Reflective Bible Study

One thing Jesus seemed to push back against in His ministry was the popularity trap. This trap is a trap for our egos and it happens when we know there are others following us. The bigger the group of followers results in the bigger the trap.

Jesus didn’t mind people following Him; He had even invited a dozen people specifically to follow. However, the size of the crowd following Jesus was also a sign of the sincerity of the following. Whenever the crowds seemed to get too big for Jesus, He would challenge them in some way that would subtly disperse those present.

As I say this, I wonder if this was because He didn’t want to attract too much Roman attention because it would affect His mission to those in Judea.

The parable-illustration in the passage we are looking at focuses in on one of these challenges Jesus uses to disperse the crowds. While it might seem like a strong statement for Jesus to make, the message Jesus shares is a challenge for everyone who calls themselves a follower of Jesus.

Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 14, and we will be reading from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 25, Luke tells us that:

²⁵ Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ²⁶ “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

²⁸ “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? ²⁹ For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, ³⁰ saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

³¹ “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³² If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. ³³ In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

³⁴ “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? ³⁵ It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

In this passage and illustration, Jesus clearly lays out the cost of being a disciple. From how Luke introduces us to Jesus’ words, and from what Jesus challenges those present with, it would appear that many in the crowd were following Jesus because they simply wanted to be near the popular person. These people likely enjoyed seeing miracles and hearing Jesus successfully win challenges that the religious leaders tried to discredit Him with. In the crowd’s eyes, Jesus was a celebrity and everything He did was God inspired entertainment.

But this is a problem. Jesus did not come to entertain us. Jesus came to give His life for us to redeem us from sin. There is a huge difference!

When deciding whether we should follow God or not, Jesus challenges us to count the cost. The cost of following Jesus is stated in verses 26 and 27: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

The cost of following Jesus is everything. This includes every “thing” we own, every relationship we have, every breath we take, and every challenge and trial that comes our way. If we are not 100% committed to Jesus, then we cannot be His disciple according to this passage.

Does this passage really teach us to hate our own family after we decide to follow Jesus?

This is what this passage appears to say on the surface. The challenge with the surface level understanding of this statement is that many of those we are challenged to hate are people God specifically brought into our lives. God brought us into the lives of our parents and our siblings, He directed the circumstances towards our finding a spouse, and He brought children into our lives. Everyone who is in our lives is in our lives because of God in some way, shape, or form.

Instead, I believe it is more correct to believe Jesus challenges us to count the true cost of being one of His followers. If we are to truly follow Jesus, we must put Jesus ahead of any and every other person in our lives. This means that if our decision to follow Jesus is met with disappointment from our parents, hostility from our spouse, and/or resentment from our children, then we should hold fast to our decision because the life Jesus has called us to is greater than we could imagine. If those in our lives don’t understand this, then they are breaking their relationship with us.

We are called to count the cost and if we determine the cost is worth it, we should choose Jesus over anyone and everyone else in our lives. This seems like a steep cost. What is the benefit that would ever outweigh this in our lives?

When we choose to follow Jesus, He offers us a new family, a family with God as our Father. Jesus offers us a place at God’s table in a new heaven and a new earth that doesn’t include pain, death, or sin. Jesus offers us a second chance at life when our first lives here in this earth have been messed up by sin.

Jesus does challenge us to give up some seemingly important things in our lives, but the rewards He offers to us extend into eternity.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, be sure to intentionally seek God first in your life. If you have not made the decision to follow Jesus, or if you believe the cost is too high, I invite you to take your worries, your fears, and your concerns to God in prayer and ask Him to help you understand both the risk and the rewards of choosing Jesus. Choosing Jesus doesn’t mean we will have an easy life in a sinful world, but it does mean we will be prepared for a perfect life in a sinless world when Jesus returns!

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to purposefully grow your relationship with God. Through prayer and studying the Bible, we can open our hearts to Jesus and we can let Him into our lives. As I regularly remind and challenge you to do, don’t let me or anyone else get between you and your relationship with God. While I can give you great things to think about, I want more than anything else that you take what I share with you and discover it for yourself through prayer and Bible study. God wants a relationship with you personally and directly, and I’m more than willing to help if you need help!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

In our last episode, we started looking at the event where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. In that episode, we focused in on what happened when Jesus learned that Lazarus was sick and how Jesus promised that His sickness would not end in death, but that God and His Son would be glorified through this event. However, Jesus stayed where He was for two more days, before announcing to the disciples that Lazarus had died, and that it was now time to travel to Bethany.

