Reflective Bible Study

As we continue moving through Luke’s gospel, we find an event that almost directly relates to the event in our last episode, but one that we might not see the connection at first. The details of this passage begin while Jesus is up on the mountain with the three closest disciples, while the nine remaining disciples are facing a dilemma they thought they could handle while Jesus was gone.

Let’s read about what happened, about what these disciples were unable to do, and how Jesus succeeded when these disciples failed. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 37, Luke tells us that:

³⁷ The next day, when they [referring to Jesus, Peter, James, and John] came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him. ³⁸ A man in the crowd called out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. ³⁹ A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. ⁴⁰ I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not.”

⁴¹ “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”

⁴² Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the impure spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father. ⁴³ And they were all amazed at the greatness of God.

Pausing our reading here, in this passage, while Jesus and His closest disciples were up on the mountain, the remaining disciples were unsuccessfully trying to cast out a demon. Matthew and Mark have the disciples ask Jesus why they could not do it and Jesus responds with a statement challenging their faith and telling them this type of demon can only come out with prayer and possibly fasting.

While this is a good answer and a good reason, it falls a little short when we place this failure against the previous successes that these nine disciples would have had not long before when they were traveling among the towns and villages in Israel. In our last episode, we looked at how the disciples had successfully healed people and cast out demons. However, in this passage, they are now unable to do it.

Why might this have been?

As I think about the details of this event, I wonder where the hearts of the disciples were while Jesus was on the mountain. If the disciples had pride in their hearts about their past success, their pride or arrogance might have blocked the Holy Spirit from working through them to heal this boy.

Another thought is that the attitudes the disciples had when being presented with this problem did not point to God receiving the glory. If the disciples were interested in taking the glory for this miracle and healing onto themselves, then they were doomed to fail. When Jesus did a miracle and when He chose to heal, in every case, Jesus wanted to either show God’s love, give God the glory, or both. If the disciples weren’t interested in God getting the ultimate glory for this miracle, then their attempts were doomed to fail.

A third thought is that God may have kept the disciples from being successful in their genuine attempts to heal this boy because He wanted them to learn something from the failure. More often than we would like it to be, we are able to learn more from failure than from success. When we fail, we are challenged to try again and we are challenged to learn more than if we simply had succeeded. Success is great, but it doesn’t teach as much as failure can.

Jesus’ message to the disciples that this kind of demon can only come out through prayer, faith, and possibly fasting draws our attention to the importance of having a strong, close, connection with God. Prayer, faith, and fasting are all spiritual disciplines that point us to and connect us with God. Jesus’ message to the disciples might be that they needed a stronger connection with God to succeed with this significant miracle. In our own lives and in the big themes of the Bible, strengthening our relationship with God through prayer and faith is never a bad decision!

However, Jesus has a message He wants the disciples to hear. While the crowd is praising God about this miracle, Luke draws our attention onto a message Jesus wants all 12 of His disciples to hear.

Continuing in the second part of verse 43, Luke tells us:

While everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did, he said to his disciples, ⁴⁴ “Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.” ⁴⁵ But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.

In the last verses of our passage, Jesus wanted the disciples to know that this successful feeling would not last. During the times of triumph, Jesus wants the disciples to know that this moment will pass. While celebrating successes is a good thing, it is always wise to remember that life is made up of challenges and successes.

At the high points, it is just as vital to realize and remember the low points as it is to remember the high points when we are facing low points in our journey. Jesus challenges the disciples with a message they didn’t like Him reminding them of when they were thinking of celebrating this success.

I am also amazed by how Luke finishes off this passage. Luke describes the disciples being afraid to ask Jesus about this message. While the meaning of Jesus’ prediction was hidden from them, fear stopped these disciples from asking for clarification. If any of the disciples had pushed past the fear to ask, I am certain that crucifixion weekend would have gone completely differently.

Fear can stop us in our tracks if we let it. Jesus desperately wanted the disciples to ask Him about this prediction so He could explain it further, but the disciples were repeatedly closed to the idea that Jesus had anything but success in His future. Jesus ultimately was triumphant, but Jesus’ success only came after His biggest trial – and Jesus’ trial not only challenged Jesus, it challenged all the disciples beyond what the disciples believed.

