When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together he rebuked the unclean spirit and said to him: “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you. Go out from him, and never enter him again.” And after shouting and convulsing him greatly it went out. And he became like a dead man so that many…[read more]
No one experiencing temptation should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one. Rather, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it…[read more]
In everything David did, he gave thanks and praise to the Holy Lord, the Most High. He loved his Creator and sang praises to him with all his heart. He put singers at the altar to provide beautiful music. He set the times of the festivals throughout the year and made them splendid occasions; the…[read more]
So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.” . . . David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord,…[read more]
Given his audience, Matthew begins his gospel by asserting the credentials of Jesus as the long awaited Messiah. This is not unlike the practice throughout antiquity of introducing a god through his or her lineage. The later gospel of John will begin with Jesus’ Divine lineage, but for Matthew it is vital to establish that Jesus is indeed the longed for and promised Messiah. For us, however, the lineage of Jesus is a reminder of the Divine and human interaction through which the Kingdom of God is revealed. It includes men and women of every stripe and experience. Their lives,…[read more]
In his commentary on the above verse from Luke, Luke Timothy Johnson writes: “In Greek moral philosophy, misos (“hatred”) is often associated with envy, phthonos, and like it tends toward the harming of another.” To hear repeatedly in the gospels of the hatred of many of the religious leaders of Jesus gives rise to the question of “Why?” Conventionally we answer this question by pointing out that Jesus poses a threat to their status as leaders by revealing what is impure and self-serving in their motivation. However, there is perhaps an even more fundamental reason for their hatred of him,…[read more]
So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’ Luke 17:10 There is a strange paradox in the gospel. On the one hand, we hear of how God cares for us as for the birds of…[read more]
For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. Romans 14:7-9 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and…[read more]
For God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways! Romans 11:32-33 Then he said to the host who invited him, “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do…[read more]
We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8:22-3 “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is…[read more]
When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together he rebuked the unclean spirit and said to him: “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you. Go out from him, and never enter him again.” And after shouting and convulsing him greatly it went out. And he became like a dead man so that many…[read more]
Recent Comments