While I don’t know how far of a journey it is between where Jesus was at and Bethany where Lazarus was sick, from the way this event is framed, Jesus likely would have not made it in time since He waited two days before beginning to travel to Bethany. And as we will soon see, when Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been dead for more than two days.

Let’s read what happened and discover some things we can learn from the amazing miracle that was about to take place. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 11, and we will read it using the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 16, John tells us that:

¹⁷ When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. ¹⁸ (Bethany was near Jerusalem, not quite two miles away.) ¹⁹ Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.

²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. Mary stayed at home. ²¹ Martha told Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask him.”

²³ Jesus told Martha, “Your brother will come back to life.”

²⁴ Martha answered Jesus, “I know that he’ll come back to life on the last day, when everyone will come back to life.”

²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the one who brings people back to life, and I am life itself. Those who believe in me will live even if they die. ²⁶ Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe that?”

²⁷ Martha said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who was expected to come into the world.”

²⁸ After Martha had said this, she went back home and whispered to her sister Mary, “The teacher is here, and he is calling for you.”

²⁹ When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Jesus. ³⁰ (Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still where Martha had met him.) ³¹ The Jews who were comforting Mary in the house saw her get up quickly and leave. So they followed her. They thought that she was going to the tomb to cry. ³² When Mary arrived where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

³³ When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who were crying with her, he was deeply moved and troubled.

Let’s pause briefly here, because I want to draw out an interesting contrast. From how John frames each sister’s discussion with Jesus, we might conclude that Mary was about to have the same discussion with Jesus that Martha had. However, a detail is present at the beginning of Mary’s conversation that is not present in Martha’s. From how John frame’s Mary’s arrival to Jesus, we get the picture that Mary was very emotional, upset, and in tears – and not just Mary, but the group of mourners with her.

In a way, while Jesus’ earlier visit to Bethany paints Martha in a negative light for being upset with Mary for wanting to sit listening to Jesus rather than help her sister, this event reverses these sisters’ roles. While Mary appears to be too emotional for a conversation to take place, Martha had moved passed her emotions to understand that it was possible Jesus spoke from a bigger perspective. Martha began with the same declaration as Mary, but Martha added a key idea in verse 22: “But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask him.”

Martha’s declaration about Jesus implies a powerful faith in Jesus, and in Jesus’ resurrecting ability, even if Martha has accepted the possible truth that Lazarus won’t live again during their lifetimes, but will be raised up on the last day. Martha has moved past being blinded emotionally, while Mary is still deep in sorrow, unable to have much of a rational conversation.

Let’s continue reading. Rereading verse 33 and continuing forward:

³³ When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who were crying with her, he was deeply moved and troubled.

³⁴ So Jesus asked, “Where did you put Lazarus?”

They answered him, “Lord, come and see.”

³⁵ Jesus cried. ³⁶ The Jews said, “See how much Jesus loved him.” ³⁷ But some of the Jews asked, “Couldn’t this man who gave a blind man sight keep Lazarus from dying?”

Pausing again, I am amazed at the focus of most everyone in this event. Martha, Mary, and the Jews who were present all were focusing on the detail that Jesus had come too late. All of Jesus’ earlier resurrecting miracles happened much closer to the time of death. In Lazarus’ case, they had already had a funeral, and had buried him. The other resurrection miracles had happened within hours, or perhaps a day of the death. In contrast, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days, which meant that he likely had died four or maybe even five days before Jesus’ arrival.

All the focus in this event was directed towards Jesus not being able to keep Lazarus from dying, and I suspect this is what bothered Jesus. Continuing in verse 38:

³⁸ Deeply moved again, Jesus went to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone covering the entrance. ³⁹ Jesus said, “Take the stone away.”

Martha, the dead man’s sister, told Jesus, “Lord, there must already be a stench. He’s been dead for four days.”

⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you would see God’s glory?” ⁴¹ So the stone was moved away from the entrance of the tomb.

Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. ⁴² I’ve known that you always hear me. However, I’ve said this so that the crowd standing around me will believe that you sent me.” ⁴³ After Jesus had said this, he shouted as loudly as he could, “Lazarus, come out!”

⁴⁴ The dead man came out. Strips of cloth were wound around his feet and hands, and his face was wrapped with a handkerchief. Jesus told them, “Free Lazarus, and let him go.”

In this event, one powerful truth we discover is within Jesus’ seemingly unnecessary prayer. This prayer both sounds unnecessary, but when compared with Jesus’ words to Martha in verse 25, it really seems unnecessary. In Jesus’ conversation with Martha, in verse 25, Jesus tells Martha, “I am the one who brings people back to life, and I am life itself.”

