To Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus, the angel had this to say about the Virgin Mary’s Son: “And you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). There you have it. That’s a clear and concise summary of Jesus’ work as Savior. He rescues and frees us […]
James 1:17-27: Be Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak
September 2, 2012 by
“Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” But before you can be a doer, you have to be a hearer. And so James would have us consider our hearing of the Word this morning, and our speaking, and our doing. The Word of God goes in, and the Word of God […]
Ephesians 5:22-33; John 2:1-11: The Church as the Bride of Christ
August 26, 2012 by
Who, are what, is more significant, Christ or the Church? Who is to have the greater glory and honor? I know that’s a trick question. For if you are to honor Christ, you are also to honor His Bride, the Church. And when you honor His Church, you also honor the head of the Church, […]
John 6:51-69: Taking in the Real Jesus
August 19, 2012 by
Jesus preaches a Word that is hard for His followers to hear. His followers are now a large crowd. They were the same group of 5,000 that Jesus had fed with five loaves and two fish. And they loved the Jesus who fed them with free food. They loved Jesus as their bread king. They […]
Get Up and Eat: 1 Kings 19:1-8
August 12, 2012 by
“Get up and eat”: that was the buzzing alarm clock that awakened the Prophet Elijah as he slept under a broom tree. He had just come back from the magnificent victory at Mt. Carmel, where fire blazed down from heaven, and 450 prophets of Baal were put to the sword. What a heroic day for […]
Jesus, the Bread of Life: John 6:22-35
August 5, 2012 by
Feeding the crowd of 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish was an enormous crowd-pleaser. Getting free food had so enthralled the crowd that they wanted to make Jesus their bread king–by force, if needed! So, Jesus withdrew to a mountain to slip away from their plots and schemes. His disciples left by […]
Christian Suffering: Ephesians 3:13-21
July 29, 2012 by
Times exist in the life of every Christian where it seems that sorrow will overwhelm the life of faith. Perhaps, death has visited and laid you low. Now, we know from Scripture that we’re not supposed to base our faith on our feelings. For our feelings change from day and day and can even deceive […]
Mary Magdalene
July 22, 2012 by
The Christian Faith operates from a worldview that we honor the saints of old. You can’t read through any significant part of the Bible without hearing the refrain, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” To know their God means you need to know those Old Testament saints and their stories. The great faith chapter […]
Ephesians 1:3-14: Predestination
July 15, 2012 by
Today, we hear about a difficult truth in Scripture: Predestination. Predestination is God choosing someone for salvation, even before He created the world. At first blush, that’s sound crazy, doesn’t it? And so, to learn God’s truths about predestination, we must bind our human reason and let God’s divine Word shape our understanding. For if […]
2 Samuel 12:11-25: Prayer as the First Resort
July 1, 2012 by
You’re forgiven. So, now what; what do you do now? That’ worth asking, for the Christian life doesn’t end with forgiveness. That’s where it begins. So, what do you do now? And so we ponder our Old Testament reading. But that reading begins where we usually end the story of King David and Bathsheba. Earlier, […]
