Latest Blog Posts from Wednesday in the Word, the podcast about what the Bible means and how we know.
Happy Thanksgiving! I’m humbled by and grateful for your involvement with Wednesday in the Word. I'm taking a break from the podcast to celebrate the arrival of my newest grandchild. We’ll return to the Gospel of John in January 2025. In the meantime, I invite you...
Who is Jesus? The people respond with belief, confusion and awe over Jesus’ teachings. These responses reflect our complex relationship to truth.
Barnabas is an great example of the incredible good you can do when you don’t care who gets credit.
John 6 opens with two famous miracles: feeding 5,000 people and Jesus walking on water. What makes this chapter intriguing is John does not focus on the miracles, but on their aftermath—the dialogue that follows.
How do you handle it when life isn’t fair? It’s easy to grow frustrated with our own lot in life and resent those who seem to have it better. Consider the story of Miriam.
Jesus heals an invalid on the Sabbath. Instead of marveling at this miracle, the Jewish leaders are incensed by the violation of their strict Sabbath laws.
Failed CEOs shared these 7 habits. What about leaders in the church?
What is All Saint’s Day? All Saints’ Day is a time to celebrate heroes of the faith from scripture, as well as prominent figures in the early church.
October 2024 Reflections Thanks for your feedback! I read every email. You're always welcome to send questions, comments and thoughts. I especially love hearing from other Bible teachers, pastors and small group leaders about how you incorporate what you've learned...
While exploring his theme of belief, John teaches us about worship and hungering for God’s will.
The New Testament authors assume their readers are familiar with the Jewish culture in their day. Here are some of the basics
John adds a new twist to his theme of testimony and belief: this time the believers are the hated Samaritans. John explores three themes this chapter. We examine the first theme in this podcast.
In Exodus, God tells the Israelites to keep the Feasts twice: once before the episode with the golden calf and once after. Here’s a summary of the 7 feasts.
John the Baptist decreases: In this narrative, John affirms his contentment and joy with following God’s plan for him.
The early church struggled for centuries to understand the doctrine of the Trinity before landing on 3 statements.
Nicodemus approaches Jesus as a truth-seeker who acknowledges Jesus is a teacher from God. Jesus warns him four ways that’s not enough to gain eternal life.
Dealing with Loss: Lessons from Haggai
Jesus challenges Nicodemus four ways. First, he tells Nicodemus seeking truth and responding to miracles are not enough to enter the kingdom of heaven.
When studying the Old Testament, dates can be a source of confusion, especially when they switch between the Jewish name and the Babylonian name in the same story. Here are my reference tables.
Have you noticed the upgraded audio player on this website? Not only is it easier on the eyes, it has new features.
Jesus cleanses the temple, provoking the leaders to demand a sign of his authority. No one understood his answer until later.
Only the disciples and a few servants saw Jesus turn water into wine at the wedding at Cana. John highlights how this quiet miracle confirmed their belief that Jesus is the Christ.
Bible Study software has made biblical Greek more accessible for those who never learned the language. Now with 1 click you can access the Greek word and its conjugation but what are you looking at? Clicking on a verb in your study software may tell you something like “V-FAI-1S” which stands for a “Verb- Future Active Indicative-1st person singular.” But what does that mean? Here’s a helpful primer on Greek verbs.
The Apostle John explains how the first disciples moved from curious followers to apostles entrusted with spreading the gospel.
Runaway announcements seems to be a particular problem of running a women’s ministry. How do you handle it? What kind of limits should you put in place? After 25 years, in women’s ministry, here’s the policy I’ve found best.
The author focuses on the evidence John the Baptist provided about the identity of the Christ. John the Baptist gave two kinds of testimony: negative and positive.
Please join me in celebrating 450 episodes and the 25th season of Wednesday in the Word. For comparison, 93.27% of podcasters quit before reaching 100 episodes and only 3.14% of podcasts reach 300 episodes. Out of the 3.3 million global podcasts ranked by Listen...
Geography in the Gospel of John reveals that John organizes his gospel differently than the other three gospels.
John 1:1-18: The Apostle John starts his gospel with a prologue that introduces 3 key themes that resonate throughout the book.
This episode kicks off a new season on the Gospel of John. We delve into what we know about the author, the Apostle John, and review the unique characteristics of this gospel, as compared to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke).
Season 25 of the Wednesday in the Word podcast starts August 21
Greek Reference Books Online: Where to find free online biblical Greek dictionaries, lexicons and concordances from WednesdayintheWord.com
Gospel of John: Believe and Find Life. An 21-week Bible study podcast series on the Gospel of John from Wednesday in the Word.
When starting new small groups, it’s helpful to establish expectations up front with a clear set of ground rules. Here’s a sample we’ve developed over 25 years of ministry.
Jeremiah in Chronological Order: The chapters of the Old Testament book of Jeremiah in their chronological setting from WednesdayintheWord.com
Learning some basic information when new small groups start can save misunderstanding later. Asking participants to answer a few basic questions the first day can help leaders structure the time to better meet the needs of a group. Here’s an example “Small Group Welcome” survey.