Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

 "He came out and went, as was his custom , to the Mount of Olives" ~ Luke 22:39, emphasis mine When we think of the power Christ had to prevent His crucifixion, we often think of the army of angels that he had at His command or the power over nature he held. Any one of the people who were responsible for His death could have been smote, scattered, or suddenly thrown into confusion with just one word from His mouth. When passersby mocked Him, they were right in knowing about His power to save others, but wrong in thinking He could not save Himself. A devotion I read Sunday morning caused me to think of another power He had that could have saved Him if He had chosen to use it: the power to choose a hidden spot to pray. The verse quoted above tells us that going to the Mount of Olives to pray was something he did often. According to the author of the devotion, "it was easy for the authorities to find Jesus to arrest him." Another verse says, "Now Judas, who betra...

 "A certain young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked." ~ Mark 14:51-52 This quarter in Sunday School, we are working our way through the gospel of Mark, and this Sunday's lesson covered chapter 14. That chapter covers a few different events from the last week of Jesus' life and ends with His arrest, His trial, and Peter's betrayal. However, between the verses about Jesus' arrest and the ones about His trial, we find the two verses quoted above about a young man who followed Jesus that night, was grabbed, ran away naked, and was never mentioned again. For years I wondered, who was he? A sermon I heard years ago theorized that the young man was none other than the author of the gospel himself, he was the son of the man whose house held the upper room, and that the linen cloth was actually a bedsheet. The more I think about it, the more I think that this makes a lot of s...

"You give the sparrows everything they need You light the stars and you paint the leaves You clothe the lilies with your majesty And you don't even love them like you love me" ~ " Like You Love Me " - Tauren Wells     From the first time I heard this song, I absolutely loved it. Sure, the melody is catchy and fun to dance to, but that's not the reason. This song is a great reminder of an even greater truth: God loves people more than any other thing He created.     This song is based on Matthew 6:25-34. Part of the Sermon on the Mount, this passage is about trusting God rather than worrying. Jesus teaches that God feeds the sparrows and clothes the lilies more beautifully than any human being could ever be dressed. In saying this, Jesus was assuring us that we had no need to worry about anything because the God who cares even about the birds and the flowers will care even more about us because He made us in His image.     Now, I know from experience that th...

Oh what I would do to have The kind of faith it takes To get out of this boat and Onto the crashing waves To step out of my comfort zone Into the realm of the unknown Where Jesus is And He's holding out His hand ~ " Voice of Truth "-Casting Crowns      Earlier this year in one of the online services, my home church did a sermon about Jesus walking on the water and Peter joining him. Our deacon talked about how important it is for us to step out in faith even when it's hard. Unfortunately,  as proven by a letter we received a couple of weeks ago, she and the other leaders are still firmly in the boat when it comes to reopening the church.     My favorite telling of this Gospel story comes from the song quoted above.  No one really wants to step out of their comfort zone. In the words of Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory , "It's called the comfort zone for a reason." However, as the song says, Jesus is standing outside of our comfort zone waiting for...

      One of the projects I started working on this summer is a collection of short stories about people in the Gospels who have a life-changing experience but don't have a name. I had been thinking about doing it for a while because I was intrigued by their stories and wondered what the rest of their lives might have been like. I knew that there was a greater depth to some of these stories than the Gospel writers mentioned. I decided to write each story from the person's perspective so readers could explore how these people viewed their interactions with Jesus.     The first story I tackled was that of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:3-11). A sermon I heard earlier this year talked about this story. In the sermon, it was mentioned that the law stated that both parties caught in adultery should be stoned, yet only the woman was brought out. I began thinking about who the man was and why he was not implicated as well. Later on, I read the passage from Leviti...

"Jesus said, 'I am the  way, the truth, and the  life.  No one  comes to the Father except through me. '" ~John 14:6, emphasis mine Recently, I saw a post on Facebook asking fellow Christians if they struggle with the idea that belief in Jesus is the only path to eternal life. The author went on to mention how devout Jews faithfully follow God as well, but don't believe in Jesus, and how many people live their entire lives without ever hearing about Him. He even went on to say that scientists believe that there are other planets that may support life, and that these aliens, if they exist and have sufficient intelligence to form a belief system, are overwhelmingly unlikely to believe in Jesus because He is an Earthling. You just can't make this stuff up people! Until he devolved into talk about extraterrestrial life, I could see where he was coming from, to an extent. There are great people throughout history who were not Christians, and it seems wrong for ...

Last month, my church had Vacation Bible School, and this year's theme was Hero Central. Throughout the week, the storytelling team taught the kids about heroes from the Bible, and what each hero taught us about what it means to be a hero for God. Monday: (1 Samuel 16:1-13)  The first story of the week was about Samuel anointing David as the next king of Israel. King Saul was not following along with what God wanted him to do, so God gave Samuel the task of anointing a new king from among the children of a man named Jesse. So that Saul would not find out, God told Samuel to take a heifer to sacrifice and invite Jesse and his children to the sacrifice. Once everyone was assembled, Samuel had each of the children come in to see which of them God wanted him to anoint, but none of the six arrogant children there was God's choice. Samuel then asked Jesse if he had any other children, and he replied that the youngest was out in the field watching the sheep. Samuel asked Jesse to se...