The Excellency of Christ

  Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you." Then He said to the disciples, "The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, 'Look here!' or 'Look there!' Do not go after them or follow them. For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as i...

I recently wrote about our call to persevere in the faith, and I feel the need to follow that up with another message, as the Lord seems to keep impressing this onto my mind.  This article is long, but I believe it's worth it.  Following Jesus can be difficult at times, and the Bible has a lot to say to keep us moving forward.  I personally have had many seasons where I felt I simply could not go on, but God is always faithful.  Jesus does not forsake his own, and as the scripture says in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 , we comfort other with the comfort we ourselves have received. Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them....

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops. - Luke 12:1-3 Jesus began this portion of scripture (Luke 11:14 - 12:12) responding to the blasphemous accusation of the Pharisees, who accused him of casting out Demons by the name Belzeebub.  The Lord responded by saying that a Kingdom divided against itself could not stand, and that, If Satan was divided against himself, his Kingdom would not stand.  Jesus truly casted out the demon in power, but this was done by the finger of God, for the Kingdom of God (himself) had come.  He overcame the enemy and divided his spoils, demonstrating the power of God over the evil one. It is a great concern how religious men who are fully convinced of their Knowledge and standin...

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ - 1 Peter 1:13 The Christian life is not an easy journey, in fact, we are promised that we will encounter many trails and have to endure much suffering on our journey ( Acts 14:22 , 1 Peter 1:6-7 , 2 Corinthians 1:6-7 , Romans 8:17 ).  Grieved by various trials, enduring wave after wave of affliction, and surrounded by many whose hearts have grown cold; we are vulnerable to the tempters voice to give up and go back to the ease of the world, conforming to our former lusts.  However, suffering in the Christian life is to be expected, and is in fact necessary.  It is not merely said that we will endure trials, but that we will be grieved by them.  There are seasons when trials will be heavy upon our shoulders, and you can do nothing but shed tears of sorrow. There are many reasons God may have for our sufferings: figh...

This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart. Matthew 18 ends with a story from the Lord Jesus, regarding forgiveness.  The story highlights our foolishness when we do not forgive our brother or sister in Christ, and also tells us what we can expect when we are unforgiving.  “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished ato settle accounts with his servants.7 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him bten thousand ctalents.8 25 dAnd since he could not pay, his master ordered him eto be sold, with his wife and fchildren and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant9 gfell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and dforgave him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred hden...

And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of you stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct - 1 Peter 1:17-18 Redemption is not metaphorical, it is real. God offered a supremely infinite and precious payment for sin, which speaks to the vileness of sin, the merit of Jesus Christ, and how serious the call to be holy as I am holy truly is. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. - 1 John 1:5-6 The fact that Jesus is the only one sufficient to redeem us, God testifies, not only of how perfectly righteous and pure Jesus is but also of how bad our sin actually is; mainly that our sin is evil and we are deserving of his wrath.  God has a ...