In Matthew 20, Jesus teaches and gives a living example of what true unreserved service to the Lord looks like out of a wholehearted love for Him that glorifies Him completely. How we count our service isn't how Jesus counts it. He sees our hearts and motives. The demands we place on God don't matter. It's not about position, title, or recognition. It's about sacrifice. We shouldn't serve Jesus because we want to receive or expect to receive rewards on earth or on heaven. We should serve Jesus, ...
Nov 05, 2024•15 min
(Acts 2) If we choose to follow Jesus, heart and soul, passionately - without distraction, God's Kingdom as well as our churches won't be just full, they'll be on mission for Jesus and changing lives for eternity. A healthy army will then grow for Jesus and His mission, which is way more important than attendance numbers.
Nov 02, 2024•17 min
In Mathew 19, Jesus continues His teachings about the Kingdom of God. He explains that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter heaven. However, God is full of grace and love and Jesus promised that with God all things are possible. When we are focused on material wealth, accomplishments, possessions, and bank accounts, our focus doesn't typically fall on Jesus. Where our focus is, our hearts will follow. From an earthly view, a rich person is ab...
Nov 01, 2024•14 min
In Matthew 18, Jesus reveals more of the eternal Kingdom Principles of life and how we are to reflect Him and His Kingdom while on earth. We enter His Kingdom by repenting and humbling ourselves before the King submitting to His Kingship and authority. Like a child, we are to be fully dependent on our Father for everything in our lives, trusting Him wholeheartedly. We are to live different and look different than the world around us. The world is full of division and hatred. Jesus calls us to fo...
Oct 31, 2024•15 min
In Matthew 17, Jesus took Peter, James, and John up on a mountain where they witnessed Jesus physically transform in front of them. As if that wasn't enough, Moses and Elijah also appeared and talked with Jesus. Suddenly, God the Father spoke from the heavens proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God, the Father loves Jesus passionately, and we are all to listen to and obey Jesus. After God spoke, Peter, James, and John fell facedown in reverent awe and worship of the Lord. Jesus was transformed ...
Oct 30, 2024•14 min
In Matthew 16, Jesus asked His disciples who people believe and say that He is. Then He asked them personally the same question. He asks each and every one of us this question as well: "Who do you say I am?" Who is Jesus to you? That is the question we all need to ask as we search and pray for anything in us that may get in the way of our relationship with Jesus to be revealed and repented of anything revealed quickly. Jesus said we have two choices in life and there is no in between. We can den...
Oct 29, 2024•15 min
In Matthew 15, Jesus reveals that He did not just come for the Jewish nation of Israel. He chose Israel to be the vessel that would bring Jesus, Yeshua, our Messiah into the World for all people. Because He chose Israel, we can now choose Jesus. We can choose to humbly repent and submit our lives in complete and total surrender and yield to Him as Lord and King now and for all eternity. We can in turn receive His life-saving mercy and grace. We can receive His healing and restoration. We can rec...
Oct 28, 2024•16 min
(Exodus 15; Isaiah 12) Sin separates us from God, but Jesus separates us from sin. This is a great reason to sing our hearts out for Jesus. We don't do good things to earn Jesus' love for us, we do good things because we love Jesus and want to increase our love for Him.
Oct 26, 2024•11 min
In Matthew 14, Jesus miraculously feeds 5,000 men which would have likely been close to 20,000 people with the women and children. He then sends the apostles out into a storm in the middle of the night while He goes to the mountain to pray. The storm intensifies and the apostles are freaking out. Jesus comes to their aid at just the right time walking on water. Peter asks if he can join Jesus on the water and Jesus tells him yes, come on out. Peter bravely walks on the water until he loses focus...
Oct 25, 2024•10 min
In Matthew 13, Jesus shared 7 parables explaining the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven. Because of the life-saving sacrifice, grace, redeeming power, and righteousness of Jesus, our Messiah, we can receive His mercy, grace, redemption, restoration, peace, and joy now and for all eternity. There is no time like today to repent and let go of everything else in the world that might be trying to get in the way of our relationship with Jesus. Jesus is returning and when He does, there will be a great...