When we face challenges in our lives, remember the successes in our past. When we face success, remember the challenges of our past and that challenges will come in our future. And above everything else, remember that Jesus is triumphant, and that He will be with us through both the trials and the triumphs of life!

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 remember God in the trials and in the triumphs. Choose also to lean and depend on God, giving Him the glory for everything He has blessed you with. Intentionally thank God for everything He has done for you and through you in your life.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. Remember that it is never a bad choice to focus on strengthening your relationship with God. Don’t let culture, the world, or anyone convince you that a personal relationship with God is unnecessary. A personal relationship with God is one of the most important things we can have, and wherever you are on your journey with God, focusing on growing closer to and leaning into God is never a bad choice.

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 give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we have seen plenty of times so far during this year looking at prophecies and connecting points between the Old Testament and Jesus, many phrases and ideas that are found in the Old Testament book of Psalms seem to point forward towards Jesus. In our passage for this podcast episode, we again turn to the book of Psalms to discover in just a few verses, several interesting connections to Jesus.

With this as our foundation, let’s read our passage for this episode and discover how it points us towards Jesus. Our passage for this podcast episode is found in Psalm 69, and we will read it from the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 5, the psalmist writes:

⁵ O God, it is You who knows my folly,
And my wrongs are not hidden from You.
⁶ May those who wait for You not be ashamed through me, O Lord God of hosts;
May those who seek You not be dishonored through me, O God of Israel,
⁷ Because for Your sake I have borne reproach;
Dishonor has covered my face.
⁸ I have become estranged from my brothers
And an alien to my mother’s sons.
⁹ For zeal for Your house has consumed me,
And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.
¹⁰ When I wept in my soul with fasting,
It became my reproach.
¹¹ When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became a byword to them.
¹² Those who sit in the gate talk about me,
And I am the song of the drunkards.

In these verses from this psalm, we can clearly see how its author, traditionally believed to be David, feels. As I say this, I’m not sure when in David’s life he wrote this, but I suspect it was one of the several times that he was running and hiding from those who were interested in harming him. In these verses, we get a clear picture that David feels like he has been made an outcast from everyone, including his family.

However, while this psalm is applicable to David’s life, it is also amazing that the New Testament draws parallels connecting these ideas with Jesus.

The first connection point we will look briefly at is found in Luke, chapter 8, and we will begin reading in verse 20:

²⁰ And it was reported to Him, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, wishing to see You.” ²¹ But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

In these two verses, we get the picture that Jesus saw His family as being different from what the typical definition of family is. While I don’t believe Jesus grew up in a hostile family environment, this passage stands out in my mind because Jesus redefines His family away from simply those with a biological connection.

The next passage we will look at from Jesus’ ministry is found in John’s gospel. This passage also stands out to me because it is among the few passages that shed light on how Jesus interacted with those in His family. In John, chapter 7, starting in verse 1, we read:

¹ After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. ² Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. ³ Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. ⁴ For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” ⁵ For not even His brothers were believing in Him.

It is fascinating in my mind that John draws our attention to the detail that Jesus’ brothers didn’t believe in Him. On one hand, I can clearly understand how this could be, since growing up with someone allows you to see all their faults and idiosyncrasies. On one hand it is amazing that Jesus’ brothers missed Jesus’ mission after knowing Him for over two decades, while on the other hand, I suspect that Jesus’ brothers simply were caught believing the traditional beliefs about the Messiah that first century Jewish culture held. Those in the first century were not openly looking for a Messiah who was not actively seeking the spotlight, and Jesus’ brothers mistakenly assume in their statement to Jesus that He wants to be known publicly.

In these two passages, we get the clear picture that Jesus lived a little more separated from His biological family than most people in the first century. While Jesus is with His brothers in the second passage we focused in on, there is no context given why Jesus would have opted to hide with His brothers, rather than simply somewhere else while avoiding Judea.

However, from the psalm we focused in on, we find another phrase that appears to be directly connected with Jesus’ ministry. Regardless of whether you or I believe this to be the case, the author of John’s gospel clearly identifies this connection, and John uses this connection to build his case that Jesus is the Messiah.

Early on in John’s gospel, specifically in chapter 2, we read about something Jesus did which surprised everyone present. Starting in verse 13, John tells us that:

¹³ The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. ¹⁵ And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; ¹⁶ and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.” ¹⁸ The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?” ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰ The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But He was speaking of the temple of His body. ²² So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.

