Tagged: message of the day
“Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me Your paths.” –Psalm 25:4 God first taught His ways to His people by giving them His Ten Commandments (Ex 20:1ff). His people lost their way, so God “tried again” (Jer 18:4). He sent them prophets to teach them His ways, and promised to write His laws and ways upon their hearts (Jer 31:33). God’s people struggled to grasp His ways (Is 55:8-9). God’s next step was to send Jesus as a Teacher to teach us His ways and paths (Jn 3:2). Jesus taught us that God’s way is to forgive...
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“But his servants came up and reasoned with him.” –2 Kings 5:13 Naaman was blessed with humble servants who pleaded with him and reasoned with him. Where was the voice of reason who would calm the angry crowd in the Nazareth synagogue? It may have only taken one voice of reason to still the Nazareth crowd and prevent Jesus’ very own townspeople from carrying out their murderous intentions. The disciples and Peter corrected the powerful Sanhedrin. “When the Sanhedrin heard this, they were stung to fury and wanted to kill them” (Acts 5:33). Nevertheless, Gamaliel, the one voice of reason,...
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“A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he came out looking for fruit on it.” –Luke 13:6 If we don’t bear fruit, we will be cut down (Lk 13:9) and thrown into the fire to be burnt (Jn 15:6). If we don’t bear fruit by leading others to Christ, we will not live with Christ in eternity. We can be sure of bearing fruit by living in Jesus the Vine (Jn 15:5), and dying to self. “Unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if...
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“We had to celebrate and rejoice! This brother of yours was dead, and has come back to life. He was lost, and is found.” –Luke 15:32 There is “more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent” (Lk 15:7). We rejoice over a sinner’s repentance because this is so important to Jesus and, therefore, to us. “You can depend on this as worthy of full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tm 1:15). Jesus so wants sinners to return to Him that He died...
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“They seized him, dragged him outside the vineyard, and killed him.”–Matthew 21:39 In both Scripture readings today, we see advanced stages of evil. Jacob’s years of deception came back to haunt him when he was deceived by his sons, who almost murdered their brother Joseph and eventually sold him into slavery (Gn 37:28). In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus describes centuries of rebellion against God’s will. This rebellion culminated in murdering Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God. We see many strongholds of the evil one in our midst (see 2 Cor 10:4). We see advanced stages of evil which have...
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