The King's Banquet

During this week around 2,000 years ago in Palestine, Jesus arrived in Jerusalem and began teaching quite openly about the kingdom of God or heaven.  More particularly, Jesus taught on who and how to enter the kingdom of heaven, and his teaching encouraged the poor and downcast and unnerved the religious leaders.  One of his public speeches included a parable about a king giving a wedding feast for his servant.  In Matthew 22:1-14, his audience included both followers and opponents, as well as a general crowd made up of curious Jews.  In the parable the kingdom of heaven is compared to a feast that is ready to be attended and enjoyed.  However, the guests not only rejected the invitation summons, they beat and killed the king's messengers.  Thus, the king sent the messengers to all the commoners that could be found to fill his hall with guests. 

Becoming an Israelite Secret Agent

Read: Joshua 2

Background: When the Israelites first prepared to enter the land of Canaan, promised to them by the LORD God, Moses sent 12 spies into the land to map it out, determine the best routes for invasion, and bring back some of the fruit of the land to encourage the people (Num 13).  The men chosen to spy out the land were leaders, men of courage and cunning, some of the best in Israel, including Caleb from Judah and Joshua from Ephraim.  After forty successful days of spying out the land, the expedition of secret agents returned. 

Be Strong and Courageous

When the Israelites were about to say goodbye to Moses before he died, and about to have a second opportunity to enter the promised land of Canaan, God and Moses spoke to them and particularly to Joshua to tell him to face the difficult road ahead with strength and courage.

Weakness, Temptation, and Sin

"For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin," (Heb 4:15).

Have you ever taken the time when reading a familiar verse like this to slow down long enough to marvel and to learn?  I am convicted that many times I read so fast I am not opening my heart and mind to the Spirit's work.  From a passage like this, He pricked my mind to wonder, "what is the relationship between weakness, temptation, and sin?".  What follows is a bit raw, but I hope both candid and helpful.  Men, this one is aimed at us.  Women, if you read it, please pray about how to help your husbands and/or Christian men fight temptation.

Leaving Egypt

Does life ever feel like a tough journey through a desert?  Biblically, the Israelites' 40-year journey through the wilderness provides a rich analogy for the kind of life to which a Christian is called.  John Bunyan employed the image vividly in Pilgrim's Progress, a book he wrote while in jail making an allegory of the Christian life's journey from salvation to the gates of Heaven.  What if the Christian life is like a journey leaving Egypt, the Country of Sin, walking through the Desert of Life, and coming home to the Promised Land of Heaven with Jesus?  The link below is a brief sketch of what the allegory played out might be like: Click Here.

Thank you to Dr. Peter Gentry for teaching me that it is easier to get the Israelites out of Egypt than it is to get the Egypt out of the Israelites.  Thank you, too, to Pastor Bill Winton for teaching me that far too many times Christians try to return to Sin Town.

Why Become Human?

God the Father sent God the Son to be born as a human child.  The Son left the beauty and splendor of heaven for the harshness and danger of earth.  Why would God the Father subject Jesus, His Son to pain and suffering?  How does the humanity of Christ affect my daily life and my eternity?  These questions led to the attached article "Becoming Human to Kill Death by Death."

It is based on Hebrews 2:14, "Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil."

Accountability Partners for True Friendship

What does having a true friendship look like?  Or, to ask it another way, how do you know when you have a really solid friendship?  Also, what picture does the Bible paint of true friendship?  These questions led me to some self-analysis and personal Bible study.  The product is a conviction that God intends to bless men and women with true friendships that are based on wanting God's best for each other.