WELCOME TO BIBLICALTHOUGHT.COM!
The purpose of this website is to interpret and discuss various issues of the day as much as possible through a Biblical lens. The site will be refreshed with new content weekly – specifically, you’ll find a new Bible verse of the week with comment, a quote of the week with or without comment, and a statistic, poll, or data item of the week, again, with or without comment.
As the main content on this site, you will find brief essays, starting with three and, typically, with one new essay a week added. Whether or not you’re a Bible believer, these essays may give you some new insights on a variety of issues.
Verse of the week
The Fruit of the Spirit
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).
Comment: In the Bible, the word “fruit” often means “the result of” or “a product of.” In this quote, there are several “products” listed, and while they all seem to be intangible or emotional in nature, they are really behaviors or behavioral states. They are the real results of being “filled with the Spirit” – the Holy Spirit, that is.
And when or how do you become filled with the Spirit? When you first believe in your heart of hearts (1) that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; (2) that He suffered, bled, and died on the Roman cross to pay the just penalty for all of your sins and mine; and (3) that on the third day after crucifixion, He was raised from the dead to guarantee the promise of everlasting life to all who believe in Him and repent of their sins.
From that point on, you will feel His love and the love of other believers – and your love for others will increase. (You will love your neighbors more.) And you will experience the joy of knowing you’re walking on the straight and narrow path to Heaven and not on the wide highway to eternal punishment. Also, you will know the peace of mind that faith in Jesus brings, and as your faith increases, your fears will decrease. The stronger your faith, the fewer your fears – and the greater peace of mind you’ll have.
Longsuffering means patience – you will not be (or no longer be) testy with those who may say or do things that are not to your liking. You will not only show patience but also kindness in your dealings with such people. And your newfound kindness will translate into actions that help others in need. In other words, you will want to do good works – not to “score points” but for no other reason than to help those in need.
Then there’s goodness – which means you will be more apt to “do the right thing” when there’s a choice, even when doing the right thing is difficult or even detrimental to you. Another fruit of the Spirit is faithfulness. That means being faithful to your family, to your friends, to fellow believers, and most of all to Jesus.
The last two – gentleness and self-control – probably go together. It is self-control that lets you be gentle with all people, even with those who are being “difficult.” These are perhaps the most visible fruits of the Spirit. Together, they are what people see in your behavior toward them and others. Some are bound to admire your self-control and gentleness – and ask you how you can be so calm and even-handed when people are giving you a hard time, so to speak.
If they ask, tell them you’re filled with the Spirit. Then explain.
Quote of the week
Erasing the US Education Department
“[In four decades] Washington has spent well over a trillion dollars through the [Education] department, and the country has little to show for it in the skill that matters most. On the 2024 National Report Card, only 31 percent of fourth graders read at NAEP’s Proficient standard, and 40 percent could not clear even the Basic benchmark. The national reading line has barely moved from where it sat in 1992.”
Ryan Walters (CEO, Teacher Freedom Alliance, 7/28/26)
Comment: When Linda McMahon was appointed Secretary of Education in 2025, her primary task was to gradually close the Department. According to Ryan Walters, Secretary McMahon did something no other Secretary of Education did during the Department’s 45-year existence – she went to the Teacher Freedom Summit in Dallas this July and talked directly to and with a number of teachers about the value of the Department and the prospect of closing it permanently.
More specifically, she argued that the best decisions in education are made closest to the student – and that the states, and not the Federal government, should (once again) have the final authority on curricula, certification, funding, and other aspects of the states’ public schools. One of her basic points was that since its inception, the Department spent over 45 years and tons of taxpayer dollars making rules and promulgating (failed) programs without consulting the teachers who were in the trenches, so to speak. For example, Common Core has been a bust, and No Child Left Behind is still bleeding money with no significant positive results.
The fact is, public school student results in the last 50+ years have gradually fallen from among the best in the world to where kids in over 30 countries score higher in reading, math, and/or science. Yet, we spend more money per pupil than any other country. To find the basic problem, you don’t have to look far. Two words – teachers’ unions. Isn’t it amazing that teachers’ compensation has gone up, up, up since the early 60s, but student performance has gone down, down, down?
Besides not being close to students, the US Department of Education has become a willing collaborator with teachers’ unions – which, by the way, contribute heavily to the Democrat party. At the Dallas Teacher Freedom Summit, Secretary McMahon found that union officials have strong influence in “an ever-larger Federal role in education,” but the teachers she talked with clearly wanted the opposite. So it’s likely that the Department will be closed soon and that the money will be spent on students instead of bureaucracy. And while we’re at it, let’s go back to 1959, when teachers’ unions were illegal.
Statistic of the week
The American Dream Sputters
A family/household that earns the US median income of $106,800 needs to spend 32% of that amount a year ($34,176) just to cover mortgage payments on a median-priced home – that’s $2848 a month. An average low-income family would need to spend 65% of its income for a similar house.
Comment: Presumably, the $2848 a month includes property taxes, although the data source didn’t specify that. Still, even including taxes, it’s a hefty monthly figure. And while it’s true that wages have risen somewhat in the last year or so after some stagnation, home prices have climbed a whopping 53% since 2019. To put that in perspective, a house that cost $200,000 in 2018 could cost $306,000 today.
The biggest problem is a housing shortage – a supply problem, with too many people chasing too few houses on the market. For example, many current homeowners who might have become sellers in better times don’t want to trade their 2%-4% mortgage for a 6% mortgage in buying a new place, so they stay where they are.
But the biggest factor contributing to the supply problem is regulatory restrictions and costs – making it risky for developers to build. Builders in some states complain that they can be committed for $50,000 in costs before they pour an ounce of concrete for a basement – e.g., septic and water systems, permit fees, etc. Indeed, polls show that Americans decidedly support the reduction of regulatory costs to increase housing supply.
The other side of the same coin is that while there are a lot of potential buyers, there are also more hurdles in getting a mortgage. One problem is the mortgage rate itself. Once people have tasted rates of 2% or 3% just a few years ago, a rate of 6% cuts radically into their lifestyles – so that many of them hesitate to buy, or confine their house hunting to properties that are significantly below the median in price.
Also, many people have heavy debt – credit cards, auto, etc. – and are turned down for the amount of mortgage they apply for. Thus, some deals that are contingent on a mortgage fall through. In general, though, high interest rates and heavy personal debt may reduce the number of potential buyers, but apparently not enough to cause housing prices to fall, at least not yet.
Brief Essays Touching Issues of the Day.
Essays included on this website are divided into three basic categories – Spiritual Issues, Cultural Opinions, and Government Issues. There will be some overlapping, of course, but virtually all will relate to one or more Biblical principles that support the points of view expressed.
Versions of most of these articles were previously published in the Wisconsin Christian News from 2019 to 2023, but they have been edited and updated to better reflect current events. We are opening this website with three essays, one in each category – and typically, we will add one new essay a week. The latest title in each caregory will be in red letters.