Then when we read Jesus’ prayer in verses 41 and 42, Jesus prayed, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I’ve known that you always hear me. However, I’ve said this so that the crowd standing around me will believe that you sent me.” It’s amazing in my mind that nothing in Jesus’ prayer even hints at God raising Lazarus back to life. Looking at Jesus’ words to Martha, and at what is not included in Jesus’ prayer, we must conclude that Jesus used His divinity to raise Lazarus to life.

However, it is also worth noting that if God the Father had not wanted this miracle to happen, there would have been no way for Jesus to have done it. In the seemingly unnecessary prayer, we find a different focus. Instead of focusing on God raising Lazarus from the dead, which is what we might expect to see included in this prayer, we discover Jesus emphasized His connection with the Father, and set the stage for this miracle to emphasize this connection as the basis for our belief in Him.

While throughout this entire event, including the verses we looked at in our last episode, we discover from the very beginning Jesus wanted this event to bring God glory and give those present one more reason to place their faith in Him. While Mary, Martha, and the crowd believed Jesus was too late, the powerful truth we discover in this event is that with Jesus, God is never too late, and regardless of how long we have been in the grave, when Jesus calls to us at the end of time, we will be resurrected just like Lazarus was.

When Jesus calls, those who are dead hear His voice and return to life! For God’s people, death is nothing more than a sleep waiting for the end of sin and the final resurrection into a brand new life with God!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to place your faith, your hope, your trust, and your belief in Jesus. If death scares you, know it is nothing more than a sleep for those who have placed their faith in Jesus, and death is something Jesus not only resurrected Lazarus from, but something He conquered personally as well. Death is something that is not to be feared by followers of Jesus because it simply means the next thing we hear will be Jesus calling us from the grave.

Also, pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Choose to focus your studying on learning more about God and don’t take anyone else’s word for what the Bible teaches. Instead, choose to study the Bible’s truth for yourself, especially on topics as important as death to discover what the Bible teaches rather than what culture wants you to believe. You may be surprised to learn what the Bible teaches us about death and resurrection.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Immediately after Jesus sharing the illustration we looked at in our last episode, where Jesus tells us it is better for us to step down and let others honor us rather than seeking honor for ourselves, someone prompts Jesus with a statement that leads into another parable. One of the most interesting things I find when reading this event is how the statement that is made is contrasted by the behaviors that are demonstrated by characters in Jesus’ story. This discrepancy is going to be one of the main details we focus our attention on in this episode.

Our passage is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 14, and we will read it from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 15, Luke tells us that:

¹⁵ One of those eating with him heard this. So he said to Jesus, “The person who will be at the banquet in God’s kingdom is blessed.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to him, “A man gave a large banquet and invited many people. ¹⁷ When it was time for the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who were invited, ‘Come! Everything is ready now.’

¹⁸ “Everyone asked to be excused. The first said to him, ‘I bought a field, and I need to see it. Please excuse me.’ ¹⁹ Another said, ‘I bought five pairs of oxen, and I’m on my way to see how well they plow. Please excuse me.’ ²⁰ Still another said, ‘I recently got married, and that’s why I can’t come.’

²¹ “The servant went back to report this to his master. Then the master of the house became angry. He told his servant, ‘Run to every street and alley in the city! Bring back the poor, the handicapped, the blind, and the lame.’

²² “The servant said, ‘Sir, what you’ve ordered has been done. But there is still room for more people.’

²³ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go to the roads and paths! Urge the people to come to my house. I want it to be full. ²⁴ I can guarantee that none of those invited earlier will taste any food at my banquet.’”

When reading this parable, I am always a little amazed at the attitude of those who were first invited. This is even more evident when we pay attention to the detail that Jesus does not refute the statement that someone in the group makes that launches Him into this parable.

Leading into this parable is the statement, “The person who will be at the banquet in God’s kingdom is blessed” and nowhere in this entire discussion does Jesus refute this idea.

Instead, Jesus shares a parable that describes how those who have been invited, who should have been the honored guests, all decide that the banquet isn’t worth their time. In the minds of these original invitees, there are many more important things to do. These people give up on the blessing of being in God’s kingdom when they place other priorities ahead of spending time with God.

It is amazing to realize that we can fall into a very similar trap today. Life makes it very easy to become too busy to spend time with God. While devotionals, verses of the day, and things like this can help us feel connected and spiritual, if our relationship with God does not extend beyond this, our relationship likely could be described as shallow. Instead, like a good close friendship, we should focus on spending both quality and quantities of time with God. A relationship with God cannot and should not be rushed.

