BE CAREFUL ABOUT ASKING GOD FOR A SIGN Gideon’s fleece test –– Was it narrative or normative? I believe it must be considered narrative, a true story described, yet not prescribed. It is not to be taken as normative, meaning that it does not teach a norm, or a timeless method, on how to discover
LEARNING TO FOLLOW CHRIST’S HABIT OF PRAYER On the night that Jesus would be betrayed, He went out “as usual” to the Mount of Olives to pray. On this unusual evening, Jesus followed His usual habit: He prayed on the mountain. And His disciples followed Him. Yet, rather than praying, they slept. For they were
WHEN THE LORD REPEATS YOUR NAME The Lord addressed him as, “Simon, Simon,” not as “Peter,” for he wouldn’t live up to his new God-given name, which meant “the rock,” until after Christ’s resurrection. Simon Peter tried, but in his flesh he had no power to live up to the new name Jesus had given
DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE! Have you ever heard of the “Urgent-Important Matrix?” It is a time management system made popular by Stephen Covey’s book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” The matrix teaches that every task can be placed in one of four possible quadrants: Q1) Urgent and important, Q2) Important, not urgent, Q3)
LOVE AND GIVING ARE CONNECTED As Jesus watched the people putting their gifts into the Temple offering, He offered several insights. One insight is that God sees our giving. He watches over our giving, looking to see who is generous and who is not. Another insight is that God sees the proportion of our giving.
THE DIVINITY AND PREEXISTENCE OF CHRIST Jesus asked the Jewish leaders this question not to suggest that the Messiah wouldn’t be born into the line of David, but rather to show them that he would be the Son of God. It was a well known doctrine among the Jews that the Messiah would be born
SILENT AND AMAZED AT JESUS The Jewish leaders sent spies to entrap Jesus with what they thought was an unanswerable question. They asked Jesus, “Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” They had carefully crafted the politically charged question, so that if he answered in the positive, he would offend
HEART SICK FOR HEAVEN Having to wait for any expected good certainly affects our attitude. In this sense, the writer of this proverb accurately observed the growing despondency of the heart that waits unfulfilled. Yet, it is even more intense in the spiritual longing that we have for God. It was in this spiritual sense
HAS SALVATION COME TO YOUR HOUSE? On his way up to Jerusalem Jesus stopped in Jericho. He ate at a tax collector’s house named, Zacchaeus. Now Zacchaeus was short of stature and had climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus over the crowds following Him. But Jesus knew he was there and called him
THE CURRENCY OF THE KINGDOM IS ASKING When a blind man begging on the roadside near Jericho heard that Jesus was passing by, he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” When Jesus heard him, he commanded that the blind man be brought to Him. Jesus asked, “What do you want Me