Reflective Bible Study

In our last episode, we began looking at the miracle surrounding Lazarus being raised from the dead. However, because this also happens to be the miracle that takes up the greatest number of verses of any other miracle in the gospels, we didn’t actually get to the miracle part of the event in the last episode.

However, in this episode, let me briefly summarize what we covered in the last episode, before jumping back into the narrative. This event begins with Jesus hearing about His friend Lazarus’ illness, and Jesus reassures those present that Lazarus’ sickness wouldn’t end in death. Instead, it would bring glory to God.

However, instead of leaving immediately to go help Lazarus, Jesus stayed where He was for two more days, before announcing to the disciples that Lazarus was now asleep, or in other words dead, and that Jesus was now going to go wake Him up.

When they arrive in Bethany, which was the town that Lazarus, Martha, and Mary lived in, Martha comes out to meet Jesus.

Let’s jump into the event at this point. While we looked at some of Martha and Mary’s conversation with Jesus in the last episode, this will give us a great foundation leading into the big themes we’ll focus in on in this episode. Our passage and event is found in the gospel of John, chapter 11, and we will be reading it from the Contemporary English Version. Jumping into our event in verse 17, John tells us that:

¹⁷ When Jesus got to Bethany, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Bethany was only about two miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁹ and many people had come from the city to comfort Martha and Mary because their brother had died.

²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus had arrived, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² Yet even now I know that God will do anything you ask.”

²³ Jesus told her, “Your brother will live again!”

²⁴ Martha answered, “I know that he will be raised to life on the last day, when all the dead are raised.”

²⁵ Jesus then said, “I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. ²⁶ And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die. Do you believe this?”

²⁷ “Yes, Lord!” she replied. “I believe that you are Christ, the Son of God. You are the one we hoped would come into the world.”

²⁸ After Martha said this, she went and privately said to her sister Mary, “The Teacher is here, and he wants to see you.” ²⁹ As soon as Mary heard this, she got up and went out to Jesus. ³⁰ He was still outside the village where Martha had gone to meet him. ³¹ Many people had come to comfort Mary, and when they saw her quickly leave the house, they thought she was going out to the tomb to cry. So they followed her.

³² Mary went to where Jesus was. Then as soon as she saw him, she knelt at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

³³ When Jesus saw that Mary and the people with her were crying, he was terribly upset ³⁴ and asked, “Where have you put his body?”

They replied, “Lord, come and you will see.”

This is where we left off in our last episode. Continuing reading from verse 35:

³⁵ Jesus started crying, ³⁶ and the people said, “See how much he loved Lazarus.”

³⁷ Some of them said, “He gives sight to the blind. Why couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”

³⁸ Jesus was still terribly upset. So he went to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone rolled against the entrance. ³⁹ Then he told the people to roll the stone away. But Martha said, “Lord, you know that Lazarus has been dead four days, and there will be a bad smell.”

⁴⁰ Jesus replied, “Didn’t I tell you that if you had faith, you would see the glory of God?”

⁴¹ After the stone had been rolled aside, Jesus looked up toward heaven and prayed, “Father, I thank you for answering my prayer. ⁴² I know that you always answer my prayers. But I said this, so that the people here would believe that you sent me.”

⁴³ When Jesus had finished praying, he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The man who had been dead came out. His hands and feet were wrapped with strips of burial cloth, and a cloth covered his face.

Jesus then told the people, “Untie him and let him go.”

In this miracle, one phrase stands out to me as the big theme throughout this entire event. Without this phrase, this miracle would simply be just a miracle, or something special Jesus did back then, but no real indication of Him wanting to do the same for us today. But with this phrase, suddenly this miracle becomes a foreshadowing promise for every believer who worries about or faces death.

While Jesus is talking with Martha, He tells her in verses 25 and 26, “I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die.”

There are three big truths centered in these three short statements, and they might sounds as though they contradict each other.

In the first statement, Jesus makes the bold claim that, “I am the one who raises the dead to life!” If you have ever been fearful about being stuck in the grave in death, or if you have doubts about whether God loves you, pay attention to the fact that Jesus is the one who does the resurrecting, and it is Jesus who died for you. There is nothing to fear in death because Jesus has the power over death to bring you back to life!

The next statement speaks to a future resurrection for everyone who has faith in Jesus. Jesus tells Martha, “Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die.” This verse speaks to the truth of the resurrection Jesus promises to every believer. Death isn’t something we should fear when we have faith in Jesus, because Jesus has promised us life. From Jesus’ perspective, the grave is not relevant, because He conquered death.