Instead of rushing your relationship, why not simply take God with you wherever you go. While this sounds an awful lot like a cliché, the truth is that God is with us wherever we go, and it is to our benefit to acknowledge that He is with us at all times. Acknowledging that God is with us 24 hours a day and seven days a week might be a little daunting, but it also might make us a little more aware of what we spend our time doing. Knowing that God is with us at every moment might give us comfort when we are facing trials, but it also might make us uneasy if we know what we are spending time on is not within God’s will for us.

However, while it might be easy to look down on those who were originally invited and say they got what they deserved when they rejected the invitation, we should actually thank them. When reading this story, the impression I get is that if those who were originally invited had accepted the invitation, then the rest of the people would not have been included. It is only because of the man’s anger at those he originally invited that opened the door for anyone and everyone else to be included.

Some people might look at this parable and say this is a subtle challenge to the Jews in the first century for their rejection of Jesus. This could be the case. However, have you ever thought that if those Jews had not rejected Jesus, it’s possible that you wouldn’t have received an invitation.

However, while we may be tempted to look down on the first-century Jews for rejecting their invitation, or be outright hostile towards them for how they treated Jesus while He was alive on earth, we are just as capable of rejecting God’s invitation as they were. When we let things crowd God out of our lives, and when we cease acknowledging His presence with us, we then risk growing apart from Him. When we grow apart from God, we are likely to minimize the significance of His invitation as well.

We should be happy and grateful that those who were first invited rejected the invitation. Because they chose to do this, the barrier for being invited dropped to zero. We see through this parable that anyone and everyone, regardless of their past, present, or future is invited. This also means that while everyone is invited and encouraged to accept the invitation, there are many more opportunities for people to reject the invitation.

Don’t be someone who rejects the invitation to God’s banquet. Like the unknown person commented to Jesus, “The person who will be at the banquet in God’s kingdom is blessed”. Choose to accept God’s banquet invitation, and let His Holy Spirit bless you both in our present world and life as we look forward to this banquet, and when we are called home to heaven to experience this banquet first hand!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always begin by challenging you, continue to seek God first in your life. Value the invitation He has given to you and choose to keep your connection with Him strong.

Also, in order to keep your connection and relationship with God strong, be sure to pray and study your Bible for yourself regularly and take God with you throughout your days with whatever you face. Don’t let busyness or worry distract you or pull you away from God. Instead, let your time with Him empower you to be more of the person He created you to be.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we approach the half way mark in our year moving through John’s gospel, we come to one of the longest events in John’s gospel, and, if I’m not mistaken, the miracle Jesus did that takes up the most dedicated space in any gospel record. This miracle is raising Jesus’ friend Lazarus from the dead.

However, because of its length, we will split this event into two episodes, focusing on the first part of the event in this episode, specifically when Jesus hears the news that Lazarus is sick.

Let’s read the opening to this event, and discover some amazing things in how Jesus responds to the news of His friend’s sickness. Our passage for this episode is found in John’s gospel, chapter 11, and we will read it from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

^1-2 A man by the name of Lazarus was sick in the village of Bethany. He had two sisters, Mary and Martha. This was the same Mary who later poured perfume on the Lord’s head and wiped his feet with her hair. ³ The sisters sent a message to the Lord and told him that his good friend Lazarus was sick.

⁴ When Jesus heard this, he said, “His sickness won’t end in death. It will bring glory to God and his Son.”

⁵ Jesus loved Martha and her sister and brother. ⁶ But he stayed where he was for two more days. ⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “Now we will go back to Judea.”

⁸ “Teacher,” they said, “the people there want to stone you to death! Why do you want to go back?”

⁹ Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours in each day? If you walk during the day, you will have light from the sun, and you won’t stumble. ¹⁰ But if you walk during the night, you will stumble, because you don’t have any light.” ¹¹ Then he told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, and I am going there to wake him up.”

¹² They replied, “Lord, if he is asleep, he will get better.” ¹³ Jesus really meant that Lazarus was dead, but they thought he was talking only about sleep.

¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead! ¹⁵ I am glad that I wasn’t there, because now you will have a chance to put your faith in me. Let’s go to him.”

¹⁶ Thomas, whose nickname was “Twin,” said to the other disciples, “Come on. Let’s go, so we can die with him.”

Let’s stop reading here, and save the rest of this event for our next episode.

While it is very tempting to race forward to focus in on the miracle portion of this passage, a detail in the first portion of our event is worth paying attention to, because it may explain why God doesn’t race in and act immediately when we ask.

