God has so arranged it that the natural and spiritual work parallel to each other. With the people of Israel being very familiar with the process of agriculture and livestock, Jesus often used parables from these to teach the spiritual truths of the kingdom of God. In Mark 4:26-29 He speaks of one scattering or […]
Another parable of Jesus is recorded in Luke 14:16-24 where He tells the story of a host that was giving a great banquet; the custom was that the invitations would be sent out in advance and when the feast was ready a notice would be sent out. His friends had received the invitation, apparently accepted […]
Samaritan’s were a mixed race; they also had a corrupted form of religion. They and the Jews usually did not have good relationships with each other, and there was often a spirit of hatred and hostility manifested between them, leading the woman in John 4:9 to say “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” But Jesus […]
As He often did Jesus uses an agricultural setting to teach about the kingdom of God; in Luke 13:6-9 He tells the story of a man that had a vineyard and planted a fig tree in it, expecting it to produce fruit; however after returning to it season after season and finding no fruit he […]
In Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus uses the metaphor of light to describe the influence His children, who through Him are “…no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints and members of the household of God” Ephesians 2:19, would have in this world. Back in Matthew 5:14 He said “You are the light of the […]
Psalm 34:18-22 is teeming with God’s truth of which we can only touch briefly in a short meditation. It begins by saying “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart…” which means your inner being, your feelings and intellect become crushed and broken; then it goes on saying, “…And saves such as […]
The first of Peter was written by this Apostle to first century Christians living in various places of Asia Minor and suffering rejection by the world around them, they were grieved or distressed by various trials which likely included persecution, etc. because they were followers of Christ. Following Christ is not always an easy road […]
We read about this “living hope” in 1 Peter 1:3-5. What is living hope? It is hope with assurance that its object will come to pass without question; it is a confidence that its end is absolutely certain! It is God’s guarantee to us that He will give us “a future and a hope”, or […]
As we approach the end of one year and the beginning of a new I am reminded of Jesus words in Revelation 22:13, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” He is like the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet which “bookends” everything […]
It is almost beyond our human comprehension that the Co-Creator of the entire universe would become an implanted seed, leaving the riches of heaven and be born of a woman into the poverty of fallen humanity; but “though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor…” 2 Corinthians 8:9. He was born in […]