Oct 24, 2024•14 min
In Matthew 12, Jesus challenges the Pharisees and their evil words. What is in our hearts comes out in our words and a bad tree produces bad fruit, just as a good tree produces good fruit. The Pharisees asked for a sign. Jesus didn't give them a sign, but rather pointed them to the Word of God. He answered their request by referring them to Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of a whale for 3 nights and when he rose out of the whale, Nineveh had the opportunity to hear the Word of God and repent. Jesu...
Oct 23, 2024•13 min
In Matthew 11, Jesus and His apostles go into the mission field. They are on mission for King Jesus and work to spread the Good News of our Savior, Yeshua, to the cities in Israel. John the Baptist was in jail for not backing down in the mission of preparing the way for Jesus' arrival. John sent message to Jesus asking for confirmation that He is the One, our Messiah. He didn't doubt or have a lack of faith. It was just that the things he expected to come were not taking place when he expected i...
Oct 22, 2024•13 min
In Matthew 10, Jesus commissioned His disciples with His authority to "GO" transforming them to His apostles: His qualified representatives being sent on His mission. He said to them 3 times, "Don't be afraid" as He instructed them to go and spread the news that our Messiah has come. Jesus gave the action plan and is preparing for His Kingdom to begin. The Kingdom of God would be ushered in based on the sheep's response to Jesus apostles. Before Jesus returned to the heavens, He commissioned us ...
Oct 22, 2024•14 min
(Acts 1:3-14) The same Spirit that hovered over the waters at creation and rose Jesus from death, resides in us to empower us with the authority of Jesus to spread His Gospel Message of Salvation to the ends of the earth. Everyone deserves to hear about Jesus, to hear His Word, and have the option and opportunity to receive His offer of eternal life. Everyone deserves the opportunity to experience a true and fulfilling eternal relationship with Jesus.
Oct 19, 2024•12 min
In Matthew 9, Jesus continues going to the towns and villages sharing and teaching of the Good News of life. He continued healing people and freeing them from the bondages of sin as He went. Jesus feels compassion for the worn out and weary. He is questioned by the Pharisees and religious leaders because He is doing all these things for the Lord, but is bringing them in a new way. He brings people out of religion and into relationship. He grows our faith from desperate fringe faith to radical fa...
Oct 18, 2024•14 min
In Matthew 8, we study all kinds of stories of miraculous healing. A centurion, a Roman military officer who would have been in charge of 100 soldiers, humbly approaches Jesus asking Him to heal his servant who was at home paralyzed an in terrible agony. He displayed humility and respect for the authority of Jesus. So much so that Jesus was amazed by his faith. He believed Jesus could just speak the Word and his servant would be healed. He came to Jesus humbly and said "I need help" knowing Jesu...
Oct 17, 2024•13 min
In Matthew 7, Jesus teaches His disciples, and us, not to judge others. We can't love and judge at the same time. We have no idea what is going on in another person's heart and it is not our place to judge. That is God's lane and we need to stay out of it. Jesus commissioned us to love others with His compassionate, unconditional love and spread His Gospel message of salvation to the ends of the earth. He is returning and when He does, He will judge. He continues teaching about the wide path vs ...
Oct 16, 2024•12 min
In Matthew 6, the disciples, and the crowd who had gathered, continued to listen to Jesus' teachings from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus taught practical lessons about how to walk with God in giving, praying, fasting, and material possessions and wealth. Jesus teaches that rather than worry, we should passionately pursue Jesus and seek first the Kingdom of God. God will provide all we need. It's about the heart. A heart cannot love and serve two masters. The heart is the center of our personalit...
Oct 15, 2024•13 min
In Matthew 5, Jesus sat down on a mountain with His disciples gathered around Him and poured out wisdom for how to live every day as a follower of Christ Jesus. Jesus addressed issues of the heart. The unconditional love of Jesus covers us and through His power within us, He equips us to love others as well. Jesus didn't come to destroy the Law or the Prophets, He came to fulfill it. Fulfill means to fill out, to expand or complete. Jesus obeyed the Law perfectly and lived it out in His life on ...
Oct 14, 2024•14 min
(Matthew 28:16-20; Hebrews 1:1-14) If we truly love Jesus, heart and soul, we will want to share about Him to everyone we meet. Jesus commissioned us to go and make disciples of all the nations. Jesus has all authority and He assures us He is with us always and forever, through whatever may come.
