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Do you recall the account of Moses placing the tablets of the Law into the Ark of the Covenant? The Law can seem so different from the society we have today, what with all the washings and sacrifices and ceremonies. But all of it points to Jesus, so all of…
You know that verse that says to seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God? I realized today that it never tells you to seek justice. It tells you to do justice and to act in a just manner. Look it up in your preferred translation! I’ll be…
Israel, or rather the idea of Israel, has become an idol to some and a fulcrum to many more. The hatred of any people group absent their collective actions is sinful. The blind veneration of any people group is equally sinful. Jesus made it extremely clear that He is the…
John 11 is a chapter that really shows the heart of Jesus. Mary and Martha were close with Jesus and they had a brother named Lazarus. Lazarus was gravely ill and I find the statement starting at verse five to be extremely profound. “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and…
In John Chapter nine, Jesus heals a man born blind. His disciples asked the question of why this man had been born deficient in the way they had been taught. It was an aspect of the fall. Ever since Adam fell, his progeny was predisposed to error and disease. A…
My birthday is a couple weeks away and I’ve asked for this set. My plan is to fill in every OT reference in the NT, and then return the favor adding NT references in the OT. This will be a rough draft document, meant to be transferred to my daily…
In John 8, Jesus offers the next of His “I Am” statements. I would be remiss if I never included in this series that God has a long history of revealing Himself in ways that we weren’t expecting. When God appeared to Moses in a burning bush and Moses asked…
The book of John is highlighted by seven “I Am” statements. The first of these is today’s topic. To set the table, pun intended, the Jews were confronting Jesus, asking for a sign that He was speaking for God. Jesus responded that they merely wanted a meal, as the feeding…
The Pharisees and scribes aren’t the only people Jesus encountered who were stunted by a literalism that obstructed their understanding of the kingdom of God. The Samaritans were also encumbered by such interpretations. I won’t get too deep into the Samaritan/Jewish divide here, and I will be trimming the text…
Allow me a moment to soapbox here. It is my understanding that the discussion between Jesus and Nicodemus takes place between verses 1 and 15, which everything after that being John’s commentary of what just happened. Does this mean that I believe John 3:16-17 ought to be in black lettering?…