Living in light of eternity

When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. “I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” (Mt 17:14-21)  In Matthew chapter 17 we find the Lord using the sit...

In Luke chapter 2 we have the awe-inspiring appearance of an angel to announce the birth of the Messiah. I'm sure you are familiar with this magnificent passage: 8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  So, when this magnificent angel appears, the shepherds are terribly frightened.   Once he calms their fears, he shares what is the greatest news the heavens have ever announced to this fallen world. The sinners in this world need a Savior, and now they have one. This is extremely good news.   It is a joyous gospel for all people.     After this wo...

Throughout the writings of the Apostle Paul, we frequently find a recurring phrase, "the mystery of Christ".  To the Old Testament saint, much was shrouded in mystery. Since the coming of Christ we have much for which to be thankful.  There are several wondrous new realities for us to appreciate. So, let's explore what Paul has to say about this wondrous mystery… For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery , as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in...

  In the book of Matthew, we have two remarkably similar miracles: the feeding of the 5,000 (Mt 14:13-21) and the feeding of the 4,000 (Mt 15:32-39).   But other than the fact that Jesus multiplies the loaves and the fishes and gives the crowd enough food, there are several differences.  The 5,000 occurred near the town of Bethsaida; the 4,000 occurred along the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis. Since Decapolis was a largely Gentile region of ten cities, it could be assumed that the 5,000 was for primarily Jews, the 4,000 had many more Gentiles. The most obvious difference between the "feeding of the 5000" and the "feeding of the 4000" is the amount of food used to feed the crowd, with Jesus using five loaves and two fish to feed the 5000, while using seven loaves and a few small fish to feed the 4000; additionally, the number of baskets left over differs, with twelve baskets r...

  Since only God is holy, He is the ultimate standard of holiness.  He has given the Holy Bible to teach us about His holiness and our sinfulness- and ultimately our need for a Savior.  Admittedly, this is a hard lesson to learn, especially when you consider we have a sin sick heart (Ro 3:23) Holiness is particularly hard to understand given the deceptiveness and duplicity of our very nature (Jer 17:9-10; James 4:8; Ps 86:11)  And yet, the book of Leviticus is an instruction manual on holiness…   ‘For I am the LORD who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus y ou shall be holy, for I am holy.’  ” (Le 11:45) Leviticus is built around a simple but profound structure- "do this, don't do that."  One verse gives the clue we need for proper interpretation… The LORD then spoke to Aaron, saying, “Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you will not die—it is a pe...

  I may seem hard to believe, but the Pharisees and the Scribes actually accused Jesus and the disciples of defiling themselves.  In Matthew chapter 15 they question Him because they saw the disciples eating bread without washing their hands…   “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” (Mt 15:2)   In their man-made oral traditions, there was an instruction about handwashing.  Around 200 A.D. written down in the Mishnah.  The tractate Yadayim, discusses the rules and significance of handwashing. The Pharisees would have considered these practices essential for maintaining spiritual cleanliness and adhering to their interpretation of the Law. So they were accusing Jesus and His followers of defiling themselves by ignoring their mandates.   ‘Also if one of the animals dies which you have for food, the one who touches its carcass becomes unclean until evening. ‘He too, who eats ...

  Throughout the Bible, we are repeatedly reminded of the importance of our heart.  When using this term, it usually refers to the inner person, meaning our thoughts, emotions, intentions, and moral decisions. For example, in Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," the Lord was talking about purity in the inner man and sincerity in our relationship with God. Similarly, in Matthew 15:18-19, Jesus teaches that what comes out of the mouth reflects what is in the heart.  In this section the Pharisees are critical of the disciples because they ignored ritual washing before eating bread.  Jesus rebukes them for emphasizing external elements of manmade religion and ignoring the deeper and more important aspects of our heart before God.   With all your heart… The command to love the Lord with all your heart is found in several places in the Bible, most notably in Deuteronomy 6:5: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with al...