If John’s gospel was written chronologically, then it is amazing in my mind that two times in Jesus’ ministry, He chases commerce out of the temple. In John’s gospel, which presumably happened early on during Jesus’ ministry, Jesus chases the commerce out of the temple, and John draws out the connection to this Old Testament psalm that says, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.”

When the Jews challenge Jesus on what authority He has to do these things, Jesus makes a prediction of His own, but one that was intended to be misunderstood in that moment. John draws our attention onto the meaning of Jesus’ words, specifically that Jesus was pointing forward to His crucifixion and referring to His body as a temple.

I suspect that if Jesus had been clearer in this prediction, specifically that the temple He was referring to was His body, part of me thinks that these leaders would have arrested Jesus or perhaps have even picked up stones to stone Him to death. If Jesus had been clearer in this event and in His prediction, I suspect Jesus wouldn’t have made it to the cross because the religious leaders would have killed Him sooner.

However, where does that leave us?

From this psalm that points forward to Jesus, and from Jesus’ interaction with the ideas found within this psalm, we can know and trust that God is in control. When zeal for God’s house consumed Jesus, God made a way for Jesus to escape certain immediate death by being truthful while also a little obscure or cryptic. When Jesus’ brothers believed culture’s view of the Messiah over the path for the Messiah that Jesus was walking, we discover that Jesus would not be pushed off the path for His life that God had placed before Him. Jesus willingly walked forward through life knowing the cross was in His future, and that His cross would open the way for our redemption.

And when Jesus’ family came to see Him, presumably to ask Him to stop pressing the religious leaders so hard, Jesus redefines the idea of family in a way that can easily include you and me.

We are invited into Jesus’ family when we do God’s will, and Jesus opened the way for our salvation through what He accomplished on the cross for us!

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

As I always open by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life and accept Jesus into your heart and mind. Trust that God has made everything available for you to be included and adopted into His family, and that the only thing stopping you is a simple choice that He allows you to make.

If you are on the fence regarding this decision, then like I regularly challenge you to do, take this decision to Jesus in prayer. Pray and study the Bible for yourself to discover who God is and what He is like, and discover in the pages of the gospels a God who loves you more than you can possibly imagine.

And when moving forward through life with God, 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 continue our journey through Luke’s gospel, we reach a passage where Jesus begins to train the disciples for the time following His return to heaven. However, the disciples are unaware of this detail. All they realize is that Jesus sends them out to the surrounding towns to tell people about Him. In the instructions Jesus gives to His disciples, and the few verses following this mini-commission, we can discover some amazing things.

Our passage for this episode comes from Luke’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read from the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us that:

¹ Jesus called together the 12 disciples. He gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to heal sicknesses. ² Then he sent them out to announce God’s kingdom and to heal those who were sick. ³ He told them, “Don’t take anything for the journey. Do not take a walking stick or a bag. Do not take any bread, money or extra clothes. ⁴ When you are invited into a house, stay there until you leave town. ⁵ Some people may not welcome you. If they don’t, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet. This will be a witness against the people living there.” ⁶ So the 12 disciples left. They went from village to village. They announced the good news and healed people everywhere.

⁷ Now Herod, the ruler of Galilee, heard about everything that was going on. He was bewildered, because some were saying that John the Baptist had been raised from the dead. ⁸ Others were saying that Elijah had appeared. Still others were saying that a prophet of long ago had come back to life. ⁹ But Herod said, “I had John’s head cut off. So who is it that I hear such things about?” And he tried to see Jesus.

¹⁰ The disciples returned. They told Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him. They went off by themselves to a town called Bethsaida. ¹¹ But the crowds learned about it and followed Jesus. He welcomed them and spoke to them about God’s kingdom. He also healed those who needed to be healed.

In this short passage, we see Jesus sending out the disciples to announce God’s kingdom and to heal those who were sick. We see Jesus share a similar focus when He began His ministry. When Jesus started preaching shortly after His baptism and trip into the wilderness to be tempted, He began by sharing about God’s Kingdom, which in some places is also called the Kingdom of Heaven. This small detail tells me that if God challenges you and leads you into a ministry sharing about Him, the best place to begin is by sharing about God’s kingdom. This is what John the Baptist did, what Jesus did, and what Jesus tells the disciples to do.

