Thank you for your wonderful ministry! I have always been confused by the Beatitude which states, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. What exactly does “poor in spirit” mean? I have been told it stands for the righteous, but I would like your clarifying interpretation.

I was reading your perspective of Revelation, and in chapter 6 you say: “After the true Church is gone, those who also call themselves the church, but have been left behind, won’t have much trouble at all accepting Islam.” Can you please explain why people will switch to Islam after the rapture? Wouldn’t the rapture be proof of Jesus and Christianity?

It appears to me that God’s first creation was The Word. Rev 3:14 says, “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;” Angels and all else were created by God through The Word. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). Do you think that’s what Rev 3:14 means?

My question concerns fearing the Lord. What exactly does that mean ? I have Christian friends that say we should “fear the Lord” or “fear God”. Some go so far as to say, they are afraid of Him, and that we should be afraid of Him. I don’t fear Him, He’s my Father and I’m not afraid of Him. I respect His authority, and I know He’ll correct me when I need it. Should I have a sense of fear ?

I am struggling very much with the concept of forgiveness and anger. This ongoing struggle has caused me great pain for several years. I know that God commands us to forgive others as we have been forgiven. Even so, I am having a hard time forgiving a family member who betrayed my trust and stole a large sum of money that she’s unable to pay back. I am unsure how to reconcile my emotional response of anger vs. my logical desire to forgive. Is it possible to forgive her while remaining angry?

Recently I was thinking about the so called Star of Bethlehem. Do you think it really was a star in the sky that the whole world could see or was it something that only those who knew where to look would have recognized?

Scripture seems to indicate a special relationship between Mary and Elizabeth. Perhaps they were well acquainted with one another, but rather than God saying “your friend Elizabeth” He said “your cousin Elizabeth” to emphasize the the fact that as “children of Israel” they were related.

I can make 2-3 times the money I’m making, but feel like I’m not supposed to be thinking of money or work, but just preparing for the rapture. I have serious health issues, but through God’s grace I get by, having the bare bone basics of food, rent, and shelter. When God said he wanted us to have an abundant life did he mean spiritually or materially?

Luke 1:5 reads; “In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.” So we see that both Zechariah and Elizabeth were of Levitical lineage, of Aaronic descent, making John the Baptist a full blooded Aaronic priest, and rightfully so. My confusion comes from Luke 1:36, “Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.” From Mary’s genealogy in Luke 3:23-38 it is apparent that she is of Judean lineage, of Davidic descent. Therefore, Jesus is rightly called the son of David. How can Elizabeth and Mary be related when they come from completely different tribes?

End times prophecy and the rapture are a very interesting and intriguing study, and the Bible speaks a lot about it, in many cases not giving all the details of future events. And so many good and faithful Spirit filled ministers seem to have their own ideas or translations of them, of course all leading us to eternity with Christ, but with many differences as to end times.

As a curious people, I know we want to know all things and how they will turn out and but just CAN’T know ALL those things. Some of this leads into counter-productive discussions or even arguments, like Titus 3:9 warns us about. Paul also commented about how not all things are profitable, whether they are unlawful doesn’t matter, but are they a waste of time which leads us to argument.

I am not talking about specific things that are fairly clear in the Bible and just need proper interpretation, such as pre-trib rapture, the 70th week and some of the main events of it, etc. But who certain people are or where they come from we can’t always know. We can guess, might even be close, but when human guessing comes into play, it leaves much room for contention, don’t you think?