Archive / Matthew’s Gospel

A Mob Sent by God

Matthew 26:47-56 K.P. Yohannan: This past Sunday my husband Shane and I visited another church so that we could listen to brother K.P. Yohannan, founder of the ministry Gospel for Asia, speak. We have heard him preach online and I’ve begun to read his book “Revolution in World Missions“, but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet him in person. He is a dear friend to our dear friends at Living Waters Ministry and so even though we had never met before we feel great love for him and we love his ministry. During the service he shared several stories of the suffering people in India, in particular. One story at the end though really wrenched my heart because it was about a five year old boy that he had seen on the front cover of a local newspaper who was photographed lying on his side on the street […]

God Plans

God doesn’t just know, He Plans – Matthew 26:20-15 God only knows? Have you ever used the phrase, “God knows”, in reference to a difficult or uncertain situation? I know that, for us anyway, we’ve said it a lot. When we’ve been in car accidents, or when something tragic happens to someone we know, or even if it’s something minor like locking our keys in the car we have often shrugged and said, “Well, God knows. He’ll take care of it.” There is nothing wrong on the surface with a statement like this, it’s just incomplete. Several months ago we decided to change our go to phrase from “God knows” to “God plans”. Of course God knows what is going on in our lives, but it doesn’t catch him off guard and it’s not a mess he has to clean up. God doesn’t just know, he plans, and he does […]

Wasted on Jesus

Matthew 26:6-13 “And the things of the earth will grow strangely dim…” When you become a follower of Jesus everything in your life becomes about the eternal. Possessions lose their luster in your sight, media of the world becomes bland in comparison with the Bible, vacations and holidays are enjoyable and nice but don’t even come close to the place you know that Jesus is preparing for you. Granted, we occasionally lose sight of these truths when we become distracted by life’s trials, but a true follower always regains his footing on the straight and narrow towards the beautiful before all is lost. “Whether fine or stormy…” Recently I started reading The Little Pilgrim’s Progress by Helen L. Taylor to my 5 year old son. I am amazed at how the story can hold his attention (he is a very active 5 year old boy), it’s always “one more chapter […]

Hidden Talent and Mistaken Identity

Misjudgment of the Master Many people have heard the parable of the talents, about how the master of a property went away and gave one, two, and five talents to three of his servants. Maybe you know essentially how the story goes, that two servants doubled the master’s money and one did nothing with what he was given? Well, that’s the foam on top of the latte but have you ever sat down and drank the whole cup? What I mean is, have you looked up close at the details of what happened to each servant and why? Let me explain to you why misjudgment of the master is the seed which produces the consequence of the third servant being called “wicked and slothful”. First of all, here is the text from Matthew 25:14-30: [The Parable of the Talents] [14] “For it will be like a man going on a […]

And the Door was Shut

The Parable of the Ten Virgins – Matthew 25:1-13 It wasn’t what I ate I had a dream last night, more of a nightmare really, that has been bothering me all day. Before I went to bed I had read Matthew 25:1-13 about the parable of the ten virgins and how the kingdom of heaven and the return of Jesus is comparable to what happened to them. Let me share what I studied in my devotions before I share my distressing dream with you. First you must read the parable, carefully, I might add: The Parable of the Ten Virgins: [25:1] “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. [2] Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. [3] For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, [4] but the wise took […]

Are you Expecting?

As of today I am 33 weeks and 5 days pregnant. I’m sorry to say I had to actually look at a calendar and figure out what week I was on to provide that information for you. We are expecting our third child, and while our excitement and love for him or her is equal to that of our first two children we are just too busy to count down the days until “the Big Day” as we did for the others. Besides, as many of you know who have children already, rarely does the precious package arrive on “the Big Day”. For most of us, we know that baby arrives precisely when he or she is ready and not a moment too soon. A few days before “the Big Day” (sometimes a few weeks before) expectant parents eagerly wait for any sign of labor. I remember with my first […]

Have you Not Read?

Figure it out For Yourself As I was driving today I saw a van in front of me with a blaring neon yellow bumper sticker (stuck to the back windshield) that read “Try Jesus”, and that was it, off they drove evangelizing to all the vehicles around them that “Hey, if nothing else works, ‘Try Jesus’.” What happens when they “Try Jesus” and then their car gets broken into, or they lose their job or worse, their child? Of course Jesus is the only solution for all mankind, but if they don’t understand that their problem is actually their sin, then they will “Try Jesus” for the wrong reasons. I’m sure the driver of that van was well-intentioned, but it pays so much to tell it all, and not just try to condense the gospel to a couple of words on a bumper sticker. Figure it out with Help from […]

A Wedding Invitation

Mr. and Mrs. LeBlanc request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their daughter Danae Joy LeBlanc to Shane Dale Martin Saturday, the 14th of July at 1:30 in the afternoon Banquet to follow Ten years ago our wedding invitation read something like this. We recently celebrated our anniversary and it just doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that we were excitedly creating a guest list, licking stamps, sealing envelopes, and mailing out our wedding invitations hoping that many of our friends and family would be eager and able to join us for what was the most important day in our lives to that point. Last night I read Matthew 22:1-14 where Jesus tells a group of religious leaders the Parable of the Wedding Feast. After I read the passage I took a deep breath and picked up my journal and pen knowing it was going […]

“Daddy Save Me!”

Sometimes as I’m reading my Bible I am hit hard by a passage of Scripture that I have read what feels like a million times before, yet this time I feel like I understand it for the first time. It’s this profound revelation that strikes my heart so deeply, then I wonder if everybody else already got it and I’m just a slow learner. Either way I am grateful for God’s patience and long suffering with me as I strive to understand the mysteries of his Word and how to apply it to my life in the way he intended. I’m currently reading in the book of Matthew. I decided to read it again after I finished 1 John last Christmas because of 1 John 2:6 which says, “..whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” I knew I needed to […]

What is the fruit of your lips?

What is your favorite thing to talk about? That one topic that when it comes up you light up and could talk for hours…. I read this passage in Matthew 12 tonight and it produced two effects in my heart: It added to my fear of the Lord and it caused me to examine the fruit of my lips; the things I talk about the most and what I am most passionate about. I am thankful that the gospel remains my favorite topic, but I noticed some rotten fruit that needed pruning as well. Careless words flow easily when we couldn’t care less, so we must take care to speak words that reflect the Word and the Inspiration of the Word if that is truly what is in our heart. Matthew 12:33-37 .. “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, […]