Posts by Kountze Church of Christ

Exegesis is a weird word that many Christians have not heard before. It can simple be defined as a historical, literary, and theological analysis of scripture. Ultimately it is an investigation into scripture; the process of asking questions. Most who begin this process of breaking down a text have a similar goal, understanding. Most Christians seek this same thing. They seek to understand scripture. Sometimes one just doesn’t know simply where to begin. They are not biblical scholars. But they…

The Bible can be a complicated book and hard to understand at times. Reading it in a year is a challenge and you may encounter verses, chapters, and maybe even books that are confusing. As a result, this sometimes leads us to look towards outside sources for guidance. There is nothing wrong with many of these sources, but we should not let them influence us to taking their words as gospel. Every student of the Bible, and as a Christian…

How the Holy Spirit changes us from our former life into a mirror image of Jesus is misunderstood by so many. The Bible nowhere teaches that the Spirit works directly on our hearts to make me a more spiritual person. The Spirit does change us, and the Bible clearly shows how this happens. It is true that the Spirit is part of our walk with the Lord. It is true our growth as a child of God involves change and…

William T. Turner was captain of the Lusitania when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat in May, 1915. He was one of the few officers saved (obituary note from Montreal Gazette, 6/24/33). The Atlantic writes in an article that Turner was “relieving captain” of SS Ivernia when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat on New Year’s Day, 1917, and he once again survived (James Gould, 5/7/15). Turner was a man renowned for heroics and not a coward, which…

Jesus has a way of remaining consistent even under the most chaotic of circumstances. In the eighth chapter of Luke, we have a small, but mighty, account of the Lord calming a storm on the sea. Previously to the storm, Jesus instructed His disciples to go across to the other side of the lake. They began their trip but shortly after, the followers watched as water poured into the boat with mighty gusts of wind. The disciples acted on their…

There was a strong word of condemnation expressed by Zephaniah concerning individuals who believed God to be one who remains idle and inactive in this world (Zeph. 1:12). Not only is it doctrinally false to take on this belief, but it becomes an overwhelming burden to perceive God as distant. The New Testament emphatically reminds us that God seeks to be near to us. This is especially seen with Immanuel being born (Matthew 1:23), the Spirit being sent to dwell…

Thirty-seven of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament had been written when Zechariah began his work as a prophet. What had God not reveal to His chosen nation? What more needed to be said before the close of that part of the Bible? The answer to these questions emphasizes the importance of the words of this prophet. In the final three chapters of Zechariah, God’s messenger looks to the future to show the Jews that God had some remarkable…

The cross of Jesus stands as the central event in human history. Of all the great accomplishments of mankind, none can rival what Jesus accomplished on the cross. That being the case, why then is the record of Jesus’ death, the greatest accomplishment in human history, cluttered with peripheral information about the death of an irrelevant thief, who happened to die on the same day? As an answer to that question, may I suggest that the death of the penitent…

We have all had times in our lives when things get tough. The world has a way of throwing challenges our way when we least expect it or when we are least capable of handling them. Sometimes the challenges get so difficult that we may want to give up. What should we do when we get to that point? We should follow the example of three men in the Bible who faced very difficult challenges but kept the faith: Jeremiah,…

There was no way one could see the miracles of Jesus and not be forced to make a decision about who He was. Unlike the “miracles” of televangelists of our day, His miracles were always instantaneous, complete healing and never a failure. He immediately restored hands visibly deformed, cleansed those whose leprosy was obvious to all, and He even raised the dead. What an amazing contrast between what He did and those pseudo-miracles of our day. Look at the impact…

Even though they technically mean the same thing, you know the difference. The first insinuates you don’t care about the bad around you when you actually should, because there is more to it. The second insinuates that you don’t worry about the bad around you, because you know you don’t need to. There are two men discussed in scripture that stayed asleep during a storm. The first one we think about is Jesus! Mark 4:37-38 shows Jesus being carefree in…