In the first portion of our event, specifically in verse 4, after hearing the news of Lazarus’ sickness, Jesus responds that: “His sickness won’t end in death. It will bring glory to God and his Son.” All too often, when we think of the bad that happens to us or the bad that happens around us living in this sinful world, we are quick to judge God for letting it happen, or rationalize that since it happened, He must not exist.

However, in Jesus’ words, we discover two huge promises. First, the sickness will not end in death. We could expand this truth to say that sin will not conquer or defeat God’s people. Another way of saying this is that God’s people will outlive and outlast both sin and death.

The second huge promise is that this sickness will result in glory being given to God and His Son. While this sounds completely backward, what if all the bad that is happening in the world today was an opportunity to bring glory to God and His Son? While I don’t believe for an instant that God wished sin, pain, disease, or death to be present in His perfect creation, what if all the evil present gives God and His people the opportunity to help others?

If everything was perfect in our world, there would be no need for anyone to help another, there would be no reason for us to need a Savior, and we as a race would become unbelievably prideful and arrogant – significantly more extreme than we are right now. If humanity never sinned, Jesus would not have needed to come and face the cross, and Jesus alludes or suggests that the cross was where He would receive glory.

In contrast, in order for Jesus’ response when hearing the news about Lazarus’ sickness to be true, we must understand that Jesus has something bigger in mind. Jesus promised that this sickness wouldn’t end in death, and that it would give glory to God and His Son.

Without both parts of Jesus’ reply, we are left wondering about what happened next. If Jesus had only promised that Lazarus’ sickness wouldn’t end in death, there would be little reason for Jesus to go help Him. It would be similar to other miracles where Jesus promised people from a distance that their loved one would get well.

However, if we only had the second part of this reply, we might also be surprised at what happened next. If this sickness would ultimately result in God and His Son receiving glory, then it makes little sense for Jesus to stay where He was for two more days.

Looking at how Jesus responded to the messenger, and then what He did following this, I wonder if the disciples believed Jesus’ words to the messenger to be similar to Jesus’ words to the centurion, to the father of the dying child, and to other miracles where the one asking for a miracle was willing to accept Jesus’ promise of healing from a distance. On the surface, Jesus’ response sounds like a similar promise.

However, one of the biggest challenges I see being laid in this opening to this event is within Jesus’ reply. Jesus told the messenger that Lazarus’ sickness would not end in death, and then two days later, Jesus admits to His disciples that Lazarus was in fact dead.

This challenge is similar to what many people face today. We read about all the miracles and promises God gives us in the Bible, then we pray for God’s help and for a miracle in our own situation, and after praying this, often it can feel as though God ignores our request.

It is like the messenger racing back to Bethany after finding Jesus with the promise that Lazarus’ sickness wouldn’t end in death, but then less than 48 hours later, Lazarus dies. On the surface, this looks like a huge fail for Jesus and His promises. This looks like Jesus broke a promise. I suspect that Mary, Martha, and those present in Bethany had similar feelings of loss, of disappointment, and of doubt towards God when Lazarus stopped breathing.

However, Jesus’ promise still stands. Jesus saw this event in a larger way than this immediate sickness finishing Lazarus off for good. Instead, Jesus never promised that Lazarus’ sickness wouldn’t temporarily take Him through death. Instead, Jesus actually refers to the death Lazarus experienced as sleep, which makes this contrast even more evident. It is only when the disciples don’t understand Jesus’ metaphor that He spoke plainly to them about Lazarus’ death.

In a similar way, when we experience pain, loss, or even death, we might feel as though God’s promises have failed us. However, Jesus sees one or more steps past the immediate pain, because Jesus sees the step past our sleep-death and He sees the resurrection He will bring to all of His people when He returns.

While the disciples show virtually no faith in Jesus during this opening of the event, the opening of this event sets the stage for what would be seen as one of Jesus’ greatest miracles in His entire ministry, and a miracle that foreshadows the resurrection that all of God’s people can look forward to when Jesus returns!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, seek God first in your life, and choose to place your faith, your hope, your trust, and your belief in Jesus even when our immediate circumstances don’t seem like God’s promises are coming true. God sees history with a much bigger perspective than we ever could, and the situation we are facing might be like the opening of our event in this episode. However, remember that Jesus sees one or more steps past our immediate situation, and He has promised to give God the glory for what ultimately happens.

Also, even though it is hard to do when facing trials, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself with the goal of purposefully growing closer to God and Jesus while facing trials. Often God walks with us through the trials instead of taking the trial away, and while it is not pleasant to think about, sometimes trials are God’s way of reminding us that we need Him in our lives.

However, trials have an end, and because of this, I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!