The Great Commission is our Mission.
If I (Michael) were to “retire”, what would that look like? I’m pretty sure that I would still be driven by the same passion to make God’s Word freely available to as many people speaking as many languages as I possibly can. That would mean doing pretty much the same things I do now. So …
Read More Can’t Stop, Yet!Evan, Lori, Rachel, Nate, Michael, and Ben in Papua New Guinea in 2008 This Mother’s Day, I would like to honor my wonderful wife, Lori. It takes a special woman to go into full-time missions in Papua New Guinea with three sons, and come back years later with three sons and daughter to continue serving …
Read More Missionary Mom!Inductive Bible Study You can do inductive Bible study by yourself, but it is also well suited to group study. There are several variations, but they all revolve around these phases: WHY I LIKE INDUCTIVE BIBLE STUDY Sound Bible Interpretation Bible Interpretation just means figuring out what the Bible is really saying. Sound Bible Interpretation …
Read More Bible Study MethodsThis 8-year-old computer served me in Bible ministry for several years until a couple of things went wrong and I couldn’t get it to run MacOS any more. Instead of sending it in for recycling after I replaced it, I loaded Linux on it and repurposed it as a Bibledit server. It is in active …
Read More God and Technology; 27 More Bible Translations Online!John 3:16 in the Alaba-K’abeena language of Ethiopia, one of the new Bible translations this week on eBible.org This has been an eventful week! I could really feel your prayers. Thank you! “Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow…” See Mark 4. We keep spreading the Word of God. Lots of it is bound …
Read More Five More Bible Translations Online!Mary Magdalene sees Jesus Christ alive! See John 20.Jesus Christ died a brutal death, but on the third day, He rose again! Not only that, He is still alive! It gets better. We who believe in Him also get eternal life! See John 3:16. This great news is too good to keep to ourselves. Thank …
Read More Jesus Christ is Risen!The Last Supper (John 13) as envisioned by Leonardo da Vinci and repainted by Giampietrino What would it have been like to be with Jesus Christ at the Passover meal that was his last supper before He was crucified? He surprised His disciples by washing their feet. He gently sent His betrayer on his way. …
Read More Dining with JesusSilver dinar of Vespasian, photographed by Michael Johnson at the Museum of the Bible I found the cure to worry about taxes and tariffs. It works, even though I have seen a lot of worry and sensationalism in the news and deep divisions among friends concerning opinions about taxes, tariffs, and politics. In our partnership …
Read More Taxes, Tariffs, and TestsWe see a lot of fighting going on in this world: wars, political battles, battles over moral issues, tribalism, domestic violence, violent crime, and more. What we don’t see in the usual news is the unseen spiritual dimension behind all of this trouble. Of course, people are involved, and that is bad enough with our …
Read More Spiritual WarfareThis week was one of taking care of a lot of little tasks: None of those things, by themselves, seem like much, at least to me. Sometimes mission work involves taking care of personal health, maintaining the house where we make our home and my office, helping others do the ministry God called them to, …
Read More Little Things Add UpMap of the Federated States of Micronesia with arrows pointing to Satawal and Nukuoro islands This week, we got two more Micronesian Bible translations online: Nukoro and Satawalese. Both are for languages originating on small atolls among the Caroline Islands. See the red arrows pointing to tiny dots on the map, above. These are fairly …
Read More Two More Micronesian Translations OnlinePile of junk mail (photo copyright by Judith E. Bell CC BY SA) We love to keep in touch with those people whom God has called to support us with finances and/or prayer. Email is one way we do that. This is hard for a variety of reasons, including getting caught in the crossfire of …
Read More Spam Wars and Prayer Letters