God's Perfect Expression

 

Jesus stepped on feelings. He violently ran the moneychangers from the temple, spoke harshly to the Pharisees and was usually frustrated with his disciples. Avoiding conflict and hurt feelings is not always God’s perfect expression. It is God’s truth spoken through you that is.

Matthew 23:25-26 (MSG) 25-26 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You buff the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something. 

8/1/2021

Connecting Body and Soul

A bartender watering drinks down as it gets later isn’t a new trick.  Jesus changed water into wine later in the evening, the opposite of custom. Jesus’ wine (blood) is everlasting; it never dilutes and is the vitality that forms the connecting link between body and soul.

John 2:9-10 (TLB) 9 When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants did), he called the bridegroom over. 10 “This is wonderful stuff!” he said. “You’re different from most. Usually a host uses the best wine first, and afterwards, when everyone is full and doesn’t care, then he brings out the less expensive brands. But you have kept the best for the last!”

7/25/2021

If that's what you want, that's what you get...

 

Salvation, God’s word, common sense and prayer are all free. Yet if you prefer being under the spell of ungodly things, you are free to do so, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get” but know that you are then shipwrecked and imprisoned of your own volition.

 

Romans 1:18-32 (MSG) 18-23 But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand. 24-25 So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes! 26-27 Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches. 28-32 Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!

7/22/2021

Religious Scholars and Pharisees

 

God sent Jesus to lift you up to live in your holy purpose in his New Covenant. His burden is light and his yoke is easy. If you are under an oppressive burden of religious obligations, your teachers and influencers are pointing you there, not God and not Jesus.  

 Matthew 23:2-4 (TPT) 2 “The religious scholars and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ throne as the authorized interpreters of the Law. 3 So listen and follow what they teach, but don’t do what they do, for they tell you one thing and do another. 4 They tie on your backs an oppressive burden of religious obligations and insist that you carry it, but will never lift a finger to help ease your load.

7/18/2021

Love God Love Neighbor

 

The death of Christ brought in a new covenant with those who choose to follow him: Love God, yourself and your neighbor with all your heart, passion, energy, and every thought.  All thought and action is influenced by love.  Do all you can to learn what love is.

Luke 10:25-28 (TPT) 25 Just then a religious scholar stood before Jesus in order to test his doctrines. He posed this question: “Teacher, what requirement must I fulfill if I want to live forever in heaven?” 26 Jesus replied, “What does Moses teach us? What do you read in the Law?” 27 The religious scholar answered, “It states, ‘You must love the Lord God with all your heart, all your passion, all your energy, and your every thought. And you must love your neighbor as well as you love yourself.’” 28 Jesus said, “That is correct. Now go and do exactly that and you will live.”

7/11/2021

The Bread of Life

 

Several times Jesus says of himself, “I am the bread of life.”  Bread and water is physically needed each day but Jesus is about what we need each day that supersedes the physical - love, purpose, joy, responsibility and right standing with God.

John 6:35 (NLT) 35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

7/4/2021