This Week's Focus Passage: John 9:25 'One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.' And as he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind? Jesus answered, neither did this man sin, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifes...

This Week's Focus Passage: 1 John 1:1-4 'These things we write, that our joy may be made full.' John's epistle, which we know as 1 John, may, some have implied, been an accompaniment to his gospel; they may have been written almost together. John writes from, perhaps Patmos, to his church in Ephesus. Again, it may be that this epistle is complementary, in some way or ...

This Week's Focus Passage: Ezekiel 36:26 'A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.' This glorious promise of Jehovah is frequently paralleled with that found in Jeremiah 31:31, which is expressly declared to be, by Jehovah Himself, a new covenant. And it is cited by the author; the writer/preacher of Hebrews, in his eighth and tenth ch...

This Week's Focus Passage: John 6:66 'Upon this many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.' This rather remarkable statement is found in the midst of a confrontationone of many between Christ and the Phariseesand here the focus is to be found back in verses thirty-seven and forty-four, where the Son of God, in undaunted boldness, declared to His audien...

This Week's Focus Passage: John 5:25 'The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son.' The blessed context, in which this statement is to be found, may be thought of as verse 20 through verse 25, which we duplicate below: For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and greater works than these will he show...

This Week's Focus Passage: James 2:25 'And in like manner also was not Rahab the harlot justified?' Justified by works? This was the great difficulty for Martin Luther; making it difficult for him to accept the epistle of James into the canon of Scripture. He called it 'a right stray epistle,' likely a reference to the words of the apostle Paul in his first epistle to...

This Week's Focus Passage: Jeremiah 6:16 'Ask for the old paths, where is the good way.' We read, at the beginning of a new paragraph, the word of Jehovah, spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, in Jeremiah 6:16; words to the wayward Israelites: Thus saith Jehovah, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and ye...

This Week's Focus Passage: Luke 24:27 'And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets.' 'But we don't see Jesus in the Psalms; we want to sing songs of praise unto Jesus Christ; we want to be able to pronounce His Name; He is our Savior and our Lord. The Psalms are so restricting.' It is, of course, more than just sad, to ever have multitudes of Christians, in mult...

This Week's Focus Passage: Isaiah 42:6 'Iwill give thee for a covenant of the people.' The important context of the statement chosen for this week's focus passage is found in verses 6-7, which are more than worthy of being reproduced below: I, Jehovah, have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the p...

This Week's Focus Passage: Luke 22:5 'And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money.' We may read in Luke 22:14-20 of the institution of the Lord's Supper, that memorable last supper that our Savior ate with His disciples before His passion. Luke has told us of this occasion, for the most part, in very similar language as did Matthew and Mark. Interestingly, ...