Matthew 17 Today's chapter begins with Peter, James John on top of a mountain witnessing the amazing transfiguration of Jesus. Suddenly Moses Elijah appear, and an audible voice of God is heard saying, "This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him." The disciples are terrified and they fall face down on the ground. Jesus calms them and they trav...

Matthew 16 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." A few years back at church-wide leadership meeting we looked at this ...

Matthew 15 "Watch your mouth!" Those words take on a significantly more serious tone when they come from Jesus instead of just your Mom. But, that is exactly what the Lord warns us about in Matthew 15. Jesus warns His disciples: (Matthew 15:18-20)"What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, mu...

Matthew 14 Matthew 14 records two famous miracles of Jesus: The feeding of the five thousand, and walking on water. One displaying his provision, and the other his incredible and overwhelming power as God. Jesus Feeds The Five Thousand In verses 13-21 Jesus is actually trying to get away, to retreat, meditate, and spend time in prayer, but in his compassion he stays, as...

Matthew 13 "He who has ears, let him hear." Matthew 13:9 In Matthew 13 we see the record of Jesus telling a number of parables. As a matter of fact, there are 8 of them. In previous chapters we see Jesus using parables to illustrate his teachings such as in 5:14-16 where Jesus says, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do pe...

Matthew 12 Today we're going to do something a little different. Instead of a single writer, we decided to have each of the staff members give a brief thought from Matthew 12. Bobby Pruitt "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." Jesus drops this theological bomb on a group of Pharisees. Mark's Gospel account includes the instructive statement, "The Sabbath was made ...

Matthew 11 Are you tired? Are youoverwhelmed by life? Are you stressed? More so than any time in history, we live in a society, which runs at an unsustainable pace. There are more things demanding our time. People have constant access to us. There's no way to escape the pressure. There's always another soccer practice There's always another email to respond to ...

Matthew 9 Just recently someone responded to a Facebook post inviting him to church on Easter with some harsh words. I won't quote him, because I hope he'll someday come to regret those words and I don't want to further tie them to him. But the comment was similar in many ways to the famous quote by Richard Dawkins: "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most un...

Matthew 8 Matthew starts to explore the actual work of Jesus Christ. He gives us four different examples of Christ's power. Christ's Power Over Diseases Leprosy (v1-4) The leper started by kneeling before Him and calling Him "Lord". The leper was able to recognize Jesus' authority and power. He had the faith to trust that Jesus could do what He said He could do. As s...

Matthew 7 Matthew 7:1 is one of the most misused verses in the Bible. From the NIV- 1 Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Too often we use this verse as a defense against someone confronting us about one of our sins or something we are doing w...

Matthew 6 Where do you find comfort and security? Your job Your savings Shopping Food Circumstances A politician The problem with most of the places we turn to find comfort and security is that there's nothing secure about them. The last 10 years have made it perfectly clear how uncertain the job market, our investments, and the political climate are. Food an...

Matthew 5 Matthew chapter 5 begins Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. I believe that it is, hands down, the best sermon ever preached! Of course, when God Himself is preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit and ever word He speaks is Scripture, can there be any competition? John Stott referred to the Sermon on the Mount as, "The nearest thing to a manifesto that Jesus ever utt...

Matthew 4 A lot happens in Matthew chapter 4, but I am going to focus in on The Temptation of Jesus at the very beginning of the chapter. Even in these first few verses there are a ton of application points! In verses 1-11 Satan is tempting Jesus to try and throw off God's plan of redemption. He is trying to get Jesus to fall into sin, in order to disqualify him as the...

Matthew 3 There are so many things in Matthew 3 that had me thinking and truly wanting to dig into and focus on this one chapter â€" which is something that I don’t know if I have ever done before myself. And within this story of Jesus’ baptism, I found more than just one story… The image we receive of John the Baptist is that of a true man of God:...

Matthew 2 Over my life time there has been a significant change in who is a hero, a star and role model. When I was a boy I dreamed of being a soldier or a sports star. I wanted to be like Mickey Mantle and play baseball in the majors. Those were the days of Mickey Mantle before he was outed as an alcoholic. But in the sixties news traveled as fast as your daily paper cou...

Matthew 1 If you've spent much time reader either the Old Testament or the gospels, you've noticed there is a tendency for the writers to make long lists of names. The Old Testament is so committed to making long lists of names that there's actually an entire bookdedicated to this task, Numbers. So why were the Bible writers so dedicated to genealogies? The Genealogies P...

James 5 One of the things I really love about the book of James is that it doesn't end. By that I mean that James is sharing hard truth and calling for clear application until his very last word. James has a lot to say and packs it into five brief chapters. For me, the most moving part of chapter 5 is when James describes the return of his big brother. In words that so...

James 4 James 4 is set in the context of James' broader discussion of our speech and, more broadly, our demeanor: James 3 13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct he should show his works done in the gentleness that wisdom brings. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfishness in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth. ...

James 3 God has an amazing sense of humor. Why? I get to blog on James 3 "Taming of the tongue". There should be no question that God is at work in our quiet times and even in this blogging. As everyone who knows me more than as a simple acquaintance can attest to, I struggle with this greatly. I am quick to speak and can say things that I should have filtered. I can u...

James 2 I don't know how you can help from having a burning and a yearning in your heart when you read James. You can feel his passion and the sureness of the truth he speaks to us come right through the pages. It is like life to the bones for me, having read it through times of trial, times of temptation, times of blessing and times of wavering. Here we have the sure t...

James 1 ***DISCLAIMER*** I literally just finished a 5 week sermon series on James 1 for our high school students; this could be very long.*** A Change in Identity Leads to a Change in Activity (Verse 1) The Book of James starts off with a truly shocking opening statement! James 1 (NIV)1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, James 1 (NET)1 From J...