Oct 12, 2024•13 min
In Matthew 4, Jesus is led to the wilderness by the Spirit of God to be tempted by the devil. He went through this testing, like His baptism, to connect with us in our humanity. Jesus is 100% God but is also 100% human. Jesus was 1st tempted physically. He had fasted 40 days and His body was hungry, but He did not give in. The 2nd temptation was personal gain and the 3rd was power. Jesus did not give in. He fought the temptations with the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. The tempora...
Oct 11, 2024•17 min
In Matthew 3, John the Baptist is revealed as the forerunner announcing the coming of our King and Savior - our Messiah, Yeshua. A forerunner went before the king to announce that the king was coming to visit a town and make sure the town was in good condition to receive him. The forerunner prepared people for the arrival of the king. John the Baptist was the forerunner for Jesus. Today, if we have repented from sin and have chosen to submit our lives to Jesus, heart and soul, we are forerunners...
Oct 10, 2024•15 min
In Matthew 2, some Gentile wise men notice an unusual star and they realize it is the star noting the coming of the Messiah. They follow the supernatural star and it leads them right to Jesus, our Messiah, who was born in Bethlehem. Satan, through Herod, gets angry and wants Him destroyed so God sends a message to Joseph in a dream. They escape to Egypt where they are safe from Herod's evil hand. When it is safe, God again sends message and Joseph returns to Israel, but this time God sends them ...
Oct 09, 2024•12 min
Matthew is the Bridge-Building Gospel of Jesus. He reveals the Kingship of Jesus and His holy authority over all that is, all that was, and all that will be. In Matthew 1, he details 3 sets of 14 generations that began with Jesus at creation and end with Jesus as our Messiah and Lord of all. Matthew focuses on the Kingdom of Jesus and includes women in his genealogical account, which was not common in his time and culture. He proves that Jesus came for all sinners, everyone, regardless of gender...
Oct 08, 2024•17 min
In Song of Songs 7 & 8, the love of the couple grows and matures and they enjoy spending time together and learning more about each other as they fall more and more in love. The husband and wife are compared to two armies marching together, each helping and defending the other. They don't battle each other, they battle for each other and attack anything that may threaten the marriage. Jesus is our Bridegroom. We need to spend intentional time in prayer and in His Word learning, growing, and ...
Oct 07, 2024•8 min
(John 21:1-19) The purpose God has written into us never expires. His love for us never ends or changes. Jesus tells us to repent, turn from sin, and keep falling faithfully forward in and with Him. Run to Jesus and cling to Him through all of life's ups and downs. It's always too soon to quit.
Oct 05, 2024•16 min
In Song of Songs 4, 5, & 6, the relationship described is past the initial courtship of butterflies and excitement and settles into the growth phase. As they move into the growth and maturity phase of the relationship, the bride stops being intentional about spending time with her groom and she is no longer in his presence. She realizes her error and runs out to find him. Jesus is our Bridegroom and He is returning for a prepared Bride. We need to be intentional with our time with the Lord. ...
Oct 04, 2024•13 min
In Song of Songs 2 & 3, the relationship being described moves from potential courtship to courtship and marriage. The couple are excited to be in each others presence and they adore each other. They miss each other when they are apart and want to be together all the time. Their relationship and love grows because they spend time together. The Lord is preparing an eternal home for us. He is our Bridegroom and He is returning for His Bride. The world is in utter chaos everywhere you look, but...
Oct 03, 2024•13 min
Song of Songs is a love song of devotion as a couple takes us through the process of potential courtship, the courtship process, the wedding, and marriage. In Song of Songs 1, the Shulamite woman and Solomon sing a song of excited anticipation for potential courtship. Song of Songs is a beautiful picture that portrays the love of a bride and her bridegroom. It's also a greater picture of the Church and our coming Bridegroom. The woman expresses her concern for not being good enough and Solomon q...
Oct 02, 2024•10 min
In Ecclesiastes 10, 11, & 12, Solomon wraps up the findings of his very thorough evaluation of life under the sun. He again encourages wise living rather than being careless and foolish. He concludes that fearing God and keeping His commands is the ultimate life goal. It is in God that true joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment comes into life under the sun. He encourages us to love the Lord God with every fiber of your being and treat the people around us the same way. He emphasizes the import...
Oct 01, 2024•17 min
