Blog Posts containing "John 13:34"

Jesus was sharing with the sinners and tax collectors. They all drew near to hear Him. The Pharisees were off in a distance grumbling about Him. Jesus tells the three parables. Literal thinking sees the point of the parables is show the Love Jesus has for sinners. What was the real meaning of His parables? You have a lost sheep and the shepherd leaves the righteous ninety and nine to search other for the lost sheep. A woman loses her dowry. She may not be able to be married if she does not find the coin. She finds the lost coin and rejoices. Literally, we would think this was about the joy of having sinners repent. Wasn’t that what Jesus was supposed to be working with?  Read more

Jesus challenged the difference the heart makes between the struggle of trying to literally justify the phrase in the head and the ease of understanding it gracefully. He keeps using His graceful language so that the literal mind will be so frustrated that it might suddenly shift and “come to itself” as the Prodigal Son did in the pig pen. (Luke 15:17 ESV)  Read more

“Be Humble,” is an interesting command. Did you ever try to do it? Jesus says, “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” If you faked your humbleness by sitting at the end of the table, would you be exalted?  Read more

Jesus didn’t have the right to heal this woman just because it was the right thing to do. It was not. It broke the law. The rabbi had the right and duty to quote the Law, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work. Why don’t you come back on a non Sabbath day and do your healing? Why pick on this sacred day to break the Fourth Commandment? Jesus had the right to heal on the Sabbath because He was because He was God. He had the authority to break this Commandment and any others He wished to break. As a matter of fact, He did not break any laws; He changed all of the Commandments and all the Laws and the Prophets.  Read more

The question of biblical authority is ultimately a question of Christology. What we believe about Jesus will ultimately determine what we believe about the Bible. There are two ways of discerning what we believe about Jesus in Scripture. We can come in with our minds made up about the Bible being the Word of God, or we can believe Jesus is the Word of God. If we believe the Bible is the Word of God than Jesus must fit into our concept of who the Bible says He is. If we believe Jesus is the Word of God then the Bible must fit into what He says it is.  Read more

In today’s Scripture, Jesus tells us not to “be afraid for God has given us His Kingdom”, which is His Presence within us. We are told to sell all our possessions. Literally, we think of selling the material things we possess. Let us get beyond the literal thinking of material things to the things we possess spiritually. They are much more significant.  Read more

Today’s lesson is an excellent illustration of Jesus' way of grace. The teaching is to know the difference being in or out of His Presence can make. Here are two brothers who are out of the Presence. They have become angry, greedy and bitter. Why did Jesus not give fair judgment to the two brothers? The answer was to either change the inheritance or not change it. Regardless of which was chosen, one would be happy and the other would remain a bitter, angry victim the rest of their life. So why did he answer the way he did?  Read more

There is a difference between prayer and praying. His disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” He said, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name.” Legalism teaches us to pray the Lord’s prayer to get into God’s Presence. Grace teaches “to pray” means to get into the Presence of God before praying. Praying for Jesus was to be in God’s Presence first. Legalistic preaching admits nothing, denies everything and makes counter-accusations because ranting gets raves.  Read more

This the well known story of Jesus visit to the sisters, Martha and Mary. Mary sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. Martha complained to Jesus to tell Mary to come in and help her. Well it was not exactly like that. She had to get her guilt trip in on Him as well. "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." Legalism looks at what Martha was griping about. Grace looks not about what Martha said but how she said it. The difference between legalism and grace is that legalism has to make sense!   Read more

The story of the Good Samaritan is one of those parables that create a distraction. We go down the road most traveled because everyone else has done the same. We miss the road less traveled because we do not have the directions of grace. In this section of scripture, the question, answer and parable of Jesus are the most misunderstood and ignored lesson in the entire Bible by most Christians. The question is not: “Who is my neighbor?” The question is: “Who will inherit eternal life?”  Read more