At one time, my dad received his paycheck every other week, on the last day of the workweek. With a smile, he called each of these paydays good Friday. Dad enjoyed good Friday twenty-six times a year. Some years the real Good Friday fell on one of dad’s good Fridays; other times it did not—and […]
In Thursday’s post, Who Is a Christian Pharisee?, I talked about connecting—or reconnecting Christianity—with its Jewish roots—called Messianic Judaism. Although this thought may alarm some, there are ample justifications. Old Testament Judaism foreshadowed and gave birth to Christianity, Jesus was a Jew, and almost all of his early followers where Jewish. It’s only through a […]
One of Jesus’ disciples was Simon, who Jesus renamed Peter. According to the Amplified Bible, Peter means “stone” or “a large piece of rock.” Sometimes the Bible refers to him as Simon (47 times) and other times Simon Peter (33 times) but mostly just Peter (139 times). Peter was the first leader of Jesus’ followers, […]
In the accounts of Jesus’ life, there’s a curious exchange he has with the religious leaders. Although he has many such interactions, this is perhaps the most perplexing. He tells them healthy people don’t need a doctor. True. Then he makes a parallel assertion that his purpose isn’t to help good people (the “righteous”) but […]
For the past two weeks, I’ve been sharing a progression of thought about God as it relates to love and fear. Consider: We are to fear God, which begins to produce understanding and wisdom. We grow to understand that God is love and ultimately that perfect love—as embodied by Jesus—removes our fear. Though we may […]
In the Old Testament of the Bible we read the command to “fear God.” In the New Testament we read “God is Love.” How can we fear someone who is loving? Is it even possible to do? Is there a difference between fearing God in the Old Testament and a God of love in the […]
In a love story, culturally distant and a bit strange to us, Jacob is enamored by the fetching Rachel. In an act of service, to garner her attention, he rolls away a stone from the mouth of a well to provide life-sustaining water for her sheep. It works and she becomes his bride. In another […]
In the Bible, it was common for Jesus to invite people to follow him. That’s simple enough. Anyone can do that. Does this give them eternal life? But sometimes Jesus would give a different instruction. For example, he told one very wealthy man to give away all his money and possessions, not ten percent, not […]
Jesus taught his disciples to ask God for their daily bread, that is, the food they needed for the day. Just as God provided manna for the Israelites in the desert, the implication is God will meet our needs each day. We are not to ask for enough for the week, the month, or the […]
When the nation of Israel was in the desert, God provided food for them each day. The Israelites called it manna and it miraculously appeared every morning. The manna would provide them with the sustenance they needed for that day. If they tried to gather extra and stockpile it, it would turn bad (except for […]