Blog Posts containing "Pharisees"

Background: Following Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem He goes to the Temple where they are selling sacrificial animals and changing money. He casts them out and cleanses the Temple. The very next day He is back teaching in the same temple. The religious leaders are furious with Him. He has set His death. It is only a matter of time. They have their man. They need the evidence. They are here to trap Him.  Read more

John 9:1-41 “Open wide the eyes of my soul.” John got grace. Now, all of us got grace in the eyes of the Lord. Our issue is to let grace get us. John got grace spiritually. He also “got” grace rationally; that is, he understood the difference being in or out of grace makes in our life by moving from the rational physical to the conscious spiritual. This chapter is one of the best of his exercises. It is tricky in that for the first thirty nine verses we are talking about physical blindness, then in the last three verses he jumps into writing about spiritual blindness. The purpose is to find out if the reader can make the shift. It is good practice to see if you can get the Grace.  Read more

“Then came to Him certain of the Sadducees who deny that there is any resurrection” What we are thinking is irrelevant. How we are thinking is relevant. The lesson today is an example of the fact that literal thinking trying to get rational answers to spiritual questions is irrelevant. Only spiritual thinking can get grace answers concerning spiritual questions.  Read more

We need to be clear that Jesus loved being Jesus in this world. He loved all people unconditionally in the Love of the Father. Jesus enjoyed being with everyone He met. He had a Joy no one could take from Him. Some might argue that He did not have joy over His crucifixion, being tortured to death for three hours. However, St Paul hits it in Hebrews 12:2 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross.” The Joy of His Resurrection and what it would bring into the world overcame that terrible dark Friday. His Joy was not because of what happened. His Joy was beyond what happened.  Read more

We learn with Rational Thinking and discover with Spiritual Understanding. The rational studies the physical evidence that is seen to understand the spiritual meaning. The spiritual studies the unseen evidence to understand the rational meaning. An example of this is in the Scripture for this Easter week four.  Read more

It was darkness. The four figures are silhouetted against the evening background of the City's highest mountain. They are dealing in a high stakes game of life or death. Judas opens. He is known as one of the Apostles who believed Jesus to be the Anointed One, God’s Messiah, Christ the King. The belief in the Kingdom was that God would send His Messiah into Israel. The Messiah would defeat all the enemies of Israel including the hated Romans. He would restore the boundaries of King David and bring everlasting peace and prosperity to His chosen people.  Read more