However, it is also significant to point out that Jesus’ disciples also were given the authority to heal people and to cast out demons. The clear point in this short-term missionary trip was to know that God was with them. Specifically we could say that these disciples had the Holy Spirit with them when they went out on their trip to the surrounding countryside.

While Luke’s gospel doesn’t give any summary statement describing if the disciples were successful, Mark’s gospel does fill in the details that the disciples healed people and cast out demons while they were out ministering. Luke’s gospel hints at the disciples’ success because when they return to Jesus and then try to go to off by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, the crowds discovered this and came to see Jesus. I suspect that if the disciples weren’t successful, Jesus could have traveled more freely without being recognized as clearly.

While the disciples were out sharing the news about God with the surrounding region, Luke inserts a brief summary about John the Baptist. Part of me wonders if Jesus’ popularity and fame reached Herod during the disciples’ missionary trip, and that this was not long after John was beheaded. Matthew and Mark take some verses to describe what happened, and that Herod would rather have kept John locked up, but that his wife and her daughter plotted together to push Herod to execute John. Luke simply tells us the summary, while also including a brief note that Herod “tried to see Jesus” (in verse 9).

However, with all this said, what could we call the big theme in these verses in Luke?

What is one big thing this passage teaches us that we can apply into our lives today?

As I ask myself these questions, it becomes clear that the big emphasis in this passage is on trusting God and letting Him lead. When Jesus instructs the disciples about this trip, He tells them not to take anything for their journey. Instead, Jesus challenges His disciples to simply go and trust that God will provide.

I don’t know how long Jesus anticipated them to be gone for, but I suspect that it was several weeks at least. From Luke’s description, they disciples had time to travel to multiple villages, be rejected by some, and be welcomed by others.

Also, Jesus challenges the disciples to not force themselves into situations. If they are invited to stay in a town, then stay in one place where they are welcomed. However, if they are rejected by a town, they are challenged to simply leave and shake the dust off of their feet as they go.

One amazing thing to realize in this short missionary trip to the towns and villages in the region is that the disciple’s visit may have been the only invitation or visit these towns received while Jesus was present on earth. There were too many towns for Jesus to visit them all personally, and by sending the disciples out, Jesus was able to multiply what God wanted to do to help Israel. If a town rejected the disciples, as some likely did or else Jesus’ instruction about this would have been unnecessary, we could say this town rejected the messengers God sent to help them.

In our own lives, not only are we called and challenged to trust God and let Him lead in our lives, we should also be willing and grateful for the messengers God sends into our lives. The towns Jesus sent the disciples to had the opportunity to accept or reject the messengers God sent to them. In a similar way, God sends people into our lives to challenge and encourage us. While we might not always recognize those God sends our way, we should be grateful and willing to accept those God brings into our lives.

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 accept those He brings into our lives to challenge or encourage us. While we don’t always know, recognize, or understand who God sends, it is important for us to be willing and open to accepting messengers God sends our way. Otherwise, we might realize too late when we rejected the only messengers (also known as disciples) God sent our way like some of the towns in our passage did.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. Through prayer and Bible study, we are able to grow closer to God, and the closer we are to God, the better able we will be to both recognize and accept the people God sends into our lives!

In our last episode, we focused in on a description Jesus pulled from the Old Testament and applied onto His ministry. But we ended up cutting that episode’s New Testament passage short because in the event that we focused in on, Luke used an interesting phrase when describing the initial response those in the Nazareth synagogue had towards Jesus, and that phrase has a connection with a different passage from the Old Testament.

However, before we pick back up with Jesus in the Nazareth synagogue, let’s look at the first two verses in a psalm that get’s connected with Jesus, and one that has descriptive similarities with how Luke described those in the Nazareth synagogue.

This psalm is found in the Old Testament book of Psalms, and it is psalm number 45. Reading from the New American Standard Bible translation, starting in verse 1, the psalmist writes:

¹ My heart overflows with a good theme;
I address my verses to the King;
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
² You are fairer than the sons of men;
Grace is poured upon Your lips;
Therefore God has blessed You forever.

While we could read more, let’s stop reading here. On the surface, nothing in these first two verses sounds prophetic. However, when the psalmist is describing the King who he is addressing his verses to, he describes the King as having grace poured upon His lips.

