Anna was an elderly widow. Her husband had passed away while they were still young, and she had spent the rest of her life in the temple, serving God, in His presence, knowing Him ever more intimately. When she saw the young couple enter the temple to dedicate their infant…
“Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship.” True? or not true? I read something recently by someone who considers this statement one of his “pet peeves.” He said it is a “false dichotomy.” He went on to say, “Religion simply means adherence to a set of teachings. In John…
Thankfulness is the language of the Kingdom. It opens our heart to receive God’s grace for whatever trial, test or temptation we are facing. It expresses our faith, and at the same time opens our heart for the building up of our faith.
One of the first things we need to realize is that the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, are ours. Rather, spiritually, we participate or take part in, and receive the benefits, of His dying, burial and conquering death by rising to life again. Dallas Willard in his book, Divine…
Religious activities, like giving to the poor (Mt 6:2-4), prayer (vv. 5-8), and fasting (vv. 16-18), are not for public spectacle. That’s how they become “religious.” They are meant to be spiritual activities, between you and God. They are meant to honor and show love for the heavenly Father. “Our…
How can rational, 21st century man embrace a religion founded some 2,000 years ago? I’m sorry, but how can he not? How can he not realize that although man is building and discovering and accomplishing amazing things, man has not changed. He is still brutal, manipulative, self-centered, and downright ugly…
In case you are wondering, I frankly will not spend a lot of time in the Old Testament on this blog. The last post, and maybe just a few more, will hopefully serve the purpose of showing some new covenant principles that were foreshadowed in the old. It is not…
I love 1 Corinthians 1:9. It’s been a favorite verse of mine since I was a teenager. As I was reading in the chapter, earlier this week, verses 4-9 jumped out at me in a way they had not before. They are grouped together. The paragraph ends with verse 9 declaring:…
If our righteousness is to exceed that of the Pharisees, how does that affect the way we “do church?” Or does it? What about ministry and evangelism and discipleship? A friend of mine, J. Guy Muse, wrote an interesting blog recently that got me thinking. Guy’s recent post dealt with…
Have you ever wondered what it means to be more righteous than the Pharisees? Have you ever wondered what a Pharisee is? The Pharisees were a sect of ancient Judaism. The crash course explanation would go something like this. The rising Babylonian empire had conquered Judea and taken most of…
