18 While walking by the
Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and
Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 And
going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee
and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending
their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
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Well sisters, I'm set to trying again to keep up with my blog. I got a little discouraged and just got lazy. I hope you all are still up for this. If at any point you would rather not get notifications for these posts please feel free to ask me to take you off it if you can't do so yourself. I won't be offended.
Also, I made the blog public so that you don't have to log in to view it because some of you were having trouble viewing the blog. I don't really want this to be public though so please don't share the link around. If things get out of hand I'll just make it private again but it will be a bit of a nuisance.
For today's post I need to go back to Matthew 4 and do the part that I accidentally skipped last time. From the first paragraph of the quoted passage above I'm always surprised by how it says that Simon and Andrew immediately left their nets to follow Jesus. I wonder what that actually looked like. May we drop everything to follow him too.
In the second paragraph, it's interesting to note that Jesus is preaching the gospel of the kingdom. What is the gospel? Is it the good news of the death and resurrection of Jesus or is it more or other than that? It doesn't seem that Jesus was preaching what is commonly called "the gospel." What was he preaching? I have an understanding of this but it would nice to hear what some of you have to say first.
As a side note on the last paragraph, wouldn't have been amazing to have been able to witness all those miracles first hand? What a privilege the disciples had!
Wednesday, 4 January 2017
Wednesday, 19 October 2016
Matt 4:18-25
Haha! I just realised that I accidently skipped this. I'll get back to this in a few days. There's no point in overwhelming any of us.
Matthew 5:1-16
1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
--------------------
Well sisters, I've been procrastinating on putting out this post because I've felt a little intimidated about diving into the sermon on the mount. I see it as the bread and butter of the gospels. Here is where our king lays down his constitution.
The blessings here are so challenging. May we all be found worthy so that we can share in the kingdom of heaven, be comforted, inherit the earth, be satisfied, receive mercy, see God, be called sons of God, and have a great reward in heaven! Could anyone desire anything more?
I think that I've heard about 100 sermons on the salt and light section in my evangelical days. People like to wax eloquent about the characteristics of salt and how we are like that but really we just don't know exactly which characteristics he was thinking of. Sure salt is purifying, makes things taste better, is persevering, etc but it's also stings in a wound and too much of it will kill you. It's not good interpretation to just expand an illustration in all the directions that suit you and reject the ones you don't like. What we do know about this, though, is that Jesus was saying that if we become useless we are about as useless as saltless salt (probably sand in that day).
The light paragraph gives me pause because Jesus seems to suggest that we should do our good works so that others might see us. In chapter 6, in particular, he then emphasizes how we should not do our good so that others will see us. How can this be reconciled? I think what he's really saying is that we should do our good works so that others will give glory to our father who is in heaven. Let us keep our purpose to this.
May you all be blessed today, sisters. Do you have any thoughts?
2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
--------------------
Well sisters, I've been procrastinating on putting out this post because I've felt a little intimidated about diving into the sermon on the mount. I see it as the bread and butter of the gospels. Here is where our king lays down his constitution.
The blessings here are so challenging. May we all be found worthy so that we can share in the kingdom of heaven, be comforted, inherit the earth, be satisfied, receive mercy, see God, be called sons of God, and have a great reward in heaven! Could anyone desire anything more?
I think that I've heard about 100 sermons on the salt and light section in my evangelical days. People like to wax eloquent about the characteristics of salt and how we are like that but really we just don't know exactly which characteristics he was thinking of. Sure salt is purifying, makes things taste better, is persevering, etc but it's also stings in a wound and too much of it will kill you. It's not good interpretation to just expand an illustration in all the directions that suit you and reject the ones you don't like. What we do know about this, though, is that Jesus was saying that if we become useless we are about as useless as saltless salt (probably sand in that day).
The light paragraph gives me pause because Jesus seems to suggest that we should do our good works so that others might see us. In chapter 6, in particular, he then emphasizes how we should not do our good so that others will see us. How can this be reconciled? I think what he's really saying is that we should do our good works so that others will give glory to our father who is in heaven. Let us keep our purpose to this.
May you all be blessed today, sisters. Do you have any thoughts?
Tuesday, 27 September 2016
Matthew 4:1-17
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your Godand him only shall you serve.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
12 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
16 the people dwelling in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,on them a light has dawned.”
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Friday, 16 September 2016
Matt 3
1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’”
4 Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’”
4 Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
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