We're Stuck with Each Other

Learning from an ancient Eastern text isn’t something a person can do alone. God made it so followers need other followers. This commonly - but not exclusively - occurs in church settings. People and churches aren’t perfect, but it seems God works in and through them anyway.

Philippians 2:1-8 (TLB)  2 Is there any such thing as Christians cheering each other up? Do you love me enough to want to help me? Does it mean anything to you that we are brothers in the Lord, sharing the same Spirit? Are your hearts tender and sympathetic at all? 2 Then make me truly happy by loving each other and agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, working together with one heart and mind and purpose. 3 Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. 4 Don’t just think about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and in what they are doing. 5 Your attitude should be the kind that was shown us by Jesus Christ, 6 who, though he was God, did not demand and cling to his rights as God, 7 but laid aside his mighty power and glory, taking the disguise of a slave and becoming like men. 8 And he humbled himself even further, going so far as actually to die a criminal’s death on a cross.

9/1/2024

Bad Tenants

This parable is a description of a disrespectful and ungrateful attitude to God and his son. Jesus was saying that his Father will take his offer of the Kingdom away from those who do not appreciate it and give it to those who do want to have a relationship with him. 

Luke 20:9-16 (TLB) 9 Now he turned to the people again and told them this story: “A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to some farmers, and went away to a distant land to live for several years. 10 When harvest time came, he sent one of his men to the farm to collect his share of the crops. But the tenants beat him up and sent him back empty-handed. 11 Then he sent another, but the same thing happened; he was beaten up and insulted and sent away without collecting. 12 A third man was sent and the same thing happened. He, too, was wounded and chased away. 13 “‘What shall I do?’ the owner asked himself. ‘I know! I’ll send my cherished son. Surely they will show respect for him.’ 14 “But when the tenants saw his son, they said, ‘This is our chance! This fellow will inherit all the land when his father dies. Come on. Let’s kill him, and then it will be ours.’ 15 So they dragged him out of the vineyard and killed him. “What do you think the owner will do? 16 I’ll tell you—he will come and kill them and rent the vineyard to others.” “But they would never then and now. do a thing like that,” his listeners protested.

8/25/2024

Don't be like the Pharisee

 

Your success in walking in God’s ways is not something to compare or brag about, nor is it a weapon against those who have what you consider “unacceptable” sins.  Every person has more than enough failings and issues to always be humble before God and others. 

Luke 18:9-14 (TLB)  9 Then he told this story to some who boasted of their virtue and scorned everyone else: 10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a proud, self-righteous Pharisee, and the other a cheating tax collector. 11 The proud Pharisee ‘prayed’ this prayer: ‘Thank God, I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don’t commit adultery, 12 I go without food twice a week, and I give to God a tenth of everything I earn.’13 “But the corrupt tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed, but beat upon his chest in sorrow, exclaiming, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’ 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home forgiven! For the proud shall be humbled, but the humble shall be honored.”

8/18/2024

Fountain of Living Waters

Only the creator of the Fountain of Living Waters can tell you how to receive the life he gives.  He created all there is.  If you can’t seem to get your life together, anything you do will be inadequate and broken until you surrender to what he says the Living Waters are and how to access them.

Jeremiah 2:13 (TLB) 13 For my people have done two evil things: They have forsaken me, the Fountain of living waters; and they have built for themselves broken cisterns that can’t hold water! 

8/11/2024

Father, Son and Holy Spirit

The first verses of Genesis speak of God and his Spirit.  By verse 26, the “I” voice begins: “Let us…,”  “someone like ourselves…”  It is accepted among Christians that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are there from the beginning. The 3-in-One created earth, then humans in its image. 

Genesis 1:26 (TLB) God said, “Let us make a man - someone like ourselves, to be the master of all life upon the earth and in the skies and in the seas.”

8/4/2024