With the third statement, we might be tempted to believe Jesus then contradicts Himself. After saying that those who have faith in him will live even if they die, Jesus then promises that “everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die.” While I can understand why some might see this verse supporting believers being swept up to heaven immediately at their death, this doesn’t match the context of Jesus’ words, and it negates the resurrection Jesus has just promised. The future resurrection Jesus promises us becomes irrelevant if at death we receive our rewards immediately.

Instead, Jesus centers our focus on the truth that when we sleep, a metaphor for the death before the resurrection, we don’t truly die because Jesus keeps us safe, and figuratively holds us in His hands. This first death is irrelevant for a believer to focus on because unless we are alive when Jesus returns, we will face this first death.

However, this first death is irrelevant because we look forward to the resurrection that brings us back to life, and there is a strong theme running through the Bible that when we face this first, sleep-like death, the next conscious event we will know is the resurrection.

So what is Jesus’ key idea in the third statement? Jesus promises us that “everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die.” Following the sleep-death that ends with our resurrection, we are giving the gift of eternal life. Jesus purchased that gift for us with His death on the cross, and He is anxiously awaiting the day when He will give it to us. The day we all look forward to is resurrection day, the day of our rebirth into a new life with God!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Intentionally seek God first and place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus. Live your life in a way that honors God as a way to say thank You for everything He has done. We can never be good enough to earn our salvation, but we keep getting back up when we stumble because we want to honor God with our lives, and we want to accurately reflect Jesus to our chaotic, crazy world.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and move closer to God each day. While death is not a pleasant subject for many people to think about, if you haven’t studied all the conflicting beliefs surrounding it, I challenge you to do so today. While most beliefs about death claim the Bible as their foundation, choose the belief that has the greatest weight of evidence behind it. Don’t pick a belief simply because I or another person think it. Pray and study it out for yourself with God.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

A couple of podcast episodes ago, we looked at Jesus warning Peter about his upcoming denial and Peter strongly refuting this as a possibility. However, in our last episode, we saw how Jesus’ prediction came true regarding all the disciples abandoning Jesus, and in this episode, we turn our attention onto Peter, and how he fulfilled a prediction he did not want to fulfill. As you may have already guessed, we will be focusing in on Peter’s time in the courtyard while Jesus is being tried and condemned to death.

Let’s read about what happened, and discover some things we can learn about this event. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 14, and we will read it from the New American Standard Bible. Before starting to read in verse 66, it is worth noting that a few verses earlier, specifically in verse 54, Mark tells us that Peter followed behind the mob at a distance and ultimately made his way into the courtyard outside of where Jesus was on trial. Starting in verse 66, Mark tells us that:

⁶⁶ As Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came, ⁶⁷ and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Nazarene.” ⁶⁸ But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” And he went out onto the porch. ⁶⁹ The servant-girl saw him, and began once more to say to the bystanders, “This is one of them!” ⁷⁰ But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders were again saying to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean too.” ⁷¹ But he began to curse and swear, “I do not know this man you are talking about!” ⁷² Immediately a rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, “Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And he began to weep.

In this short, seven-verse passage, we see Peter fulfill the prediction that he did not want to fulfill. In these verses, Peter denied Jesus the three times Jesus had predicted.

However, the third denial stood out to me as I read it this time. Mark describes Peter’s third denial in verse 71 saying, “But he began to curse and swear, ‘I do not know this man you are talking about!’”

This third denial stands out in my mind because it kind of sounds like Peter is saying he has no idea who Jesus is. However, the only way Peter’s denial makes sense is if he had ignored every news story over the past two years prior to this, especially through the news channels in Galilee, which is where Jesus spent a lot of His time. News about Jesus had even reached Greece, since earlier that week, some Greeks had traveled to Jerusalem to see Jesus.

In my own mind, a much more plausible denial for Peter would have been one that acknowledged that he knew about Jesus, but that he had simply been too busy to pay much attention to him.

However, reading about Peter’s denial in Mark’s gospel, where some scholars believe Mark wrote this gospel from Peter’s perspective, it is interesting to not see anything written or recorded about Peter’s redemption. In contrast, John’s gospel both includes Peter’s denial of Jesus, and a challenging conversation Jesus has with Peter following Jesus’ resurrection that ends with a second invitation to follow Jesus.

