He Will Go Before The Lord (Luke 1:5-25)
When a tragedy occurs it is common for someone to say, “Why doesn’t God do something?” The truth is that God often is doing something – but what He is doing is not apparent to us. The greatest tragedy of all was when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. Through them sin entered the […]
How Can We Know? (Luke 1:1-4)
Every day we are bombarded with a huge amount of information. Wherever we turn another message clamors for our attention. Newspapers, the radio, TV and the Internet demand we give our time and attention to what they have to say. Advertisers try to convince us that we need what they have to sell. Politicians and […]
Is It Worth Bleeding For?
One way to evaluate how important something is to us is to ask how much we are willing to pay for it. For example, we might really like a particular piece of furniture. It would look very nice in our home. But however nice it may look and however much we want it, we will […]
Words
Words are wonderful. They can enlighten, encourage, instruct, inform, comfort and heal. However, words are also dangerous. They can obscure, deceive, discourage, misinform and hurt. Even when it is not our intention to damage or to wrong, our words can lead to misunderstandings. Our own words can ensnare us or make us look foolish. No […]
Preach the Good News! (Mark 16:9-20)
There are some things which are so far outside of our experience or our expectations that we find them extremely difficult to believe. Even though Jesus clearly told His disciples that He would rise from the dead, they did not expect Him to do so. When Jesus’ tomb was found empty they still could not […]
An Empty Tomb (Mark 15:42-16:8)
Jesus’ cry from the cross, “It is finished!” also expressed the understanding of His disciples. When Jesus died, all their hopes died with Him. Though Jesus plainly told them ahead of time what would happen, they did not understand or believe. Afterwards, however, something occurred which changed everything. In the Gospel account which bears his […]
Forsaken (Mark 15:21-41)
If we think about dying we picture our death as calm and peaceful while being attended by those who love and respect us. For Jesus it was very different. His death was not only agonizing, it could not have occurred in a more degrading and humiliating way. Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, condemned Jesus […]
Crucify Him! (Mark 15:1-20)
God cares about justice and He wants the courts to be just. For example, God said to the Israelites through the prophet Moses, “Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 16:20 NIV) In spite of this clear instruction in the […]
I Don’t Know This Man! (Mark 14:66-72)
The truth is that we do not know how we will act in a given circumstance until we actually come face to face with that situation. For example, we like to think that we will sacrifice ourselves for those we love. But it is not until the needs of a loved one conflict with our […]
Are You the Christ? (Mark 14:53-65)
The Bible teaches us that God is righteous and just. God will not condemn someone for a sin he has not committed. For example, when Abraham plead with God to spare Sodom he said, “…Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you […]