Tag Archives: studying the bible

The Pharisees, Leavened Bread and Jesus

Luke 12:1-4 – The Pharisees and Leavened Bread Opening Thoughts: You know that smell of delicious home-made bread, the smell that can make a full person hungry all over again? I remember when I was a kid and my mom would pull a fresh batch of bread out of the oven, all golden brown on the top, once us kids caught a whiff of it the begging began. Mom usually had plans for it, but that didn’t matter to us we wanted it while it was still hot, I can almost taste it now. Turns out that the stuff that makes it all soft and fluffy is called yeast and consequently it isn’t that good for you. In fact as I learned a few years ago, there’s a type of yeast (candida) that grows very quickly in your stomach when a person is on antibiotics, or for people who feed on a lot of simple sugar. This type of […]

The Lamb, the Curtain, and the Cross

Jonah It’s interesting how most of the stories in the Old Testament have been deemed children’s stories by the world and the church alike. Of course, those of us in the church would say that we absolutely believe that those stories are true, but honestly when you think of the Story of Jonah (a.k.a. “Jonah and the Whale”) do you see something like this, In actuality, can you envision sinking down into the dark depths of the ocean after being cast overboard into the most violent storm imaginable, and seaweed coiling around your head, unable to breathe, and hearing the sound of a massive fish (maybe a whale) descending upon you with an open mouth? What happened to Jonah was significant for his time but also was ordained by God as an illustration of what would happen to Jesus. Jesus was buried in the earth for three days (just as […]

Deceptive Traps

Pharisees and Scribes set Traps for Jesus – Luke 11:53-54 Opening Thoughts: After several months in Luke 11 I am finally closing this chapter. The Bible is so packed with information that is so easily missed if we simply treat it like some type of daily duty, spending 30 minutes slamming through our four chapters, simply to make it through our “Bible in a Year” program. I’m not entirely dissin’ the Bible in a year idea, but if we are not stewardly with our time spent in God’s Word, we incur the risk of coming to false conclusions, getting caught in traps set for us, and ultimately we take the chance of misunderstanding the Gospel all together. Instead we can end up mistaking it for more of a self help guide for “your best life now road map, with a twist of see you at the top because I’m a kingdom child” attitude, rather than a […]

The Agonizing Will of God and our Sanctification

When Pain Paves the Way for Salvation: Several years ago I sat and wept as I listened to Pastor Bill Wilson of Metro Ministries share his testimony, and the stories of the many children they serve through his “Sunday School church” in Brooklyn, New York and around the world. As a child, Bill Wilson was abandoned by his mother on the streets of New York. One day, as they walked down the street together, she instructed him to sit down on the curb and wait for her to return. He sat and waited for three days and she never came back. A Christian man noticed Bill alone and stopped to find out if he was okay. He picked him up, brought him home, and paid his way to a Christian summer camp where Bill heard the gospel and was saved by God’s grace. He now runs Metro Ministries which serves […]

Woe to You Scribes Part 3 – The Scribes Prescribe the Wrong Key

Luke 11:52 – The Scribes and the Key of Knowledge The Wrong Key: Recently I locked myself out of an office space and when I went to retrieve the key they gave me something that resembled a rats nest wrapped around a ring. There were literally a couple dozen keys on there. Since the building owners hadn’t used the internal keys for a couple of years it was my job was to go upstairs and try every single key in the door. Long story short, I tried all the keys and not a single one worked. What’s even worse than having keys that won’t fit into the key slot, is finding one that seems to fit but when you turn it the door won’t open. Regardless of whether it fits in the door or not, if it doesn’t open it you either have the wrong key or wrong door. In Luke 11:52 we find ourselves listening to Jesus as he […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Ask, Seek, Knock – Luke 11:9-13

Knock and it will be opened – Luke 11:9-13 Opening Thoughts: Many of you that are following our blog will notice that we have attempted to be faithful to our daily posts but have come up seriously short this past little while. Our desire is to blog daily but good intentions are often interrupted by the most wonderful things in the world “children”. We have 3 wonderful kids and I can’t imagine life without them, but these little people are many times why we don’t get around to blogging. Their regular bedtime is 7pm and by the time we close the door to their room it’s often 7:30. Then there’s the “Mommy & Daddy, can I have a drink?” questions…. or the “I have to use the bathroom!” requests. Being a parent is super tough, there has to be a limit right? I mean by the 4th request for a […]