One possible explanation is that Mark’s gospel has a very abrupt ending. Depending on the manuscripts and research that has happened, there are two possible endings for Mark’s gospel, but both are a little suspect for a number of reasons. This is why many Bibles today will include a longer and shorter conclusion to Mark’s gospel. However, there is evidence to suggest that neither of these endings is really the original ending of Mark’s gospel. One theory is that the real ending to Mark’s gospel was lost very early on, and some well meaning scholars in the early centuries after the New Testament wrote an ending to help Mark’s gospel have a good conclusion similar to Matthew, Luke, and John.

I am not a scholar, and I don’t have enough information or evidence to weigh in on these claims and theories, but I can say that each theory sounds reasonable. However, I find it powerful that at the close of this passage, as the rooster crows and Peter remembers Jesus’ prediction, it breaks Peter’s heart and Peter begins to weep.

Mark describes Peter’s big failure and how Peter, while confidently asserting that he would never deny Jesus, ultimately denies Jesus just like Jesus had predicted would happen. However, this failure marks a death in Peter that is only clear in hindsight. While Jesus faced the cross and physical death, Peter’s death was a death of self and a death of ego.

After his big failure, Peter had no room to brag about how good of a disciple he was. Prior to this, Peter had the reputation for being the star disciple in Jesus’ inner circle of followers. Everything is set for Peter to be Jesus’ right hand man ahead of the remaining disciples, using terms from our human perspective.

However, after Peter had failed Jesus in a bigger way than any of the other disciples – even after Jesus had warned and predicted that it would happen, Peter’s self-sufficient character breaks and dies, and he has no room to boast or brag about his accomplishments. Instead, from this point forward, Peter becomes humble and teachable, and when given the opportunity to be re-invited by Jesus, Peter steps up and accepts the invitation, proclaiming what Jesus has done for Him as someone who failed Jesus.

In our own lives, we can give up when we fail, or we can let the failure redefine who we are. When we fail God, we should let our ego die with our failure and step back up proclaiming an amazing God who forgives our sins and who accepts us back when we don’t deserve it. Peter’s gospel message and experience is similar to all of our experiences: While we fail God, God isn’t willing to give up on us!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I regularly challenge you to do, continue seeking God first in your life and choose to proclaim what He has done for us – especially what He has done when we don’t deserve it. While we have failed God more times than we may be willing to admit, He is willing to accept us back when we let our egos die with our failure. When repenting and asking for forgiveness, remember what Jesus did for us and let Jesus’ life and His sacrifice change our hearts and minds and let God’s truth transform our lives.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Choose to spend time praying and studying to grow personally closer to God and to fall in love with Him like He has fallen in love with you. Discover in the pages of the Bible, a God who gives up everything for you and me, even when we have failed Him and don’t deserve forgiveness!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or ignore where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

In our year moving through the gospels looking at Jesus’ miracles, we come to the miracle that takes up the greatest space of any single miracle in the gospels, and strangely this miracle is only included in John’s gospel. Part of me wondered if it was so well known of an event that the other gospel writers decided to exclude it because of its fame.

However, because it is such a long miracle, we’ll split our discussion on this miracle into two parts, because not only will that give us more time to understand Jesus’ teaching surrounding this miracle, but we can focus in on more than one theme that we can learn from this event.

So without further delay, let’s dive in to what we can learn from this miracle. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 11, and we will be reading from the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

^1-2 A man by the name of Lazarus was sick in the village of Bethany. He had two sisters, Mary and Martha. This was the same Mary who later poured perfume on the Lord’s head and wiped his feet with her hair. ³ The sisters sent a message to the Lord and told him that his good friend Lazarus was sick.

⁴ When Jesus heard this, he said, “His sickness won’t end in death. It will bring glory to God and his Son.”

⁵ Jesus loved Martha and her sister and brother. ⁶ But he stayed where he was for two more days. ⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “Now we will go back to Judea.”

⁸ “Teacher,” they said, “the people there want to stone you to death! Why do you want to go back?”

⁹ Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours in each day? If you walk during the day, you will have light from the sun, and you won’t stumble. ¹⁰ But if you walk during the night, you will stumble, because you don’t have any light.” ¹¹ Then he told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, and I am going there to wake him up.”

¹² They replied, “Lord, if he is asleep, he will get better.” ¹³ Jesus really meant that Lazarus was dead, but they thought he was talking only about sleep.

¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead! ¹⁵ I am glad that I wasn’t there, because now you will have a chance to put your faith in me. Let’s go to him.”

¹⁶ Thomas, whose nickname was “Twin,” said to the other disciples, “Come on. Let’s go, so we can die with him.”

¹⁷ When Jesus got to Bethany, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Bethany was only about two miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁹ and many people had come from the city to comfort Martha and Mary because their brother had died.

²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus had arrived, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² Yet even now I know that God will do anything you ask.”

