One of the most profound statements on God’s unbreakable and inseparable love for his people in Christ is Romans 8:38–39. In these two verses Paul basically states that there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love in Christ. According to Grant Osborne, this results in the “absolute security…

Greetings Olive Tree fans. I am not usually the one who writes our posts, but I wanted to start a weekly blog post going through a particular Bible reading plan: The Bible Reading Challenge. I invite you to join in the plan with me and read my recaps of the…

Revelation 4–5 provide a vision of what the apostle John saw as he was transported to heaven. The vision consists of a worship service as angels, elders, and creatures surround the throne of God and worship the one who sits upon it. In chapter 5, the vision shifts from the…

At the heart of God’s commandments is an all-encompassing desire to love and honor God as the one and only God. Another way to say this is to say that the center of God’s commandments is God himself. We see this in what has been referred to as the Shema.…

The Lord’s Prayer, as it has been commonly referred to by Christians for centuries, is an example of how Jesus instructed his disciples to pray. Instead of drawing attention to themselves with public prayers or trying to get God’s attention through vain repetition, followers of Jesus are to pray to…

How does Paul’s message of “Jesus Christ and him crucified” form and shape the communities of those who follow Jesus? What can we learn from the examples we see in Scripture? Richard Hays unpacks the significance of Paul’s message of Christ crucified from 1 Corinthians for contemporary teachers and preachers…