Jim Novell

I am posting this on the day we celebrate each year as Good Friday. It is called Good Friday, despite the fact that everything that occurred on this day over 2000 years ago can only be described as evil; the betrayal of Jesus by Judas to the religious authorities, the unjust arrest, trial and conviction […]

It is the evening prior to the Jewish Passover, approximately 2000 years ago.  Jesus has completed His public ministry and has been spending the last few days of His life with His apostles, instructing them of His approaching death and how they are to carry on His work after His death.  He enjoys the Passover

Do you know the love of God? Do you personally, intimately and experientially know the width and length and depth and height of the love of Christ which passes (human) knowledge. The Apostle Paul prays for Christians in Ephesians 3:14-19 that we would.  He does so for two essential reasons. One reason is because he

One of the most unsettling and even terrifying passages in the Bible, at least for me, is found in Matthew 7:21-23, near the conclusion of what is known as The Sermon on the Mount. Here Jesus states, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will

“ Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began…” (Titus 1:1-2). “Therefore, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you

Most people do not find it irrational or unrealistic to believe that there is or will one day be a world – a reality – a realm – a state of being in which life will be significantly more interesting, more exciting, more fulfilling than this life.  We long for a world where human flourishing

And the grief goes on. In what the Bible refers to as this present evil world, grief, sorrow and sadness goes on and on and on and on – and on (Galatians 1:4).  This time the grief and sorrow originated from my esteemed alma matter, Michigan State University.  Three bright young students were senselessly murdered

In John 12:25, Jesus informs us of the necessity that we hate our life in this world if we are to gain eternal life, the glorious life with God for which mankind was created.  Hate is an emotionally charged word that has a broad range of usage throughout the Bible.  It ranges from having enmity,

No, this is not a post regarding a New Year’s resolution dilemma related to your body weight, it is hopefully much weightier than that. There are undoubtedly many challenging passages in the Bible that we gloss over when reading, without really considering the truth that is being revealed or the command that is being given

“SALVATION IS OF THE LORD” (Jonah 2:9) (Psalm 3:8) (Psalm 62:1). This is a magnificent, marvelous, majestic truth proclaimed and demonstrated by God throughout the Bible, revealing to us His greatness and goodness, displayed most prominently in the glory of His grace (Ephesians 1:6). Salvation is a big word in terms of what it encompasses in