The Rich Man and the Kingdom of Heaven

Jesus said you must want to find the Kingdom of Heaven so much that a relationship with God and wanting to live within his will is more compelling than the riches of this Earth. Yet, with God’s help, anyone - rich or poor - can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Matthew 19:23-26 (TLB) 23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “It is almost impossible for a rich man to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. 24 I say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God!” 25 This remark confounded the disciples. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked. 26 Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, no one. But with God, everything is possible.”

7/26/2020

Idolatry, Promiscuity and Adultery

In the Bible, what appears to be one thing may be representative of something else. Here, the mother is Israel, God is the husband and other men are the false gods Israel prefers. Idolatry, promiscuity and adultery were all linked to grief and destruction, and they still are. 

Hosea 2:2-4 (TLB) 2 “Plead with your mother, for she has become another man’s wife—I am no longer her husband. Beg her to stop her harlotry, to quit giving herself to others. 3 If she doesn’t, I will strip her as naked as the day she was born and cause her to waste away and die of thirst as in a land riddled with famine and drought. 4 And I will not give special favors to her children as I would to my own, for they are not my children; they belong to other men.

7/19/2020

Strength in Oppression

In Egypt the Israelites became stronger the more they were oppressed. The early Christians multiplied and expanded under persecution also. Relying on God, regardless of circumstances, is an internal decision. You and God are stronger than any conditions of this temporal world.

Exodus 1:11-14 (CJB) 11 So they put slavemasters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built for Pharaoh the storage cities of Pitom and Ra‘amses. 12 But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more they multiplied and expanded, until the Egyptians came to dread the people of Isra’el 13 and worked them relentlessly, 14 making their lives bitter with hard labor — digging clay, making bricks, all kinds of field work; and in all this toil they were shown no mercy.

7/15/2020

The Meaning of War in the Bible

Wars in the Bible are usually metaphors to battles within one’s self. The names tell you what the battles are about. Example: The Amalekites represent giving in to thoughts and actions of darkness. When you ask, God will faithfully be at war for you in this kind of battle. 

Exodus 17:16 (NIV) 16 He said, “Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord, the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.”

7/12/2020

Respect for Authority

“All authority comes from God.” He lets leaders be in their positions for reasons only he knows. Your holy place is to seek God’s will for what you are to do, be peaceable and law abiding, pray and trust God completely. God will change what you cannot and do it right.

Romans 13:1-2 (NLT) 1 Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. 2 So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished.

7/5/2020