Gospels-Acts - Barbara Lynn Seibel

December 21, 2025December 20, 2025

Have You Prepared Your Heart for Christmas? | Part Four

Are you familiar with the saying, “Home is where the heart is”?

What does this saying imply to you?

Does the implication change depending on whether you still live in the town where you were born or if you live thousands of miles away from your birthplace?

When I lost my husband to mental illness in July 2024, it was interesting how many people’s questions frequently revolved around whether I would move back to my birthplace or stay where I currently live. This question came from family, friends, colleagues, and even strangers.

Obviously, this question arose from a place of care and concern since I am about a thousand miles from my family roots.

My mother has shared that she regularly responds that I’ve lived in my current location for twenty-some years now when she is asked if I’ll move back to where she lives. Often, people will then say to her, “Oh, her life is there then.”

I’ll share how I am answering this question in relation to the saying, “home is where the heart is” and the study of Luke 2:1-20 that follows at the end of this post.

December 14, 2025December 13, 2025

Have You Prepared Your Heart for Christmas? | Part Three

Alone time.

What comes to mind when you think about alone time?

Do you like the idea of alone time or dread it?

How do you spend your time alone?

Do you focus on hobbies or self-care activities?

Are your activities active or sedentary?

I realize some people reading this feel they never have time alone, while others may feel they are always alone.

But whether other humans surround us or we are by ourselves, we can trust that God is fully aware of everything about us.

And he can communicate with us while we’re going about our work or when we are resting.

How do I know this?

Consider the following passage when Mary, a young lady, experiences this incredible reality with an angelic visitor announcing she will bear the Christ child.

December 7, 2025December 6, 2025

Have You Prepared Your Heart for Christmas? | Part Two

Silence.

Do you like silence or avoid it?

Typically, beginning music students struggle the most in observing the silent parts in their pieces. As a former music instructor, I’ve witnessed this many times over the years.

Our natural tendency is to fill any silence.

Yet, when I was working full time in music, I seldom turned music on in my car or at home. I craved silence back then because I was seldom in silence.

Now that I’m no longer working as a musician, I frequently find it harder to concentrate at work on quieter days than when there’s a great deal of activity around me. Mainly because I hear every single sound around me and want to know what it is.

Why does silence make many of us so uncomfortable?

What does this discussion of experiencing silence have to do with preparing our hearts for Christmas?

September 7, 2025September 6, 2025

Responding to an Unexpected Question

A few days ago, I received an unexpected question in an email from a coworker.

This question caused me to pick up the phone and share my reaction with my coworker.

Now, it’s not uncommon for me to get lots of questions during my workday.

In fact, one time, as I was preparing to leave for vacation, I emailed all employees with the following subject line: Ask Barbara Not an Option.

I then explained in the email’s body that I would be away from the office with little access to the internet. Thus, “Ask Barbara” was not workable during the time I planned to be away.

This email generated a mixture of responses ranging from “good for you” to “what will we do while you’re gone?” comments.

But before I share the unexpected question I recently received and how I responded to it, I want to look at John 18:19-19:11.

After all, this is a Bible study blog.

July 16, 2025July 16, 2025

Brief Time Away Needed

This is just a quick note to explain why I missed my usual posting last Sunday.

The week before, I needed to limit my screen time because of an intense headache and light sensitivity along with fatigue.

I spent one entire day in a dark room just resting.

People keep asking me if I get migraines.

I respond that I’ve never received an official diagnosis of migraines.

But I frequently get barometric pressure headaches. The worst headaches are when it threatens to rain but then it doesn’t.

Thus, I try to eat an anti-inflammatory diet most of the time. But I’m certainly not perfect at it.

This past Monday, I resumed working on a post hoping to get a study posted today.

But then that afternoon, an intense wave of grief shut me down again.

July 6, 2025July 4, 2025

A Study on Luke 5:1-11

Have you ever been fishing?

My first memory of fishing is with my dad.

He cast a line with a rod and reel, then handed it to me to hold.

A bit later, I felt a tug on the line. We tried to reel it in, convinced there was something big on the line.

Turns out it was a baby turtle that had chomped on the bait and then wound the fishing line into a tumbleweed under the water.

Not the catch we were expecting.

Interestingly, my dad never took me fishing again.

Simon Peter also had an unexpected fishing experience.

April 27, 2025April 26, 2025

Why Did Jesus Walk to Emmaus?

In the immediate days following a tragedy, we are at first in shock.

Bewilderment is a common expression along with questions of why and how this tragedy could have happened.

The followers of Jesus experienced all of this after his crucifixion on a cross. (Luke 23:26-49)

But then something remarkable happened that caused even more bewilderment.

The women who went to anoint his body with spices according to their burial customs discovered an open and empty tomb. (Luke 24:1-3)

Angels appeared and informed the women that Jesus was alive, so they went and told the disciples and others. (Luke 24:4-10)

But the apostles did not believe the women. (Luke 24:11).

Peter, investigating their report, discovered things just as they said, but no angels appeared to him at the tomb. Thus, he then went home marveling at what this meant. (Luke 24:12)

Luke then turns his attention to two followers of Jesus, who left Jerusalem for Emmaus, sharing that Jesus joined them on their journey. Neither of these two were part of the lead apostles.

The question is, why did Jesus walk to Emmaus with these two followers?

April 13, 2025April 13, 2025

Have You Ridden a Donkey?

I am sure I have been around a donkey or two at a zoo or other wildlife preserve.

But I have never ridden one. Nor have I had to lead one anywhere.

In the last year of my earthly father’s life, he shared a story with me I had never heard before about a time he handled two donkeys.

He shared he was responsible for getting these two donkeys from one location to where his father was waiting for him.

At one point, the donkey he was riding stopped and refused to move forward. The other donkey also stopped. My dad said he did everything he could think of to get those donkeys moving again.

Donkeys have a reputation for being stubborn, which my father experienced firsthand.

What does this have to do with Matthew 21:1-11?

February 16, 2025February 15, 2025

Finding Your Opportunities for Boldness

How often do you rehearse what you wish you would have said after the fact?

Or maybe you have the opposite problem, you immediately speak and then wish you had remained silent?

I fall into the first camp most of the time.

Even as I was studying for today’s post, something triggered in me a tirade of anger about something that I have re-rehearsed far too many times. I sound, in my own ears, incredibly bold and powerful in this re-rehearsal of what I wish I had said.

I realize, though, that these re-rehearsals are temptations to focus on an unhealthy anger rather than a healthy boldness inspired by God.

What does this have to do with Acts 5:17-32?

February 9, 2025February 10, 2025

When Our Witness Brings Healing and Persecution

On the evening of my husband’s death, one pastor helping me inquired about what I wanted him to tell my coworkers the next day.

After a brief pause of utter silence, I looked him in the eye with intensity and said, “The truth. There’s nothing to hide here. And I did not see this coming.”

The next morning, this same pastor called to check on me and to tell me he was about to email all the staff to gather in the youth space to inform them what had happened. He wanted to make sure the email did not surprise me in the event I was checking my work email.

I thanked him and then told him I wanted him to stress to the staff that if any of them were struggling, to please seek help because that is what my husband failed to do. And he was wrong to not seek help.

Later that same day, I shared Psalm 77 on my blog and also posted on my social media that I desired to bring God Glory out of this situation.

How was I able to respond in this manner within less than twenty-four hours of learning what my husband had done?
And how does it connect with the title of this post?

Let me prepare my answer to these two questions with a brief study from Acts 4:1-13.