With that framing in mind, let’s read about Jesus’ experience in Nazareth. For those who listened in for our last episode, I’ll repeat the opening of the passage to give context, but then we’ll read a few additional verses to the point where we find this idea present.

Jesus’ visit to Nazareth’s synagogue is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 4 and we will begin reading in verse 14:

¹⁴ And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. ¹⁵ And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.

¹⁶ And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
¹⁹ To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

²⁰ And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. ²¹ And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

This is where we stopped reading in our last episode. However, continuing reading in verse 22:

²² And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

And with this description, we come to the end of anything that could be described as gracious words. After this initial response, Jesus then shifts towards challenging this group of people, and the way Jesus challenges them is received much less graciously.

Continuing reading in verse 23, Luke writes:

²³ And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” ²⁴ And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. ²⁵ But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; ²⁶ and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. ²⁷ And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸ And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; ²⁹ and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. ³⁰ But passing through their midst, He went His way.

While it is very tempting to focus on the rejection Jesus faced at the end of this passage, while reading this passage in the context of our year of podcasting, focusing on this rejection here would be a mistake. Instead of looking at Jesus facing rejection, which there will be more than enough time to do later in this year as Jesus makes His way to the cross, since our focus for this year of podcasting is looking at connection points between the Old Testament and Jesus, what can we learn from the description Luke gave regarding Jesus’ message? Prior to Jesus challenging this group of synagogue attendees, Luke described the words Jesus spoke as gracious words, and since this description appears connected to an Old Testament description of God the King, is there any way of describing the final message Jesus shared with these Jews within the framework of grace?

In an amazing way, while the direct challenge Jesus shares with those present that a prophet is not accepted in his hometown is easily prophetic, while not being grace-filled, Jesus’ actions themselves draw attention onto the grace present in this challenge. While the prophecy clearly suggests that He would not be accepted, nor would any prophet in any respective hometown, the simple fact that Jesus traveled to His hometown and spoke to those in His local synagogue strongly suggests that even though Jesus knew He would be rejected when sharing God’s message, He still went.

Jesus offered grace to those who were prophesied to reject Him by being willing to go and share God’s message with them anyway. That lesson is powerful in itself, because it tells each of us that God is willing to reach out to us even after we have rejected Him, and even if He knows that we will reject His offer. God reaches out to us, not because of who we are, but because of who He is. That is powerful.

However, moving forward in Jesus’ message to those in the Nazareth synagogue, Jesus shares two events where God led His prophets to help those who were not of Jewish ancestry. In Elijah’s case, God sent him to bless a widow in a foreign land while he was an outcast in Israel. In Elisha’s case, God sent someone from a foreign land to him for help, and Elisha indirectly helps bring about this foreigner’s healing.

In these two events, it is amazingly obvious in my mind that grace is present. In both these historical accounts, God acted gracious towards the foreigners present, and that is because God loves humanity, in stark contrast to the narrow view that God only loves a specific nationality. Jesus opened His ministry in a way that drew attention to His ministry being one that was for all humanity. While Jesus did come to humanity with a certain ancestry, Jesus made it clear as early as He could that His mission was to bring grace to more than just one subset of humanity. The only subset present in Jesus’ ministry was those who were willing to accept and follow Him, verses those who chose not to. With rare exception, the people who did not follow Jesus were those who intentionally decided to not follow Jesus because of something Jesus said, or because of the social pressure from the religious leaders.

As we continue moving forward in our year looking at prophecies and connection points between the Old Testament and Jesus’ ministry, expect to see this theme show up again. Jesus came to give grace to both Jew and gentile, and Jesus is willing to extend the grace he offers to you too. Regardless of your past, your nationality, or your failures, Jesus is more interested in offering you grace that extends into your future, and the future Jesus wants to see you in is the one that extends for eternity!

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

As I always open by challenging you in one way or another, intentionally seek God first in your life. Choose to accept the gift of grace that Jesus offers and choose to live each day being grateful for this gift Jesus made available.

Also, as I always challenge you to do in one way or another, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow personally closer to God each and every day. The Bible has been preserved for thousands of years because it is God’s story of redemption, and it is a story we are invited into.

Don’t let anyone trick you into discounting or leaving God’s story, because 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!