This Week's Focus Passage: Luke 10:1 'and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place.' The context out of which the above citation is to be found, is Luke 10:1-3, where we read;Now after these things the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself was about to come. And he sai...

This Week's Focus Passage: Luke 8:26-36 'And he gave them leave. And the demons came out of the man.' We may read in our copies of God's Word, this passage found in Luke's gospel, and verses 8:26-36. This particular narrative is found in all three of those gospels which have been denominated, the Synoptic Gospels. ["the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to...

This Week's Focus Passage: Psalm 127:1 'Except Jehovah keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.' "John Norman (Jack) MacLeod (1926-2002) was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland who served as Moderator of the General Assembly 1983/84. His parents had emigrated from the Isle of Lewis to America in the early 1920s and John was born in Detroit, Michigan in 192...

This Week's Focus Passage: Philippians 2:25-30 'But I counted in necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother.' We, once again, consult "The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia," Grand Rapids, Mich. 1947, with a query: who was this man named Epaphroditus? "EPAPHRODITUS, (Epaphroditus,"lovely"): Mentioned only in Phil. 2:25; 4:18. The name corresponds to the...

This Week's Focus Passage: Philippians 2:12 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.' This text is just one of the texts that Arminians and 'free-willers' are swift to raise up before others, as a proof of their position with regard to a synchronic means of salvation; that is, to say, that salvation is a 'joint venture' between both God and the sinner. Or,...

This Week's Focus Passage: 1 Kings 17:1 'And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the sojourners of Gilead.' In his "International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia," James Orr, M.A., D.D., General Editor, published by Eerdmans, 1947, in volume II, we may read an article on the prophet, Elijah, pp.930-933, about this enigmatic person and prophet. The author of this particular a...

This Week's Focus Passage: Ephesians 1:4 'Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.' After the salutation of verses one and two, the apostle sets before the reader a litany of 'items,' if you will, 'items' that are so solemn, gracious, and remarkable, that it is extremely difficult to know what terms to make use of in describing them unto our mind...

This Week's Focus Passage: Ephesians 1:4 'Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.' After the salutation of verses one and two, the apostle sets before the reader a litany of 'items,' if you will, 'items' that are so solemn, gracious, and remarkable, that it is extremely difficult to know what terms to make use of in describing them unto our mind...

This Week's Focus Passage: 2 Samuel 24:1 'and he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah.' We read in 2 Samuel 24:1, basically, that the Lord moved David against his own people, saying, 'Go, number Israel and Judah.' But do we not read elsewhere that 'Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel,' 1 Chronicles 21:1? Well, then,...

This Week's Focus Passage: Psalm 110 'Jehovah saith unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand.' Psalm, the one-hundred and tenth, is that Older Testament chapter, or verse, or passage, which has been cited on more occasions, in the Newer Testament, than any other portion from the Older Testament. As a particular example of that reality, we turn to the passage, found in ...