²³ Jesus told her, “Your brother will live again!”

²⁴ Martha answered, “I know that he will be raised to life on the last day, when all the dead are raised.”

²⁵ Jesus then said, “I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. ²⁶ And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die. Do you believe this?”

²⁷ “Yes, Lord!” she replied. “I believe that you are Christ, the Son of God. You are the one we hoped would come into the world.”

²⁸ After Martha said this, she went and privately said to her sister Mary, “The Teacher is here, and he wants to see you.” ²⁹ As soon as Mary heard this, she got up and went out to Jesus. ³⁰ He was still outside the village where Martha had gone to meet him. ³¹ Many people had come to comfort Mary, and when they saw her quickly leave the house, they thought she was going out to the tomb to cry. So they followed her.

³² Mary went to where Jesus was. Then as soon as she saw him, she knelt at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

³³ When Jesus saw that Mary and the people with her were crying, he was terribly upset ³⁴ and asked, “Where have you put his body?”

They replied, “Lord, come and you will see.”

Let’s stop reading here for this episode, because we have hit a number of huge themes already, and we haven’t even hit the point in our event where the miracle happens.

The first thing I see is that looking at the spans of time given in the first part of the miracle, there would have been no way for Jesus to have arrived on time to save Lazarus – unless God had made the situation known to Jesus before the news officially arrived. We can conclude this using simple math: Jesus stayed where He was for two more days, and when He ultimately arrived, Lazarus had been in the grave for four days. The best-case scenario was that Jesus arrived two days earlier and Lazarus had been buried the day or two before that. It’s likely that the messenger who brought the message to Jesus learned that Lazarus had died after arriving back telling those present that he found Jesus and gave Him the message.

It may have even been a four-day journey between where they were and where Lazarus was buried because it appears that Jesus didn’t even start traveling in that direction until after describing Lazarus as asleep, or more specifically as dead.

This leads us to conclude that sometimes when it feels as though God, or Jesus, arrives too late, it may be because Jesus has a miracle in mind. If we focus on what we think should have been, then we might miss the miracle God really wants to accomplish. John writes in verse 15 that Jesus tells the disciples this event will now give them the chance to put their faith in Jesus. Maybe the disciples had been hesitant about putting their faith in Jesus, or maybe Jesus is giving them one more reason to believe in Him. Regardless of the reason, this miracle that hasn’t actually happened at this point in our event is pointing us towards a reason to believe in Jesus!

We discover what Jesus may have wanted to teach the disciples in this event when He repeatedly uses the concept of sleep to describe death. If Jesus did not want His followers to connect the idea of sleep and death together, then this would have been a great opportunity for Him to stop the analogy. Instead, everything in this event points to a believer’s death being temporary, just like sleep is temporary, and that we don’t need to fear it.

For a follower of Christ, death is insignificant because it is temporary. Death simply pauses consciousness like sleep pauses consciousness. If Jesus didn’t want us to think this way, this event would have been the perfect place to correct His followers.

Instead, Jesus stresses the sleep metaphor in both His conversation with the disciples, and in His conversation with Martha, Jesus reiterates how death, like sleep, is temporary.

The last big idea that we have time for in this episode is the truth that Martha shares about Jesus before going to get Mary. Martha tells Jesus in verse 27, “I believe that you are Christ, the Son of God. You are the one we hoped would come into the world.”

Martha has one of the most powerful declarations about Jesus anywhere recorded in the gospels, and it’s likely Mary would have had a similar conversation except for the crowd of people present with Mary who weren’t there when Martha talked with Jesus.

In the first portion of this event, there is a lot we can discover, and when we pick back up with this event in our next episode, discover what else we can discover as we focus in on the longest miracle in the gospel record.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Always seek God first and put your hope, faith, trust, and belief in Him. Believe, like Martha, that Jesus is the One God sent into the world, and the One that God promised would come to pay the penalty for our sins. Trust in the ministry of Jesus, both the ministry that happened while He was here on earth, and the “ministry of intersession” He is doing now in heaven on our behalf.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God. Through the Bible, we can learn what God wants to teach us about life, and about the future life He has promised for all His followers.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue our journey through Mark’s gospel and through many of the key events this gospel includes, we come to the beginning of what might be among the darkest events in this gospel, specifically the betrayal and arrest of Jesus.

However, while many gospels include the details of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest on the night before His crucifixion, only Mark’s gospel includes two verses describing something that might be a little shocking to some people.

With this forewarning, let’s read this passage, and uncover some things we can learn from what happened, and from what Mark chose to include in his gospel that none of the other gospel writers included.

Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 14, and we will read from the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 43, Mark describes Jesus’ betrayal by saying:

⁴³ And immediately, even as Jesus said this, Judas, one of the twelve disciples, arrived with a crowd of men armed with swords and clubs. They had been sent by the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders. ⁴⁴ The traitor, Judas, had given them a prearranged signal: “You will know which one to arrest when I greet him with a kiss. Then you can take him away under guard.” ⁴⁵ As soon as they arrived, Judas walked up to Jesus. “Rabbi!” he exclaimed, and gave him the kiss.

⁴⁶ Then the others grabbed Jesus and arrested him. ⁴⁷ But one of the men with Jesus pulled out his sword and struck the high priest’s slave, slashing off his ear.

⁴⁸ Jesus asked them, “Am I some dangerous revolutionary, that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me? ⁴⁹ Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there among you teaching every day. But these things are happening to fulfill what the Scriptures say about me.”

⁵⁰ Then all his disciples deserted him and ran away. ⁵¹ One young man following behind was clothed only in a long linen shirt. When the mob tried to grab him, ⁵² he slipped out of his shirt and ran away naked.

In these last two verses, we read about one of Jesus’ lesser-known followers running away naked. This detail that is only found in Mark’s gospel is both interesting and very unique. This has led some Bible scholars and commentators to conclude that Mark, the author of this gospel, was that young man who ran away naked. This young man is not described as a disciple, and I believe this lack of a detail or description also supports the theory this was Mark.

I don’t have any reason to doubt this conclusion as it seems plausible, but I do also find it a little humorous that if you are going to include yourself in the details of a significant event, this might not be the best way to do so. Imagine your claim to fame as being the follower of Jesus who escaped the garden naked. While this might make this gospel less believable, in some peoples’ eyes, this type of detail aids to this being a record of history, specifically what actually happened, and not some fiction or summary that is edited to only include the good details.

However, Mark’s inclusion of this detail also tells us something else. Because Mark included this detail, we can know that the mob, while being primarily interested in arresting Jesus, was also interested in arresting everyone else present in Jesus’ group of followers. Knowing that every one of Jesus’ followers had an arrest warrant out on them helps frame why they were extra nervous in Jerusalem over that weekend, and why they spent most of their time behind locked doors.

When we place the detail that the mob likely wanted to arrest every one of Jesus’ followers, and place it next to the verses describing Jesus’ followers deserting Him and this young man escaping naked, we discover that even while Jesus appeared to be losing, God was still present. Even when evil seemed to have the upper hand, God was in control and God was protecting those present.

Another gospel writer includes the detail that Jesus tells the mob to let Jesus’ followers go. However, while Jesus makes this command, this statement is attributed to fulfilling a prophecy more than being a command that would have been expected to be obeyed. However, it is amazing that Jesus giving a command like this that is actually obeyed by His enemies is testament enough that Jesus is extraordinary.

Nothing in this event suggests that the mob would have even been interested in following through with Jesus’ command to let His followers go. The most logical action to crush a movement is to arrest and kill the leader and all the followers unwilling to give up their beliefs. Arresting the leader and letting the followers escape is illogical at best.

However, because all of Jesus’ followers escaped, we can know that God was with them during Jesus’ arrest, and we can know today that regardless of what we face in this life that comes against our faith, God is with us and He is in control.

When we face challenges in our lives and challenges against our faith, remember that God is with us and that even when evil appears to have the upper hand, God is in control. While not all of us might escape with our clothing intact, we can trust that God is still with us. In the challenges that we face in this world, we might even face death, but whenever death comes our way, we can know and trust that God is ready and willing to resurrect His followers who have endured to the end (as one of our previous podcast episode’s focused in on). And God is more than willing to give us a new body, new clothing, and a new home together with Him in heaven when we place our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally and purposefully seek God first in your life and trust Him regardless of what Satan, culture, or the world wants to pressure us into doing or giving up. Know that the rewards God offers will easily outlast the reward the world offers us and the rewards of sin. Remember and trust that when evil looks like it has the upper hand, God is still in control, God is still with us, and God will see us through these challenges. Remember that for followers of Jesus, death is merely a pit stop on the path leading into eternity.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God each and every day. Don’t let other people filter the Bible for you. Choose to study it for yourself and make up your own mind about it. While skeptics may challenge you to do this, they expect you to reject the Bible because that is what they think you should do. Study and make up your own mind about the Bible after trying God’s way out for yourself. You may be surprised to find what skeptics are missing in the pages of God’s Word and His truth.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!