Author Archives: Steve

End of Days – Mathew 24:1-28

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“But the one who endures to the end will be delivered. This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come.” (Mathew 24:13, HCSB).

In Matthew 24:1-28 Jesus described a number of signs and events including an increase in evil and great deception, wars, famines, natural disasters, persecution, false Christ’s, and astronomical disruption. that would precede His Second Coming and the end of world.

He also noted that the good news of His coming Kingdom would be preached to all nations.

Following the distress of the last days, Christ will return in power and glory in full view of all nations and He will gather all His people to Himself.

Many biblical scholars interpret these predictions of Jesus to have dual meanings, referring to both the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and the Apocalypse.

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Our Beautiful Inheritance – Psalm 16:5-6

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“Lord, You are my portion and my cup of blessing; You hold my future. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance” (Psalm 16:5-6, HCSB)

These verses use language that is usually reserved for describing the land promised to Israel. Instead, the Psalmist proclaims that it is God Himself, not the land, that is the true inheritance.

This declaration is rather like the promise made to Aaron, the brother of Moses, and his progeny, the succession of high priests over Israel.

The priests had no inheritance of land in Israel!

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God’s Plan: Your Success – Genesis 39:2, 21

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“The Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master…But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love” (Genesis 39:2, 21, NLT).

Joseph, the great-grandson of Abraham, often seemed to be a victim of his own success.

He was the favorite son of his father, Jacob, and so his brothers were jealous of him.

God chose him from among his eleven other brothers to be the salvation of Israel and gave him dreams and visions to confirm His promise.

But, when he told his brothers these dreams, they threw him in a dry well and then sold him into slavery.

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The Pious Pretender – Matthew 21:31-32

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“I tell you the truth, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the Kingdom of God before you do. For John the Baptist came and showed you the right way to live, but you didn’t believe him, while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even when you saw this happening, you refused to believe him and repent of your sins.”  (Matthew 21:31-32, NLT)

Jesus came to Jerusalem prior to his execution and taught in the Temple. The Jewish religious leaders rejected His teachings and plotted against Him.

Jesus told three parables in Matthew 21 and 22 to expose those who rejected Him and His teachings and these verses are the conclusion of the first of these three parables, the Parable of the Two Sons.

In this parable Jesus told about a father who asked one of his sons to go work in the vineyard and the son refused to go, but then later changed his mind and went and worked.

Then the father asked the other son to go work in the vineyard and he agreed to go but never actually went to work in the vineyard.

Jesus then asked which son obeyed his father and the people answered with the first son.

So tax collectors and prostitutes were like the first son who refused to obey but later changed his mind, They were repentant sinners. But the Jewish religious leaders were like the second son who agreed to obey but never did. They were pious pretenders!

And we call their bad behavior “giving lip service.”

Jesus said this pseudo-obedience is a very serious matter.

Pretension is the highest form of unbelief in the Kingdom of God because it presumes God doesn’t know your evil heart while leading people to believe your heart is pure and righteous.

The pretender professes to know God when he actually doesn’t know Him at all!

According to Jesus, people who are sinful and rebellious and then repent will get into the Kingdom of God before people who are sanctimonious.

Lip service may get you accolades from people but it gets you nowhere with God.

If you really know God, then you know that you can’t get anything past Him!
     God knows everything!
          He knows everything about you!
               He knows your intentions, your motives, and your desires!

So, we must be authentic in our relationship with God. God can redeem a repentant sinner and transform him into an obedient child of God. But a pious pretender remains lost in his disobedience!

A repentant sinner knows he has been disobedient and needs redemption, believes God for it, and receives God’s grace.

The pious pretender doesn’t think think he has been disobedient and needs redemption.
     The pious pretender thinks he’s already righteous.
          The pious pretender never asks and believes God to extend to him His saving grace…
               And, consequently, the pious pretender never receives God’s grace!

Threading Needles With Camels – Part 3 (Eliminating Competing Priorities) – Matthew 19

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(This is the third in a series of three meditations on the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19.)

“Everyone who has left houses, brothers or sisters, father or mother, children, or fields because of my name will receive 100 times more and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last first” (Matthew 19:29-30, HCSB).

Matthew 19:13-30 recounts the familiar story of the rich young ruler and his meeting with Jesus.

After His meeting with the rich young ruler, Jesus explained to His disciples why he advised the man to sell all his possessions. Jesus explained by declaring the well-known and often misinterpreted maxim that it is hard (or impossible) for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, as difficult as trying to thread a needle with a camel (Matthew 19:23; Mark 10:23; Luke 18:24).

The rich young ruler had come to Jesus to ask what good things he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus replied that only by obedience to God’s commandments does one obtain eternal life.

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Threading Needles with Camels – Part 2 (Knowing What’s Really Important) – Matthew 19

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(This is the second in a series of three meditations on the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19.)

“When the young man heard that command, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions” (Matthew 19:22, HCSB).

Matthew 19:13-30 relates the familiar story of the encounter of Jesus with a man traditionally identified as a rich young ruler. This passage describes the encounter between Jesus and the rich young ruler. In a debriefing with His disciples after the encounter, Jesus made the well-known camel-through-the-eye-of-a-needle analogy, depicting the difficulty confounding rich people entering into God’s Kingdom.

