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Ananias and Sapphira, ever hear of them? If you haven't, their story is found in the Bible book of Acts of the Apostles. They played a role in church history that nobody really wanted to take. It was a role that they chose, however.  They gave money to the church and paid for it with their lives. How was that? What? Come again?  It went like this. Just after Pentecost and the arrival of the Holy Spirit, God was doing miraculous things to kickoff what became the church. There were miracles, signs and wonders and, what Peter called, fulfilled prophecy (Joel). Tongues, or other languages were used to spread the word of the Gospel. It was a time like no other and the church was growing exponentially.  Persecution began to happen with the jailing of Peter and John. They were accused of filling Jerusalem with their doctrine. Of course that is exactly what they were doing! Their doctrine was the Gospel, that Jesus was the Christ, the Savior of the world.  So what was with t...

John 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.   Jesus was otherworldly. He did things that no other human had ever done and said things that no man had said. His wisdom and words were not from here. Thus he was so often misunderstood. He left so many people confused. This aspect of his ministry is blatant in the four Gospels. Though now, as the Holy Spirit has spread the Gospel throughout the world, we understand much of what Jesus was communicating, back then, the original hearers were stupified. Part of this phenomenon is that spiritual things are hidden to some and revealed to others.  As you read the Gospel records you will often hear the disciples say, "Explain to us the parable of the (you fill in the blank)". You will also hear Jesus say, "To you it has been given to understand these things but to those on the outside these things have been hidden."  The disciples were on the inside of Jesus...

Seven times in John's Gospel Jesus utters this phrase. Here's the list: And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12). “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25). Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine-dresser” (John 15:1). These verses tell an amazing story about Jesus the Christ. Each deserves a study. Maybe I'll do tha...

 He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.   This verse jumped out at me this morning. The scene is Luke 23 and Jesus' trial and conviction. Wicked Pilate finds no reason to convict Jesus yet the mob wants his blood. Try as he might to escape this situation, Pilate surrendered to the multitude. They cried for Barabas and Barrabás they got.   The reason the above verse caught my attention was because of the phrase, "and (he) surrendered Jesus to their will. Pilate surrendered Jesus to the crowd's will. Strange.  Since when does a tyrant surrender to the people's will? Didn't he have soldiers handy to put down a rebellion? Who was in charge?  The religious leaders wanted Jesus dead. But even they didn't want him killed during the feast of the Passover. Because they feared the crowd. This crowd had cheered as Jesus had entered the city on a colt. They had marvel...

John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?"   Here we are in a graveyard. We are at Lazarus' tomb and we come into the middle of a conversation between Martha and Jesus. The talk begins in verse 21 and goes to verse 27 and is profound. We always think that Martha, because she was a busy housewife, missed out on Jesus' teachings. I have my suspicions that she was listening more than we know.  If you've read this passage before you know that it is an amazing exchange. Jesus brought a lot of theological content into his exchanges with women. Mary, before he was born, sings an amazing song in Luke 1. Jesus asking for water from a Samaritan woman helps us to see that, sinner though she was, she'd been thinking about eternal things. The Syrophnecian woman whose daughter was near death, is another example tha...

Did you know that for the first time in decades less than 50 percent of the world's population calls itself religious? Church attendance has taken a huge hit since the year 2000. A big part of the situation is that the old members are simply dying off and the newer generation doesn't see religion as a desired aspect of life.  Being a church goer, and especially a Baptist church goer, is looked at as being on the right side of the political spectrum. Which to many is perceived as being prudish or out of touch with the mainstream. Being against: same-sex marriage, homosexuality and abortion, is not popular these days. How sad.  One specialist, who was raised in the Southern Baptist church, snickered as she corrected her interviewer saying, "I am not a Southern Baptist any more!" She was so quick to shed her spiritual roots. She, being the expert in religion that she is, said that pastors these days, are taking their congregations "nowhere". And thus no-one wan...

So, there is this short Parable that Jesus gives just after a long talk about the yeast of the Pharisees and the mounting pressure from them to get rid of him. Out of the blue, and from the crowd, some guy shouts, "Teacher, make my brother divide the inheritance with me!" (Luke 12:13). How times have changed and how nothing has changed. This poor guy got the shaft from his dead parent. Or maybe he got what he deserved. Whatever the case he was bold enough to shout out his question that seemed totally unrelated to Jesus' current topic.  Luke 12:13 to 20 constitutes one paragraph in Luke's narrative. One hundred and seventy one words in my English version. Rather insignificant in a literary context as big as the Bible. Yet it wasn't so meaningless that Luke (the Holy Spirit) left it out of his account. Remember, Luke was writing to Theophilus. Maybe a rich guy? Maybe for this reason Luke talks about the rich man and Lazarus, the rich young ruler and this guy with th...