Daily Meditations on the Bible / We stand with Israel
The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.
Summary: “Go along to get along” is a well-known saying. It means we should compromise our beliefs if that helps us “get along” with others. Things were no different in Paul’s day.
Continue reading “Galatians 6:12c – Going Along”For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
Summary: This is awkward! I just realized that I had skipped over Galatians 3:18. Don’t ask me why because you’ll just get a long list of excuses. So here we are for the first time I can remember, tackling a passage out of order.
Continue reading “Galatians 3:18 – Promises, Eggs, & Chickens”And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Summary: At first glance, this passage in the Lord’s Prayer looks simple and unassuming. Looking closer, we find that it masks a dark reality.
Continue reading “Matthew 6:12 – The Way to Heaven”You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.
Summary: Faith is not a matter of blinding following the person in front of you. Our faith, Christianity, is a matter of logic and reason in a well-documented event that occurred two thousand years ago.
Continue reading “Luke 1:31 – They Called Him Jesus”
Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
Who do you place your hope in? Jesus Christ or God the Father?
It is an interesting question, isn’t it? Is there a difference? Well, yes. Jesus prayed to his Father in heaven. On occasion, God spoke to his Son. Then, of course, Jesus taught his disciples that, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9 b)
Peter provides us with a very interesting logical construct.
Continue reading “1 Peter 1:21 — Logic”
Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”
On the surface, this statement might seem a bit nonsensical. After all, if Jesus knew what was going to happen then why did he have to ask, “Who is it you want?” In a mystery story, the universal clue is almost always about who benefits from what happened. Using that logic, let’s ask the question who benefits from Jesus asking, “Who is it you want?”
The first thing I see is that it focuses on the mind of the soldiers on their mission. As we see in the various descriptions of Jesus being tortured at the hands of the Roman soldiers, they are very capable of gratuitous violence. The second thing I see is that it draws attention away from Jesus’ disciples. It is a little bit like the scene in Star Wars where Obi-Wan Kenobi protects Luke and the droids from the evil Empire by his use of the Jedi mind trick: “These are not the droids you a looking for…”
As God Jesus has unlimited power. He created the world and presumably he could end it. Yet had he done so, you and I would never have had an opportunity to experience God’s love. Jesus needs to buy us back from sin and free us from condemnation. The price of purchasing our soul for God is Jesus’ death on the cross. So instead of wiping out the soldiers who have come for him, he distracts them from hurting his disciples by asking, “Who is it you want?”
Food for Thought: What does it say about Jesus that he would put himself between his disciples and the attackers?
Please click “Continue Reading” for comments.
Continue reading “Distractions – John 18: 4”
“We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” The man answered,’’Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing’’
Do you remember who is speaking here? This was a poor blind man begging beside the road when Jesus found him. When asked why he was born blind, Jesus replied, “… so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
Continue reading “Logic – John 9: 29-33”