Tag Archives: Gospels

Woe to the Scribes Part 2 – Killed the Prophets and Apostles

Luke 11:47-51 – Jesus Rebukes the Scribes Opening Thoughts: I want to open up tonight by talking about the “180 Movie”, I find that it goes hand in hand with my text. First of all if you have not watched 180movie.com I encourage you to do so as soon as you’re through reading this post. In 180 Movie Ray Comfort interviews several people in regard to the holocaust. One question he asks people is “Do you think that Hitler was a bad guy or a good guy?” Most of the people answered “bad guy”, after all it’s not rocket science to agree with that statement right? Most of the people interviewed saw the holocaust as horrific and felt that even the common people who were brainwashed by Hitler into thinking Jews were not humans were just as guilty as he was. Many of them said that if they had been there and […]

The Bloody Gospel

Matthew 27: 27-31 – Jesus is Flogged and Mocked A Brief Summary of My Testimony A thought crossed my mind once when I was looking at the Christian Movie Review site PluggedIn.com, “Am I willing to watch a movie that contains content that Jesus was punched in the face for, spat upon for, and flogged for?” My answer today is an emphatic “NO”, but at the time, believe it or not, I felt disturbed by the thought but quickly pushed it out of my head so that I wouldn’t feel guilty about a particular movie I wanted to watch. I went to church, called myself a Christian, was involved in leadership, and had even spoken out against such entertainment when teaching at youth events. Something was wrong on the inside of me though, it was a cold, dead heart. I loved church, I loved my Christian friends, I loved an […]

Woe to You Scribes Part 1 – Practice What You Preach

Come to Me, All You Who Are Weary and Burdened Opening Thoughts: Why are roses triple the price on Valentine’s Day, and why are hotels double the price on special holidays? I’m pretty sure it’s because there is an increased need for these products and services in which retailers see an opportunity to cash in on the demand during those times. Those weary family’s need a place to rest on their long journey home for Christmas, and that husband cannot go home without flowers in hand. Even without the price hike on a room a hotel may already be a financial burden for a travelling family on a budget, yet retailers take advantage of these times when legitimate needs are increased at an exponential rate and they add to the weight of an already heavy burden. In this post we will examine how this similarly relates to the Pharisees and Scribes (Lawyers) and how they added to and […]

Quit Fighting the Sovereign Will of God

The First Fruits of Our Day I want to just take a moment at the beginning tonight and share a bit about what mine and Shane’s evenings look like once we put the kids to bed. We like to put our kids to bed early so that we can have time to spend together, and more importantly time to spend with our Lord. As soon as the kids are tucked in and their door is closed we try our best to get our Bible’s open right away and to begin reading and studying from wherever we left off the night before. Our goal right now is to read and study a new passage one night, then study it further and blog it out the next night. After spending anywhere from 1.5-2 hrs (sometimes longer) doing our devotions we share with each other what we’ve discovered and learned and talk it […]

Jesus Hates False Religion and Even Called People Names

Woe to You Pharisees Part 3 – Unmarked Graves and White-washed Tombs Opening Thoughts: When I was in high school someone played a trick on me, they grabbed a quarter and placed it on a white piece of paper, then they took a pencil and drew around the quarter with the pencil making a nice quarter size circle. They then told me that I was to place the quarter in one of my eye sockets and squeeze down on it to hold it there, while at the same time looking at the paper with my other eye, and with my face over the circle I was to try and drop the quarter into the hole perfectly. I was told it could be done and there were people out there who had been able to do it. Of course each time I tried I missed the circle and every time I missed […]

Woe to You Pharisees Part 2 – Taking the Best Seat

Luke 11:43 Opening Thoughts: What’s the first thing that you think about when you see a sign that reads “Beware of Dog”? My first thought is “keep walking” maybe even run! People post signs like that because they are trying to protect their stuff, themselves and their homes from being broken into. The “beware of dog” sign will keep away anyone who values life. Although my main text comes from Luke tonight I wanted to direct your attention to Mark as well. In Luke Jesus is addressing the Scribes and Pharisees directly and in Mark He’s addressing the people about the scribes, their teachers. These leaders were all the Jews had ever known, they are the teachers that they went to for advice and council, they were taught by them and now out of the blue Jesus is telling them to ‘Beware of the scribes’. He was trying to ward people away from […]

Judas Changed His Mind

“I’m going to Change my Heart and Obey now” I have often marveled at how God teaches me about myself and my relationship with him through my son. The day after Max was born I lay in my hospital bed staring at his tiny frame in the bassinet beside me and I felt like I caught a glimpse of how Jesus was able to die for me. I hardly knew this little person yet, but I knew I would die for him that instant if necessary. Then when he was about three years old my husband, Shane, was trying to vacuum our living room and Max insisted on “helping”. He could barely hold the vacuum cleaner by himself, but as he struggled away I realized that just as we did not need Max’s help to vacuum (in fact it kind of slowed the cleaning process down) but we wanted him […]

Fools and Their Traditions

Hand Washing Rituals – Luke 11:37-41 Opening Thoughts: I’m going to start tonight by saying that Danae and I appreciate all of you that have been reading our material and posting your wonderful comments. It is encouraging to hear someone say, “What you wrote really spoke to me and has caused me to study the Word more”. What we hope not to hear is, “This is great, now I can just read your blogs and forget about reading my Bible!” Isn’t this what has actually happened in much of our church culture these days? We read books, articles, blogs, Twitter updates, Facebook Status updates and more, yet so many people don’t actually read their own Bibles. In many ways we’ve become more like cult followers rather than Christian Disciples. We have people read our Bibles to us and shed their opinions, then we can either agree or disagree according to […]

Woe to You Pharisees Part 1 – Tithing

Luke 11:41 – Woe to You Opening Thoughts: Have you ever been in the situation where you have been invited over to someones house for dinner and there is ongoing friction between you? Is it hard to enjoy yourself or even keep your cool for that matter? Let’s see what Jesus does. For those of you who are reading in for the first time I will set a bit of a background to the text. Jesus was invited to one of the Pharisees homes to eat. However He quickly stirred up a hornets nest when he failed to follow the traditions of men by way of ceremonial hand washing. Jesus purposely stirred things up so that He could point out areas of hypocrisy, how’s that for a meal with Jesus? Once the ice has been broken Jesus begins to pronounce woes on them along with revealing their sin. Luke 11:42 […]

How Great is the Darkness?

If the Light in You is Darkness – Luke 11:33-36 Opening Thoughts: About 14 years ago my brother-in-law was new to our family, he moved to our town from up north. One day we were out at a restaurant eating nachos and he asked me which ones were the jalapenos and which ones were the olives. He knew that jalapenos were hot and he didn’t like hot food. He hadn’t eaten either before and didn’t have a clue what was what. So, like a good brother-in-law, I told him that the green ones with seeds were the olives and the black ones were the jalapenos and that he should stay away from those. He then proceeded to fill his mouth with what he thought were olives but turned out to be the dreaded jalapenos. His eyes were soon opened to the truth and he would be sure to never make […]