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The Troubles of Joseph and Mary

By Filed Under Luke 11 Comments

One of my favorite passages is Isaiah 28:27-28.

…caraway is beaten with a rod, and cummin with a stick. Grain must be ground to make bread…”

Do you ever feel like the caraway, the cummin, and the grain in this verse?

Do you ever feel like life is beating you with a stick? Like you are being ground to pieces?

Do you ever feel like all the world is against you? Like nothing goes your way? Like even God has turned away from you?

You have financial problems, and health problems, marital problems, family problems, job problems, car problems, and on and on it goes.

Joseph and Mary faced many of these troubles as well, and they had the added pressure of being the parents of the promised Messiah. Imagine that burden!

Joseph and Mary

This scene is from "The Nativity Story" which is one of the best movies about the birth of Jesus I have ever seen.

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Scripture on Thanksgiving

By Filed Under Bible Study, Discipleship 1 Comment

Scriptures on Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

As you enjoy time with family, eating lots of food, watching football, playing games, or whatever it is you do on Thanksgiving, remember to focus on what today is really about: giving thanks to God for all His blessings He showers upon us.

To help you do that, I want to direct you to one of my other websites: Scripture On.com, specifically, the page on Thanksgiving. If you want a few verses or devotional insights to encourage you about Thanksgiving, you might find some of the Scriptures on this page helpful.

One of my joys in life is studying and teaching Scripture, and while I have Grace Commentary.com for this, it requires too much study to write regular posts. So last week I launched Scripture On.com where I could write daily insights from Scripture on various topics and Bible passages. As I add more content, it will not only serve as a place for you to find Scriptures on these various topics, but I will also try to write daily posts which could serve as a daily devotional for you and your family.

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Hand This Man Over to Satan

By Filed Under Bible Study, Close Your Church for Good 6 Comments

Apostle Paul handed a man over to SatanIn 1 Corinthians 5:5 and 1 Timothy 1:20, Paul says he hands people over to Satan for the destruction of their flesh.

What does this mean and how is it accomplished?

There are a few main views:

Let Satan Kill Him

Some believe that the man who is handed over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh will suffer premature death. They noted this word “destruction” (Gk. olethros) is used three other times in Scripture (1 Thess 5:3; 2 Thess 1:9; 1 Tim 6:9) and refers to physical death as a result of sin. Some believe this is what happened to Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11), or what Scripture means when it refers to “the sin unto death” (Rom 6:16; 1 John 5:16).

In this case, handing someone over to Satan is like giving them a death sentence. Related to this, some believe that handing someone over to Satan means that we are consigning them to everlasting torment in hell. This is the sort of thinking that has led to so much judgment, condemnation, and killing of other people throughout church history, and is a complete misunderstanding of the text.

Destruction of the Sin Nature

A second, softer view is that Paul is not referring to physical death, but what some refer to as “the mortification of sin,” that is, the destruction of our sinful tendencies and fleshly desires. Proponents of this view point out that in 1 Corinthians 5:5, Paul contrasts “flesh” with “spirit.” While “flesh” can refer to the physical body, it most often refers to the “sinful nature” in mankind (cf. Gal 5:17), especially when placed in contrast to “spirit” as in 1 Corinthians 5:5. So the destruction of the flesh would not be physical death, but the process of learning to defeat temptation and sin.

Some authors have referred to this as the “mortification of sin.” In support of this view, when Paul speaks of handing two believers over to Satan in 1 Timothy 1:20, they did not die but were still alive and well, and still causing problems for Paul and the church in Ephesus (cf. 2 Tim 2:17; 4:14).

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Murder in Church

By Filed Under Bible Commentary, Luke 5 Comments

Do murder and worship mix? I think not.

Yet it happens in churches all across the country every Sunday. People raise their hands to God in worship, while thinking murderous and hateful thoughts about the person in the next pew. And such thoughts, according to Jesus, are the spiritual equivalent to murder.

But this is nothing new.

Luke 6:6-11

In Luke 6:6-11, Jesus asks a question of the religious leaders about one of the big theological issues of the day. The question essentially is this: “On the Sabbath, is it better to save a life or to destroy a life?”

Clearly, the answer is that it is better to save a life, but since work could not be done on the Sabbath, the religious leaders of the day had come up with an answer to help pious Jews figure out whether or not they could help someone on the Sabbath. (I wrote about their answer here.) Jesus was aware of this answer, and purposefully acted contrary to it by healing a man with a withered hand.

According to the theologically-approved answer, Jesus should have waited until the Sabbath was over to heal the man. After all, he apparently had been this way for some time. A few more hours wouldn’t kill him. But Jesus ignores all that, and helps the man anyway. Right in front of all the religious leaders.

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The Primary Problem with Theology

By Filed Under Bible Commentary, Luke, Mission 11 Comments

Theological Questions

The primary problem with theology is that it asks questions. This doesn’t sound like a problem, until you realize the danger of questions.

Don’t get me wrong, I love questions. I think everything should be questioned. But following the theme of Ecclesiastes 3, there is a time to ask questions, and there is a time to shut up and do actions.

Yesterday we looked at a famous theological question from the days of Jesus, and I suggested that Jesus hated the question, especially when the person that the debate was about was standing right in front of Jesus with a need that could be met.

When theology gets in the way of loving others, Jesus throws theology out the window.

But curiously, to make His point, Jesus begins by asking a question. I indicated previously that the reason Jesus asked the question is not because He didn’t know the answer, or because He thought His audience didn’t know the answer.

The reason Jesus asked the question is because He knew the answer, and He hated the answer.

By asking the question, Jesus is saying, “While you religious leaders come up with your theologically correct answer to determine whether or not you can heal on the Sabbath, here is a real, live human being who is hurting and in need of your help, and all you can do is sit there and debate about him like he was a log blocking the road.”

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