Leviticus 25:47-27:13 ~ Mark 10:32-52 ~ Psalm 45:1-17 ~ Proverbs 10:22   Okay, so what we have happening in the book of Mark today is staggering.  It is very, very beautiful.  James and John first get the lesson that is passed down and down and down through time and generation after generation to us today, the ultimate lesson of the Kingdom, the very posture that our lives are to take shape in.      They are before Jesus and he is talking about going away and being killed and coming back from death to life.  They want to get in line and sit at his right and left hand in glory.  He tells them that is not in the cards necessarily.  He doesn’t have any control over that, but that the baptism he is going to have to be baptized in, the cup he is going to have to drink, they’re going to have to drink it too.    The other disciples are just ticked.  They cannot believe the audacity and they start going after them.  Jesus says, wait up guys, this is sort of how things go among unbelieve [Read More]

Leviticus 1:1-3:17 ~ Mark 1:29-2:12 ~ Psalm 35:17-28 ~ Proverbs 9:13-18   What stands out poignantly to me today is in the book of Mark.  Jesus is…well, his fame is beginning to grow.  His reputation is beginning to precede him because of the miracles that he is doing.  So what he does is continue to orient himself to his Father nonstop.  This is very important for us to understand because we look at Jesus and we see that he…well, he doesn’t float through life, but he walks through life very clear-headed.  He knows where he is going.  He knows why.  He knows how.  That is because he continues to always remove himself from wherever he is and get with his Father, reorient himself, find a solitary place to quiet his spirit.  You never see him overwhelmed or about to freak out.    So in the book of Mark today it says early in the morning while it was still dark, after a pretty long day, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.  So he is just st [Read More]

 Exodus 29:1-30:10 ~ Matthew 26:14-46 ~ Psalm 31:19-24 ~ Proverbs 8:14-26   So each time we get to the stories of Christ’s betrayal, of his giving up his life in such truly horrific fashion, becoming the living sacrifice, laying down his perfect life for us and dying the way that he did to purchase our salvation, it is difficult because it is the most joyous thing in our very existence and yet it is difficult to watch this happen, you know?  So we see Jesus in the garden and he is seriously human at this point, right?  I mean, he is crying out to God in anguish, and these are human emotions.  This wasn’t a situation where Jesus had transcended his humanity and just kind of went through it all, just aloof to the whole thing.  He suffered as a man in this moment.  “The spirit is willing, but the body is weak,” he said.  He says something very poignant in his prayers, the final one just before his betrayer came and kissed him.  It is something that should help us as we face hardship [Read More]

  Exodus 17:8-19:15 ~ Matthew 22:33-23:12 ~ Psalm 27:8-14 ~ Proverbs 6:27-35   Prayer:  Jesus we come before you recalling the words spoken in the book of Matthew.  “Do you want to stand out?  Then step down.  Be a servant.  If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you, but if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.”  This is our desire.  We live in a society where standing out and doing everything that we can to draw attention to ourselves and our uniqueness is celebrated, and yet you are saying, look, serve.  Serve.  This makes you stand out much more.  Be content in your own skin and your life will count.  We desire this.  We desire this kind of contentment that fills us up from the inside out.  That we are full of your spirit, and your glory radiates through us and that is more than enough for us.  So away with these thoughts of self-hatred, away with this low self-esteem.  We reject these things.  We will no longer measure [Read More]

  Exodus 12:14-13:16 ~ Matthew 20:29-21:22 ~ Psalm 25:16-22 ~ Proverbs 6:12-15     This is a huge day in the Bible because this is a day of liberation.  The children of Israel have just begun to exit slavery after 430 years and they’re going laden with gifts and goods.  Egypt has been pillaged.  It didn’t have to go this way.  Pharaoh could have humbled himself right from the beginning, but he was utterly undone along with the rest of the country and now we see Israel going out from Egypt toward the Promised Land.  There are many, many stories and steps between here and there, but this is a day of exodus.  This is where it starts, their day of freedom.  It is a day to remember our own personal exodus, our own personal sense of freedom that was granted to us, bestowed upon us by the work of Christ.    In the book of Matthew Jesus is walking down the road and these blind men are yelling, “Mercy!  Son of David, mercy!”  Everybody is trying to shut them up and it is a really, reall [Read More]

Jacob blessing his 12 sons Genesis 48:1-49:33 ~ Matthew 15:29-16:12 ~ Psalm 20:1-9 ~ Proverbs 4:20-27

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we declare the words of the Psalmist David today. Some do trust in chariots, some in horses. In other words, some trust in their own powers and what is tangible to them and inside of their own strength, but we declare that we trust in the name of the Lord our God, you, our sovereign Lord and our Father. We love you and our trust is in you. As the Psalmist says, they will collapse and fall, but we will rise and stand upright. So come, Lord Jesus, into the coming week here. We ask you to lead us into all truth. We ask that this be a pivotal week. We ask that this week matters and that you speak to us clearly and with great direction and precision that we might do your will within our sphere of influence, within those within our reach, and that we may take broad steps forward on the path of your will for our lives. Destiny awaits and it is [Read More]

Genesis 37:1-38:30 ~ Matthew 12:22-45 ~ Psalm 16:1-11 ~ Proverbs 3:27-32   So the words of Jesus coming through the book of Matthew today do exactly what the Psalms did yesterday and what different passages in Scripture do all the time.  They lay something out in black and white that we so often miss, but are so fundamental to the way we are supposed to live that when things go wrong and we go, ‘Why have I crashed and burned on this thing?  I’m trying to live my life right.  I’m trying to be good.  I’m trying to do well.  Why are things not working for me?’ perhaps it is because of your words, according to the Scriptures today.  Jesus says, look, a good tree is going to produce good fruit.  A bad tree is going to produce bad fruit, right?  A tree is known by its fruit.  That is a metaphor for a person.  What comes out of your life, the fruit of your life shows the kind of person that you are.  He is speaking to the Pharisees and he ends up calling them a brood of vipers, right? [Read More]

Genesis 31:17-32:12 ~ Matthew 10:24-11:6 ~ Psalm 13:1-6 ~ Proverbs 3:16-18   This passage in Matthew is one of great hope and yet it is very sobering because it cuts to the chase.  It divides all of the layers and layers of religion that we’ve placed on top of our faith.  It cuts right through, down to the very core.  It is very important that we pay attention because it is one of those things that is sitting right there in plain site and explains so much.  Yet we gloss over it with our self-absorbed lifestyle that we don’t even have this on the grid of our lives.  Same things we’ve been talking about.   So Jesus teaches today, look, you don’t have to live in fear.  You don’t even have to fear those who can kill your body, who can take your life because they can’t take your life.  They can just kill the body, but they can’t kill the soul.  Fear and revere and hold in awe the one who can destroy both the soul and the body..  Think of it.  Your Father in heaven, he knows the hairs [Read More]

Genesis 18:16-19:38 ~ Matthew 6:25-7:14 ~ Psalm 8:1-9 ~ Proverbs 2:6-15

Okay, what I really want to talk about is further what Jesus said in Matthew today, but there is no way to just ignore the Old Testament account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in the book of Genesis because it is one of the most graphic and disturbing portions in all of Scripture. So I have a couple of things to comment.

First, there is the issue of the angels going down into Sodom and Lot bringing them into his home and all the men of the city storming his home so that they could pull the men out and basically homosexually rape them. Then there is the issue of Lot and his family escaping the city, his wife turns to salt, later on there is only Lot and his two daughters and his two daughters decide to have an incestuous relationship, sexually, with their father and get pregnant.

Okay, so basically, in the culture that everyone is in that is listening to me in English, we woul [Read More]