Tag: jesus


  • The Common Made Holy

    On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew…

  • Independence Day–Our True Freedom

    For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1) I rarely write what might be called “holiday posts,” with the exception of Thanksgiving and Christmas. With the division and chaos troubling the United States, this seemed an appropriate time to do otherwise…

  • Autonomy or Security?

    And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3) I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. (Luke 12:4) There’s been a lot of talk over the…

  • What Do We Do Now?

    For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. (Matthew 23:23) The church in America recently entered a new reality. The era of Roe is over, many say. Supporters and opponents blasted…

  • Shepherds, Sheep, and Discipleship

    “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he…

  • Living in the New Covenant

    In the last two posts, we’ve been discussing the heart of fallen man and the New Covenant as the solution. When we look at the promises of the New Covenant against the needs of fallen humanity, we see that God has given the believer everything he or she needs to live in Christ (2 Peter…

  • A Cure for the Incurable

    And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26) In the last post (An Incurable Diagnosis), we saw the condition of fallen humanity. It was a grim…

  • An Incurable Diagnosis

    “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, on the mountains in the…

  • The Armor of God

    Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this…

  • The Greatest Gift of All

    [The LORD said], “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. . . . I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have…

  • A Day of Thanksgiving–or Anxiety?

    Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will…

  • God’s Path or Man’s Party

    And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say…

  • In January 2019, I wrote a post that was triggered by New York’s abortion law that legalizes abortion up to 24 weeks (see “The Slaughter of the Innocents: Then and Now”). A year and a half later, I find it necessary to revisit this issue–this time to talk about a law and its implications on…

  • The Mind of Christ

    Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort provided by love, any fellowship in the Spirit, any affection or mercy, complete my joy and be of the same mind, by having the same love, being united in spirit, and having one purpose. Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of…

  • On the Road with Jesus: The Cost of Devotion, the Price of Forgiveness

    We’re continuing our journey with Jesus and His disciples in Luke’s gospel. In this post, we’ll look at what it cost some to follow Jesus. Now one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. Then when a woman…

  • On the Road with Jesus: Out of Time, Out of Hope?

    We’re continuing our journey with Jesus and His disciples in Luke’s gospel. Today, we’re going to look at what happens when one begin to lose hope. John’s disciples informed him about all these things. So John called two of his disciples and sent them to Jesus to ask, “Are you the one who is to…

  • On the Road with Jesus: Living in the Kingdom (Pt. 2)

    We’re continuing our journey with Jesus and His disciples in Luke’s gospel. Today, we’ll finish our discussion of Luke 6 by looking at the second half of Luke 6:17-49. There we read: [Jesus said,] “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you…

  • On the Road with Jesus: Living in the Kingdom (Pt. 1)

    We’re continuing our journey with Jesus and His disciples in Luke’s gospel. Today, we’re going to look at the first half of Luke 6:17-49. There we read: Then [Jesus] came down with them and stood on a level place. And a large number of his disciples had gathered along with a vast multitude from all…

  • On the Road with Jesus: Food, Healing, and the Sabbath

    We’ve seen so far that Jesus was not what the people of Israel expected in a Messiah. He talked about being sent to the Gentiles after all! Now, we’re going to see that Jesus wasn’t quite the “observant Jew” that the Pharisees thought He should be. On a Sabbath, while he was going through the…

  • On the Road with Jesus: They Knew Him When

    Starting today, we are embarking on a journey with Jesus. We’ll look at some of the scenes from Luke’s gospel, highlighting times that Jesus is said to be travelling. We’re going to start with the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, after His baptism and temptation. They Knew Him When And Jesus returned [from being tempted…

  • But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you…

  • Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart…

  • How Then Shall We Live? (Pt. 5)

    In this post, our final post in this series, we are continuing our discussion of spiritual transformation and growth. Specifically, we are going to look at the real keys to our role in transformation. In the last post, we mentioned a passage that talks about these keys. Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by…

  • How Then Shall We Live? (Pt. 4)

    In our last post, continuing our discussion of how we are to live in light of the New Covenant, we said that we are to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in transforming us into Christ’s image. To do that, we are to walk according to the Spirit, not according to the Spirit. We then fleshed…

  • How Then Shall We Live? (Pt. 3)

    In our last post we talked a little about what it means to be holy and to grow in Christ. We said that holiness is a work of God with which we cooperate in His transforming us into the image of Christ (His image). It is primarily focused on the inner thoughts and attitudes, and…