My God and My Neighbor

There's nothing wrong with saving and protecting what you have. There's nothing wrong with planning ahead in case a catastrophe strikes. That's why we have insurance. 

Jesus tells Christians not to worry about the necessities of life in the Sermon on the Mount. But sometimes we wonder, "What if…?” What if the worst does happen? How would we deal with it? Would we keep our faith or lose it? Would we praise God or blame H...

The book of Job has been recognized as a great work of literature for centuries. But it is much more than that. It is an incomparably profound book on the most perplexing of human questions. It shows not only that bad things happen to good people, but that the worst of things can happen to the best of people. 

We will never fully relate to the sufferings of this man. But we do know something he did not, at least not in ...

People have debated this question for thousands of years. We read about it many times in the Bible. We seem to be agreed on the general principle but divided as to how it applies to specific situations. 

This is not just some abstract, philosophical discussion. It is very practical. It is very personal. And we will learn important lessons in the examples we will look at in this episode.

Read about this subject

• Scriptu...

When God told Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice, Abraham faced a dilemma. On the one hand, he loved his son. On the other, God told him to do it. So he worked out away in his mind to fit these seemingly incongruent elements together. He concluded that after he offered his son, God would raise him back to life again. That's what we read about his thinking in Hebrews 11:17–19. But he left out a possibility—that G...

We do strange things when we’re desperate. Pain can cause us to deny the obvious if we convince ourselves it will give relief. This is why some turn to atheism. The thought of an all-powerful, all-loving God is a heavy weight to bear in a world of suffering and sin. For these atheists, the only way to live with this problem is to deny that such a God exists. But as we will see in this episode, that is no way to live. Athei...

Much of the trouble we have in living the Christian life comes from not looking at ourselves. We examine and cross examine others and even God Himself but fail to ask ourselves the same questions. This is true of the problem of evil. We want to know why when that same question is staring at us in the mirror. 

In this episode we find God turning the tables and asking man this question. Sometimes we are like children who ...

We need to tread carefully when we ask questions like this. After all, we are talking about God’s intentions, and we must not be guilty of putting words in God’s mouth. Thankfully, there is a passage in the Bible that talks about why God made the world and placed us in it. 

There is a reason why we are here. Many live their lives not knowing what this purpose is. Some even say there is no purpose, so forget about looking fo...

“Why, Lord?”Series

When you're dealing with a difficult problem, it helps to go back to the basics. That's true with the problem of evil which is the most perplexing question man can ever consider. In this lesson, we will look at two different kinds of evil in the world. One is moral evil which is sin. The other is sometimes called natural evil. This is suffering. If we are too understand this subject, we must k...

The Mother of All Questions: Why?

You're not the only one who has asked this question. In fact, many great prophets and holy men in the Bible struggled with it. That's one of the benefits of reading the Bible. We are not alone facing hardships and not being able to understand why they happen. As we begin this study of the problem of evil, we will notice two questions that have at times tormented good people: why and how...

G. Campbell Morgan said no man is an accurate interpreter of his own generation. We are too busy trying to get through the challenges of the day to be able to see the overall picture, to connect the dots and to determine what caused the situation and where it will end. We have to wait until the smoke clears, and that takes time. Still there are indicators that are hard to miss. The decline of a culture takes place graduall...

Sometimes people ask what will happen to those who have never heard the gospel. Sometimes they need to think about the reverse. What will happen to those who have heard but don’t obey? That’s what Jesus talks about at the end of the famous Sermon on the Mount. He began early in this sermon saying that the Jews had heard much teaching from the scribes and the Pharisees. At the close He’s saying: Now that you’ve heard My tea...

“Talk is cheap.” There's a lot of empty chatter today. We hear it in politics. We hear it in business. Most tragically, we hear it in religion. In an age of bells and whistles, we long to see Christians who back up what they say with how they live—not for show, but out of love and faith. Jesus said it will take more than talk to enter heaven. As He nears the end of this famous sermon, He warns and admonishes us about putti...

What do you think of when you hear the words “false teacher”? Jim Jones? Joseph Smith? Muhammad? Jesus said false prophets are not as obvious as people might assume. They appear to be just the opposite of what they are. But if they are that deceptive, how can we know what they really are? In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus explains this. There is a way to see through all the charisma, eloquence and enthusiasm of men who are ...

We often talk about the path life takes us on. It’s true that there are unexpected things on life’s journey, but the truth is that, in regard to eternity, we choose the path we’re on. Jesus talks about these two roads in the Sermon on the Mount and utters some startling words to modern ears about how many choose the wrong road. These are roads that lead to our eternal destiny, not paths to success in this world. 

Read a...

Those who serve in the military talk about having a code. Businesses have standards they expect employees to follow. Communities have rules and customs they want everyone to respect. Anywhere you go, you will find basic beliefs about how you should treat others.

Jesus said one rule of life summarizes the Old Testament. We call it the Golden Rule. If this one verse in the Sermon on the Mount were practiced in homes, schools,...

In this special episode of My God and My Neighbor, we feature a powerful lesson from Glenn Ramsey, who has preached the gospel for 70 years and taught at Tennessee Bible College for 45. Speaking at TBC’s 50th Annual Lectureship, Brother Ramsey delivered an unforgettable message on Treasure in Earthen Vessels from II Corinthians 4. But what made this lesson truly special was the wisdom and personal reflections he shared—pre...

God blesses, but we must seek those blessings. God will do His part if we do ours. The Creator put mankind here “so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27). When we find Him by becoming Christians, we still seek His blessings. We strive to do better. We ask Him for help and strength. Jesus made a promise about this in the...

There are some people you can't teach. Even Jesus was not successful every time He taught people. This is a hard lesson to learn when you love others and try to help them to be saved. After all, Jesus said to go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation in Mark 16:15–16. But it is a fact that some people are so hardened against God and against his Word that they will only berate you if you try to teach...

How do you feel when someone criticizes you? We don’t like it, especially if the criticism is unfair and harsh. That is understandable. But not all criticism is bad. Sometimes it is for our good. 

Today there is an idea among Bible readers that is not scriptural. It is the belief that any and all types of judging are wrong. One of the reasons this happens is because society frowns on saying that anything is wrong. Some ...