Month: December 2025

The Apostle Paul’s timeline

December 31, 2025

For many years I have been fascinated with the Apostle Paul and his life. I love the way he was converted on the road to Damascus and then went from a persecutor of the church to a church leader.

While doing some research on Paul I came across this timeline of his life on GotQuestions.org. I found it really helpful in understanding Paul and his works.

Here is a chronological list of major events in Paul’s life (the dates are approximate):

  • Conversion on the road to Damascus, AD 34
  • Three years in Arabia, AD 34—37
  • First missionary trip, AD 46—48
  • Jerusalem Council, AD 49 or 50
  • Second missionary trip, AD 49—52
  • The epistle to the Galatians, AD 50
  • The epistles of 1 and 2 Thessalonians, AD 51 and 52
  • Third missionary trip, AD 53—57
  • The epistles of 1 and 2 Corinthians, AD 55 and 56
  • The epistle to the Romans, AD 57
  • Arrest in Jerusalem, AD 57
  • Imprisoned in Caesarea, AD 57—60
  • Appeal to Caesar and trip to Rome, AD 60—61
  • The epistle to the Ephesians, AD 61 or 62
  • The epistle to the Colossians, AD 61 or 62
  • The epistle to Philemon, AD 61 or 62
  • The epistle to the Philippians, AD 62 or 63
  • Release from the first Roman imprisonment, AD 63
  • Trip to Spain (?), AD 63 or 64 (see Romans 15:24, 28)
  • The epistle of 1 Timothy, AD 64
  • The epistle to Titus, AD 64
  • The epistle to the Hebrews (?), AD 65 or 66
  • Second Roman imprisonment, AD 66—67
  • The epistle of 2 Timothy, AD 67
  • Martyrdom, AD 67

I find his missionary trips and writings very interesting. I also find that from his conversion to his death was 33 years. The same amount of time Jesus lived on earth.

If you are interested there is an article that explains the timeline in a deeper way on GotQuestions.org.

Comforted to comfort others

December 30, 2025

“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” ‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭1:3-4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God comforts us in our times of suffering and distress. The Bible tells us over and over again that He is the source of all comfort. We see that God comforts us to restore us, but He also comforts us so we can comfort others too. I have found that when we are healed of some pain or trauma, in time we can help others going through the same thing. We pass on the help God has given us. We allow God to recycle our pain for the good of others.

Prayer

Dear God, thank You for all of Your help and comfort over the years. I pray that I can comfort others too. Use me to bring Your peace and comfort to others when they are in need. Amen.

My favourite car?

December 26, 2025

What is your all time favorite automobile?

My favourite all time car that I owned is my 1973 Holden HQ Monaro. I had that when I first got my licence. It had a huge V8 engine and quite a few other performance mods as my friends and I would race at the drags.

My favourite all time is the Corvette Stingray pictured above. A person who was driving through our town stopped for a break. I got talking to him and he asked if I wanted a photo in it. I jumped at the chance. It had a 454 Chev motor and it sounded amazing with the pipes on the side.

If I had to choose between one of them above it would be very hard. My sentimental side would say my Monaro, but my rev head side would say the Corvette.

5 reasons to trust the Bible

December 23, 2025

Over the years I have been asked if we can really trust the Bible. I think this is a very good question because as Christians we base our whole faith on what the Bible says about God, life, salvation and heaven. Here are five reasons that I have found we can trust the Bible.

  1. Old Testament Prophecies Fulfilled – A prophecy is when a person speaks on God’s behalf and tells what will happen in the future. Hundreds of Old Testament Prophecies from the Bible have come to pass. Many of these refer to the coming, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. A careful study shows that Jesus is the promised one that the prophets spoke about.
  2. Archaeological Discoveries – Many of the places and cities mentioned in the Bible have been confirmed by archaeological discoveries and research. A number of these cities were destroyed by wars or the passing of time, but have been rediscovered during archaeological digs. It is interesting to note that the Bible is the only “Holy” book that consistently links people and events with places.
  3. Unity of Theme – While the Bible is a collection of 66 books that was written over a 1600 year time period from 1500BC to 100AD by 40 authors (under God’s guidance), it has a unity of theme and purpose. The Old Testament (OT) tells of creation, mankind’s separation from God and God’s coming Saviour. The New Testament (NT) re-affirms the OT and points readers to Jesus Christ who was God’s Saviour for all mankind.
  4. Original Manuscripts – Until the invention of printing in the middle of the 15th century, all copies of the Scriptures were made by hand. The ancient Jewish scribes copied the OT with extreme care and many of these are still existence today. Evidence for the reliability of the NT text includes about 4,500 Greek manuscripts. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947 in a cave and confirmed much of the original writings that had been handed down over time were not changed or added to.
  5. Biblical Claims – The Bible itself claims to be the Word of God. A number of verses refer to it being “God-breathed” or inspired . 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”. It is also interesting to note the phrase “Word of God” appears 48 times in the King James Version of the Bible.