. Sometimes after we pray we feel high and sometimes low.

The Spirit makes it easy, because He knows how and what to pray. Without the Spirit, prayer is hard. With the Spirit prayer us easy. Romans 8:26 And in like manner the Spirit joins also its help to our weakness; for we do not know what we should pray for as is fitting, but the Spirit itself makes intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Look at the prayers of David in the Psalms where David just talks to God. David tells God just what he thinks and how he feels. When David is low, he says “God, I am depressed”.

When David was feeling great, He praises God. Sometimes when he is low is also praises God. Psalms 8:2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou established praise because of thine adversaries, to still the enemy and the avenger.

Also consider some of the points in the article on “What is Prayer”

The Lord’s Prayer – The Sermon on the Mount

The Lord's Prayer given within the Sermon on Mount maybe given on the west side of the Sea of Galilee

The Lord’s Prayer, a Bible Prayer, was given in the Sermon on Mount. Jesus may have given this talk on the north-west side of the Sea of Galilee, Israel.

Here is another Bible Prayer, a model prayer, an example prayer for us to follow.
The Lord’s Prayer was given by Jesus while teaching on the Sermon on Mount. The supposed location is on the north-west side of the Sea of Galilee.

The Lord’s Prayer is in Matthew chapter 6, the sermon on the mount is in chapters 5, 6 and 7. So the model prayer was given within this three chapter sermon on the mount. The main points of the prayer is the following short quick points: Thy Name, Thy Kingdom, Thy Will, daily bread, forgive and keep us from evil.

The passage on the Lord’s prayer is right in the middle of the Jesus Christ giving the three chapter sermon on the mount. The location is supposed to be on the north-west side of the Sea of Galilee, Israel as shown in the picture above.

See several articles on the Lord’s Prayer on this blog

The large building in the picture above is the Church of the Beatitudes or Sermon on the Mount Church. The church was built by the Byzantines. This is considered the traditional location of the sermon on the mount.

Matthew 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

The Lord’s prayer is a model prayer. It has two sections: towards God and toward man. In the first section towards God we learn to pray (1) in His name, (2) for His Kingdom, and (3) for His will.

When we take care of God, He takes care of us. Consider the verse in Matthew 6:33
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” There is quite a promise here, we seek the Kingdom, that is take care of God’s interests and He (God) helps us.

The Bible Leads People to Jesus Christ

Bible Book of Revelation – Mediterranean Sea off Israel.
The book of Revelation was written by John on the Island of Patmos about 600 miles east of where this picture was taken.

The Bible Leads People to Jesus Christ

What is the book of Revelation all about? Why would we want to study this book? Well, I mentioned before that the book of Revelation is a proper conclusion to the Bible, but that is not really why it is there. When I was putting the outline of this book together I was concerned about giving the proper message and about how I could help you understand this book. There are twenty two chapters. There are a lot of mysterious things in this book. It talks about prophecy, antichrists and tribulations. There is a city at the end of the book called,” the New Jerusalem”. You have God’s judgment on the world, a lot of heavy and kind of mysterious things. I wondered how I could present these matters, but when I got into this book I discovered that the focus or central theme of this book is really about a person, about Jesus Christ.
When I looked at the Greek version of the book of Revelation I noticed that the first three Greek words are, “Revelation, Jesus Christ.” That means the focus of this book is not prophecy and tribulation although those things are covered. The main point of this book is not even the mysterious things. The main point of this book is Jesus Christ. So if you really want to understand this book, and see it for what it really means, you need to see this person, Jesus Christ.
Let’s talk about another place in the Bible where Jesus Himself gave a real indication that the Scriptures, the Bible, should point people to Christ. I don’t know if you remember the time in John 5 Jesus was talking to the religious people. He rebuked them and said, “You search, research and study the Bible but you won’t come to Me.” This indicates that those religious people knew the Bible, they studied the Bible and they knew about the things in the Bible. They could probably quote a lot of verses, and yet when the Son of God, Jesus Christ was right there in front of them, they wouldn’t come to Him! A lot of times this can happen to us. We may have heard stories from the Bible or we, ourselves, may have read it or parts of it. I have heard of people who picked up the Bible and read parts of it, and that was it! Well, the Bible should lead people to Christ. The Bible should lead people to know Christ and to experience Christ. If your reading and study of the Bible, or your memorization of some Bible stories and verses doesn’t lead you to Jesus Christ, then the purpose for doing so has been defeated. This John 5 passage is very important. Jesus told the religious leaders, “You guys have searched the Scriptures because you think you are going to find life (and you should find life), but you won’t come to Me that you might have life.” In other words when we read the Bible, when we read the Scriptures, this should lead us to know Jesus Christ in a real and living way.

Pray by Being Filled with Him

Pray by being filled with Him

Now I want to give you an example, another way to look at prayer. I have a glove. This glove is made in the image of my hand. My hand has four things here and one thing there. And the glove has four things here and one thing there. So this glove is made in the image of my hand. This glove was designed to do things for my hand. On it’s own it’s very flimsy. Yes, it looks like my hand but if you try to do anything like pick up this pen it’s very flimsy. It doesn’t have the ability to do anything. A lot of times we, in ourselves, don’t have the ability to do what we know we should do. God never intended for us to do it on our own. God intended us, like the glove, to be filled. The best way to use this glove is to let it be filled with your hand. Not only, then, does the glove more fully express the hand, but it can do things like hold onto this marker. In the same way, God created man to be filled with God so that man could express Him and represent Him on this earth. There is no way you and I could love somebody that we just don’t love. We can try for a while, and for a while we can do it, but eventually our human love gives out—or else we don’t even have any love at all. It is also hard to pray until we let God fill us with His prayers. But when God comes in, we don’t just get some guy telling us to do this or not to do that. We receive God’s love. When Jesus comes in we get Jesus, Who is God, Who is man, Who died on the cross, and Who rose from the dead. So pray by being filled with God.

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