“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” Luke 11:23 (NIV) “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.” Matthew 10: 32-33 (NIV) There are only two sides of…
Consider the Claims of Christ this Christmas: Lord of the Sabbath
Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:23-28 (NIV) The Old Testment laws for the Jews included a required day of rest—just as God rested from his work of creation of the world in Genesis (Genesis 2:2)….
Consider the Claims of Christ this Christmas: He Knows and Reveals the Father
“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22 (NIV) What a bold claim to say he alone knows the Father, the Almighty God in…
Consider the Claims of Christ this Christmas: He Came to Call and Forgive Sinners
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But…
Consider the Claims of Christ this Christmas: “The Son of Man”
God’s voice was heard coming from heaven at Jesus’ baptism, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) God, himself, declared Jesus his Son—the Son of God. But throughout the New Testament Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man—human! Jesus was God incarnate—in flesh. Paul states Jesus, being in very nature God, didn’t…
Consider the Claims of Christ this Christmas
For the next few weeks leading up to Christmas, I will consider the claims Jesus made about himself. Before I became a follower of Jesus Christ, I knew very little about him—despite the fact I grew up in America and thought myself a Christian. The Bible presents four accounts of the birth, life, ministry, death,…
I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say
A hymn by Horatius Bonar (1808-1899) I heard the voice of Jesus say, ‘Come unto me and rest; Lay down, thou weary one, lay down thy head upon my breast.’ I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and sad; I found him in a resting place, and he has made me glad….
A Kingdom that Cannot be Shaken
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the…
Love Never Fails
I Corinthians 13:8 begins with—Love never fails. As defined in this same chapter love is: Patient, kind, not jealous, does not brag, is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account wrongs suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, rejoices with the truth, bears all…
Let Us Pray
Recently, a couple friends feeling down asked me to pray for them. Later, as I considered my prayer, I felt dissatisfied. I realized my prayer was misdirected—it focused on their experience. Wouldn’t it have served them better, if I had turned their attention to the awesome, faithful, gracious God we love and serve? Prayers I…
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