Posts from October 2022 (Page 2)

  DISCUSSION                                                                                Divorce is one of the most difficult issues that plagues our society.  No matter what the situation, God hates divorce (Malachi 2.16).  The reason for that hatred, is because divorce never just affects the man and the woman.  The ripples of divorce affect the children, the extended family of both sides, not to mention the friends of the couple as well.  The world wants us to…

  DISCUSSION                             The reading today introduces us to another colorful character of God’s providential story… John the Baptizer.  Hope for the Jews was continuing to grow with the empire of Rome seizing control of the world. There were those devout Jews, who we are aware of in Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and a realization that within the Roman kingdom, God would establish His kingdom that would last forever.  This prompted many people like…

  DISCUSSION                                                     As Matthew closes his account of the Gospel of Jesus, he leaves us with what has been called the Great Commission.  A Commission is an instruction, command, or duty given to a person or group of people.  In this case, the instruction is given by Jesus and the group of people who are commissioned are His disciples. It is referred to as “Great” in the sense of how important…

  DISCUSSION                                                                  In Matthew 27.1-2, the chief priests and the elders have taken counsel against Jesus to put Him to death.  Something very interesting happens before they lead Him away to Pilate the governor. The text says that they “bound” Him.  The word “bound” simply means to “tie up” or to “put in chains”.  I guess the idea was that they were going to tie Jesus up so that He would…

  DISCUSSION                                                                                  The disciples of Jesus had not been strangers to the Passover meal.  In fact, they were all good Jews and had taken part in the Passover feast ever since they were children.  However, this Passover was different.  It was different in the fact that this would be the last Passover they would share with Jesus in the flesh.  This was also different because Jesus…

  DISCUSSION                                                                                    Last week I heard a preacher give a lesson on his favorite person in the Bible.  He gave people an opportunity to guess who it could be, of course you got the standard answers like: Jesus, God, Moses and Peter.  However, none of these possibilities were even close.  His favorite Bible character was a man that did not even have a name; we simply refer to him as…

  DISCUSSION                                                                                                     Several years ago, a classmate of mine was scheduled to speak in our high school chapel at Mars Hill Bible School.  It isn’t unusual for people to get nervous before giving a lesson, especially in an audience of your peers, but on this day the speaker looked extremely uncomfortable.  As he stood up to deliver his lesson, there was an awkward silence in the auditorium.  The speaker…

          Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. —  Matthew 25:40 We saw him in the city of Chicago near the place where we were staying. His name was John, and he was homeless. His only means of transportation was a wheelchair. No matter how often he was invited to come inside or urged to stay at a shelter, he refused. The only thing…

  Humility is a greatly under-emphasized quality among humans. We don’t know what it means. We don’t know how to appreciate it. We don’t know how to do it. And we’re not all that sure we want to have it. Culturally, we’re much more drawn to the energetic, dynamic, charismatic, crowd-drawing leader. That’s who gets the headlines and the attention. But if we listen closely and watch carefully, we can see in Jesus someone who is humble, but strong; humble,…

  “When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two…

             At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:1-4 ESV)   Most of us…

  The Parable of the Sower is Jesus’ longest.  It is also His most in depth explanation of a parable. There should be little wonder then about it’s meaning and its importance.   The clear message is that the gospel is the seed of the kingdom.  It has to be sown and when it is different, results follow based on the kind of soil on which the seed lands. The unstated great truth is that we, as people with a…