Now, the rich young ruler seemed to be a person who wanted to do the right thing.

He wanted to acknowledge God in his life and be faithful to Him so he could make it into heaven.

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Threading Needles with Camels – Part 1 (When Good Isn’t Good Enough) – Matthew 19

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(This is the first in a series of three meditations on the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19.)

“If you want to be perfect, Jesus said to him, go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:21, HCSB).

Matthew 19:13-30 relates the familiar story of the encounter of Jesus with a young man who is thought to be a person of some standing among the Jews. So, he is traditionally identified as a rich young ruler.

The passage in Matthew 19 first describes the encounter between Jesus and the rich young ruler, followed by a post-encounter discussion between Jesus and His disciples in which Jesus points out the spiritual disadvantages of affluence. His explanation to His disciples is highlighted by the ironic camel-through-the-eye-of-a-needle analogy depicting the difficulty that confounds rich people in making it to heaven.

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Who’s Looking Out For You? – Psalms 4:6-8

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“Many people say, Who will show us better times? Let your face smile on us, Lord. You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine. In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe” (Psalms 4:6-8, NLT).

Psalm 4 is actually a lament that includes a plea for rescue, a rebuke of the ungodly, some good advice for godliness, and then concludes with these verses, which are an expression of confidence in God.

In this psalm of David he observed that in times of trouble, people prayed to God to send His blessings and make things better for them.

But David found fulfillment in God Himself, not just His blessings.

In fact, God had given him greater joy than those who lived in prosperity.

He had happiness and joy always because God was looking out for him!

He was at peace and didn’t stay awake at night worrying because he knew that God had his back!

You can have joy when you find fulfillment in God,
     when you trust in Him and live for Him,
           then you can be confident that God is greater than your troubles,
                because God is looking out for you!

You can have joy and peace even in times of trouble by replacing your worry with expressions of confidence in God’s watchfulness over your life through praise and thanksgiving.

Who’s looking out for you? God is!

“The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life” (Psalm 121:7, NLT)

Santa Claus Theology – Matthew 18:21-22

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“Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times? No, not seven times, Jesus replied, but seventy times seven!” (Matthew 18:21-22, NLT)

In a series of stories and parables Jesus explained how His followers should get along with one another.

So Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone who sins against him.

Peter probably supposed with his suggestion of seven times he was being magnanimous. But Jesus’s recommendation of seventy times seven was astounding!

It was the same as saying always forgive someone who sins against you!

While it is quite ordinary behavior not to allow someone to mistreat you repeatedly, but it is most extraordinary behavior to forgive them if they do!

And Jesus constantly encouraged such radical behavior from those who followed Him.

But this radical behavior can’t be formulated into a list of do’s and dont’s. It’s a matter of the heart, a lifestyle!

Jesus’s intention was not to create good people out of His disciples, but to establish God’s righteousness in their hearts.

And forgiveness was a matter of the heart, a lifestyle, not a one-time, or seven-time, or seventy-time, or even seventy-times-seven behavior.

C.S. Lewis once said that improvement is not redemption. He said that being Jesus’s disciple was more than a matter of being a nice person, or even an extremely nice person!

Jesus is preparing us for eternity and so the real issue is not how many times your were nice to somebody but how your heart is. Not what your are, but what you are becoming!

Unfortunately, our understanding of what Jesus was teaching us about God’s righteousness is sometimes based on a sort of Santa Claus theology: “He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!”

And then we become like Peter in this story.

We perceive God as being up in heaven keeping a list of how many times we have been naughty or nice. And, if at the end of our lives we have more good behavior than bad behavior, then we make it into heaven.

But God is not keeping score to determine your eternal outcome.

And you couldn’t be good enough, even if He was. God knows that. That’s why He sent His Son, Jesus, to conquer sin and death for us!

Eternity starts now and how you choose to spend your eternal life is not a matter of being naughty or nice. It’s a matter of a transformed heart and a redeemed life, which occurs when God imputes His righteousness into your life by your faith in Jesus, God’s Son.

“If we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us,”(1 John 4:12, NLT

It Just Makes Sense to Follow Jesus – Matthew 16:24-25

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“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it”  (Matthew 16:24-25, NLT).

At first glance, Jesus’s invitation in these verses may seem like a peculiar way of trying to attract a following.

Who wants to be Jesus’s follower if it requires you to give up your own life, to turn from your selfish ways and take up your cross?

It doesn’t really sound very interesting. In fact, it doesn’t sound like much fun at all!

But when you consider the membership requirements to be in His club that Jesus expressed in these verses within the context of the complete passage (vs. 24-28), His invitation to spend your life following Him instead of following after your own self-interests doesn’t seem so unusual.

In fact, it makes a lot of sense! It becomes a most compelling challenge!

Peter had just identified Jesus as the Messiah: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (vs. 16). As Messiah He will return to Earth at the end of time to judge all people according to their deeds (vs. 27).

So, there is clearly no eternal advantage to rejecting Jesus, to being selfish or self-absorbed. Instead, you have everything to gain by living for God and making His will the main the priority of your life.

Because in the end, Jesus is going to judge you according to how you lived your life and not on what possessions or power you accumulated for yourself during your lifetime: “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (vs. 26).

From the perspective of eternity, it just makes sense to follow Jesus!

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”
(Galatians 2:20, NLT).