Often, speakers at churches, conferences, or just in conversation will give expositions about certain words found within the Bible. A common tactic, is to do a brief word study and, to add credence to the fact that their topic is important, announce the number of times the word they've chosen as their topic appears in the Bible. The inference, if speakers and listeners are not careful, that can be taken away from this, is that the more often a word appears in the text of scripture, the more important it is to the section of scripture, to the Bible as a whole, or to your very life.

There is, however, a term used by literary analysts, borrowed from the Greek called Hapax Legomena that literally means "used only once." This can be once in a section, once in a collection of works, or once across all of literature depending on the context. The Bible has 1,086 true Hapax Legomena, meaning words that are only found once in the entirety of the Bible. Are these words less important than all the rest? Can we ignore them? Or, is all scripture God-breathed? 

While the usage of word count can be interesting and not intended to cause harm, it might lead us to unintentionally be cavalier in what we deem important or non-important, strictly based on quantity of times. Today we'll look at why frequency of use does not always equate to level of importance and some oversights we all might be guilty of in our speaking, hearing, and study, examples of Hapax Legomena, and a call to caution as we all go forward in our studies.

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When Daniel says the words, "O King, live forever," to king Darius of the Persian empire, it should cause us to ask ourselves some questions. Why would Daniel say this to a national enemy? Was it just a phrase or a nicety meant to pacify a ruler, or did Daniel mean what he said?

With the geopolitical landscape being a hotbed of disagreement and fuming frustration, and the world itself becoming increasingly more divided along various lines that sometimes even overlap, we could look at nearly anyone on Earth as an enemy to us in something if we desired to. We may find ourselves angry with world leaders, angry with people who support them, angry with certain stances taken by people we believed to be friends - but do we hold fast to a true and real love that we're supposed to have for all men, including our worst enemies? On the flip side, do we love everyone as the world understands love by accepting all evil that comes along with individual rulers or people we come in contact with? 

What can we learn from Daniel's example when he looks his oppressors and would-be killers dead in the eyes, asks them to repent of their sins, speaks truth to his own disadvantage and harm, and unashamedly continues doing right even when it defies them to their faces, but then simultaneously sees them with real, Godly love and says the words, "O King, live forever."? 

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This episode is a verse by verse study of Psalm 46 culminating in an evaluation of Psalm 46:10, which is a so commonly used out of context. Odds are you have heard or seen someone use this verse out of context or you have even used it out of context yourself! Join us as we take a brief look at what this Psalmist is saying throughout this Psalm, what context we SHOULD read verse 10 in, why it's important to not take sections of scripture out of context, and why we might be tempted to. 

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When we think of the word challenge, a number of real life examples probably come to mind, but they are probably all things we want to get through, overcome, or leave behind us. None of us consider challenge to be a place we want to remain in. However, following Christ, who lived a life of challenge and died a challenging death, is guaranteed to come with some amount of suffering, struggle, and/or difficulty. With this in mind, we can redirect our understanding of challenges to not represent things we desperately want to wish away, but rather something we need to accept that we'll be living in. God promises to provide a way through trials, but what if that way is that He makes us rise to the occasion and be able to live IN the challenges we find presented to us rather than leading us THROUGH them or allowing us to obliterate and leave them behind?

In this episode I will attempt to encourage all of you to challenge yourselves and make leaving your comfort zones a part of every day living so that when challenges are brought upon you circumstantially or from God, you won't be as shaken with the fear of failing a challenge, and you won't be as uncomfortable in unfamiliar territory. If we know we will be challenged in our lives as Christians, let's not wait to challenge ourselves in the little things so that when Christ asks everything of us, we'll be ready.

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Spiritual gifts are such a hot topic amongst Christian communities. We treat them like superpowers we should be on the lookout for after we receive God's Holy Spirit and we wonder what our unique talents and abilities are or will be. In this message, given in Columbus, Ohio, I discuss the absolute best way to determine what our gifts from God are. Hyper charismatic churches attempt to boast that God is working miraculous things in their churches because their attendees truly believe He can. The implication is that other Christians, that don't subscribe to health and wealth gospels, DON'T believe in God's power. If we're not careful we can begin to believe this belittling and totally untrue message and begin to be frustrated with, what we perceive as, our lack of God-given gifts. If this is you, take heart!  Your ability to prophecy the future or heal the sick are no correlation to God's work in you and I'd be willing to bet that you have boundless gifts from God if you would only look in the right place and see them as gifts!

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How can Paul say with confidence, love does not boast, when he admits to boasting in 2nd Corinthians? How can we be called to not ever boast, when we have examples like David boasting in God? Is it ever okay to boast, or were these great men admitting to just being unloving in their boasts of various things? 

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Mark 9 is such an amazing chapter of the Gospels full of rich narrative, awesome typology, lessons about the crucifixion, resurrection, glory, and deity of Christ, and a cool example of Christ using real-life, real-time events as teachable moments for His disciples. Many know the narrative account but sometimes, when presented with narrative, we read only to know what happened, and stop reading to draw out lessons for ourselves. Join me in this study as I go through the account of the transfiguration and the healing of a boy possessed by an unclean spirit to put these two stories in context, draw out some parallels, ask and answer some questions we should always ask as we study, and bring some fullness and connection to two seemingly disconnected narrative events.

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When Paul says the simple phrase, love does not envy, we can miss such an important message if we don't stop to look at what exactly this implies. Whenever we study we should be asking ourselves, and God, questions. "If love does not envy, why DOES it do? Why doesn't love envy? Can you ever envy and love at the same time? What exactly does it mean to envy?

Join me as I continue through the study of love from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 as we learn more about God (as He is described as love incarnate), what is expected of us as we try to become more and more like God, and what we should expect from others as we seek love from them.

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Logo: Matt Hernandez

In Acts 2, we read of the account of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the Early Church during the Day of Pentecost. This account can be inspiring and encouraging as we study our roots and see the power of God, but it can also be a bit disheartening as we live our day to day lives without always seeing grand visible miracles as proof of the Holy Spirit within us. 

We might ask ourselves or God, where are our tongues of fire? Where is the rushing wind as we receive the Holy Spirit at baptism and the laying on of hands? Why will God not thunder at us? Why do we only ever hear a whisper?

In this message given at a Pentecost service in Columbus, Ohio, I discuss Elijah, who expected God in powerful displays, but got Him in a still small voice, and Job, who expected God to remain gentle and soft spoken, but was forced to be face to face with the thundering of God through trial and hardship. Join me in an attempt to dispel the idea that God will always be present in the ways we expect He should be, and rid ourselves of the doubts that might crop up when we don't see God in specific ways in our lives that we do see happening in the lives of others.

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Logo: Matt Hernandez

Christianity, oftentimes amongst skeptics, is made out to be nothing more than a fairytale but, in reality, Christianity is the most well-evidenced belief in existence. No other faith has as much proof of its accuracy than Christianity and the cumulative case becomes impossible to stand up against when faced honestly.

Join us on Truth Be Told as we discuss the rationality and evidence of Christianity with theologian, apologist, and cold-case detective, J. Warner Wallace of Cold Case Christianity. 

If you have doubts about your faith or don't have answers to certain skeptic's attacks, don't be shaken, there are answers. If you are a skeptic, ask yourself if you've honestly evaluated the claims and evidence of Christianity. It takes strength and courage to look your world view in the face and see if it holds up to scrutiny. Christians, take heart and skeptics, take courage! The truth of Christianity stands strong through it all.

Cold Case Christianity: https://coldcasechristianity.com/

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Logo: Matt Hernandez

Video Sound and Editing: Jamie Schreiber