Tagged: Daily Reflection

“Blest are you poor; the reign of God is yours.” –Luke 6:20 Jesus tells us, His disciples, that we will be happy if we choose to be poor, hungry, weeping, and persecuted. Many people have tried to spiritualize these beatitudes but Jesus’ lifestyle and other passages in the Scriptures contradict that interpretation. Jesus actually meant we should choose material poverty, redemptive suffering, and persecution. We have devoted almost our whole lives to developing our lifestyle. If we chose a simple lifestyle of material poverty, it would be like throwing our lives away. Nonetheless, Jesus said: “Whoever would save his life...

“The Lord will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth has borne.” –Micah 5:2 Micah prophesied that the Lord would give His people up until the mother of the Messiah had given birth to Him. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be called ” ‘Emmanuel,’ a name which means ‘God is with us’ ” (Mt 1:23; Is 7:14). After Mary had given birth to her Son, Who was both the Messiah and the Son of God, we would never have to feel that the Lord had given us up. Now we can know that...

“The scribes and Pharisees were on the watch to see if He would perform a cure on the Sabbath so that they could find a charge against Him.” –Luke 6:7 Jesus could have healed the man with a withered hand on a day other than the Sabbath or in private. Yet Jesus refused to be intimidated and manipulated by His enemies. In fact, Jesus publicly displayed this healing on the Sabbath (Lk 6:8ff). As expected, Jesus’ opponents “went crazy” (see Lk 6:11) and eventually had Him crucified. Jesus is courageous, fearless, and confrontational. He did not compromise His principles, even...

Jesus “put His fingers into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue.” –Mark 7:33 Jesus’ gestures of inserting his fingers into a deaf-mute man’s ears and touching the man’s tongue seem foreign to our modern, antiseptic culture. Yet if you’re baptized, you experienced the touch of Jesus in a similar way. At baptism, the priest or deacon touched your ears and lips, praying that God would open your ears to hear His Word and your lips to proclaim it. Before Jesus touched the deaf-mute, “He looked up to heaven and emitted a groan. He said to him, ‘Ephphatha!’ (that...