Posts from 2022 (Page 7)

Posts from 2022 (Page 7)

“the least of these”

          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…

“Live Like Jesus”

  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,…

“The Great Commandment”

  “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…

“Humble Yourself”

             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…

“What kind of Soil Are You?”

  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…

“Not Peace, but a Sword”

    Jesus’ words of comfort to all, end Matthew, chapter 11,  “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” An array of circumstances for disciples fill these chapters.  Chapter 10 begins with Jesus giving miraculous power to his chosen disciples as they were sent out to preach.  But the circumstances of life for them and for all disciples is often complicated because His message is not received by all with…

“Miracles”

  These two chapters record an array of miracles performed by Jesus including cleansing a leper, healing a centurion’s paralyzed servant, Peter’s mother-in-law, casting out demons, subduing instantly the wind and waves that created a tempest on the sea, making blind men see and a man who was mute to speak.  But the pinnacle of His work recorded here is a girl restored to life.  A summary statement about all these compassionate acts of Jesus is found in verses 16…

“The Beatitudes”

  This passage contains the famous “Sermon on the Mount” spoken by Jesus.  But we have to go back to Matthew 4:23-25 to see who the crowd is to whom Jesus preached.  They are the “multitudes” who had heard about the “healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.”  They all either need a miracle of healing themselves or know someone who does for whom nothing else has worked.  They may even have carried someone…

“The Family of God”

  This amazing opening to the New Testament contains so many important things!  We are familiar with most of them.  But if there is a part of this beginning to the gospel we pay the least amount of attention to, it is surely the very first part of it, the geneaologies.  Closer examination of these and those in Mark’s gospel show that Matthew was establishing the legal ancestry of Jesus and Mark his bloodline.  That is consistent with what is…

“Giving God Our Scraps”

                  “Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.” — Malachi 1:8                 God is our greatest authority. We would not give our earthly authorities our scraps. Yet so ­often we offer God the leftover portions of our time, money, energy, thought, and emotion. He gets the scraps and rejects—just as the Israelites were offering the worst of their animals in sacrifice. It must have been a…

“A Glimpse”

  DISCUSSION                                                                                                                   Again, we find ourselves among the prophesies of Zechariah to God’s people. Chapters 1-8 record visions prophesying the eventual internment of God’s people to the Babylonians.  In chapters 9-14 Zechariah gives us a glimpse of the kingdom that will never be destroyed as Daniel prophesied about in Daniel chapter 2. The messianic kingdom will be led by a king riding…

“Dreams”

  DISCUSSION                                                                                          Reading Zechariah is a wild ride. Like life it is not always linear. The flow of thought is hard to follow, but the theme remains the same throughout.  Life doesn’t fit into neat orderly patterns. Zechariah asks us to look above the chaos and hope for the coming kingdom, which will motivate faithfulness in the present. Zechariah is divided into two main parts, chapters 1-8 and then 9-14.  In…