Reflective Bible Study

As we continue in Luke’s gospel, we arrive at a passage describing a miracle that seems spontaneous on the surface, but one that I believe Jesus may have planned earlier. In our last episode, we discovered that Jesus spent a Sabbath afternoon in Simon’s home and that Jesus had healed Simon’s mother-in-law. If Luke’s ordering of events at this point in his gospel is chronological rather than categorical, then it would mean Simon, who was also known as Peter, would have been aware of Jesus’ miracle working ability and Simon’s extended family would have already benefitted from Jesus’ power to heal before the significant event that happens in this passage.

However, some scholars believe this event in Luke happened before Jesus’ visit to Simon’s home, and when we read what happened, it may become clear why.

Our passage for this event is found in Luke, chapter 5, and we will read from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us that

¹ One day while Jesus was standing beside Lake Galilee, many people were pressing all around him to hear the word of God. ² Jesus saw two boats at the shore of the lake. The fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. ³ Jesus got into one of the boats, the one that belonged to Simon, and asked him to push off a little from the land. Then Jesus sat down and continued to teach the people from the boat.

⁴ When Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Take the boat into deep water, and put your nets in the water to catch some fish.”

⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we worked hard all night trying to catch fish, and we caught nothing. But you say to put the nets in the water, so I will.” ⁶ When the fishermen did as Jesus told them, they caught so many fish that the nets began to break. ⁷ They called to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats so full that they were almost sinking.

⁸ When Simon Peter saw what had happened, he bowed down before Jesus and said, “Go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man!” ⁹ He and the other fishermen were amazed at the many fish they caught, as were ¹⁰ James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will fish for people.” ¹¹ When the men brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed Jesus.

From this event, I can understand some scholars believing this happened before Jesus’ trip to Simon Peter’s home when Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law. From Simon Peter’s response to Jesus’ miracle, he seems surprised that Jesus’ word could direct the fish into their nets. If Simon had known Jesus’ word to be powerful enough to silence and banish demons and to heal the sick, it seems only logical that Jesus could direct fish into a net.

However, I can also see Luke’s description of this event happening in chronological order. The reason I think this is because I believe Jesus knew Simon Peter’s heart better than anyone else. Simon Peter likely needed some convincing beyond simply seeing something miraculous one time to get him to drop everything to follow Jesus. Because of this, I wonder if Jesus subtly began working on Simon Peter before Simon even realized it. This may have begun on the Sabbath in the synagogue when Jesus healed the demon-possessed man. For Jesus to go to Simon’s home that afternoon, it would only be logical that Simon, or members of Simon’s family were present at that synagogue meeting.

It is even possible they sought Jesus out to invite Him to come with them because they knew Simon’s mother-in-law was sick. If Simon Peter wasn’t present at the synagogue that day, I’m confident he would have been present when Jesus healed his mother-in-law and all the people that evening.

What we read about in our last podcast episode appears to lead directly into this event. If Luke’s order of events is accurate, than this means that Simon Peter knew Jesus and was happy to help Jesus by letting Jesus preach from his boat.

However, Simon Peter was not expecting a miracle that impacted him directly. Leading up to this miracle, we see Simon being content helping others, including Jesus, and being supportive of Jesus helping others, but when Jesus shifts the focus onto helping Simon personally, Simon got uncomfortable.

Like many people living today, Simon had no problem helping other people. However, he had a personality and character that did not like receiving help personally. Simon was more than happy to partner with others, but teaming up is different than accepting miraculous help with no strings attached.

Simon represents someone who is happy being self-sufficient and accepting gifts from others is difficult for someone who is happy and content being self-sufficient.

However, Simon also is willing to test Jesus’ words personally, and this makes him one of the most significant disciples Jesus ever invited. When Jesus told Simon to cast his nets in the water to catch some fish, Simon knew this was the worst time of day to fish, but he responded in verse 5 saying, “Master, we worked hard all night trying to catch fish, and we caught nothing. But you say to put the nets in the water, so I will.”

Simon’s response to Jesus emphasized that the best his team could do was nothing. The team of fisherman that night caught nothing. However, Simon responds that he personally would test Jesus’ words regardless of what the others chose to do. The situation quickly turns into something Simon needs all the help he can get to pull in all the fish that got caught in their net.

Simon Peter recognizes that his life is full of sin and that he is unworthy of Jesus’ help. However, Simon needs to realize the state of his life in order to accept Jesus’ invitation. In the same way, when we are deciding whether to come to Jesus or not, we must understand that a self-sufficient attitude is not as useful to God as an attitude that will test Jesus’ promises and try Jesus’ instructions personally, regardless of whether what Jesus’ asks us to do makes sense on the front-end or not.

Going fishing in the day made no sense whatsoever, but after these fishermen, specifically Simon, tested Jesus’ challenge personally, they realized that Jesus’ way works, even if it doesn’t make sense.

The challenge in this passage for all of Jesus’ followers throughout history is to recognize that God’s way is the best way and be willing to follow Jesus even if it doesn’t make sense at first. We are called to test God’s promises and prove them to be true in our own lives. A self-sufficient skeptic will never come to faith in Jesus because they will have too many reasons to assume Jesus’ way won’t work rather than trying it out personally to realize that it does work.

Like Simon Peter, let’s realize that we are sinners and understand that we need Jesus to help us be the people God created us to be!

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, intentionally and purposefully seek God first in your life. Choose to let God lead in your decisions each and every day and test His promises to determine the truth of His word.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Choose to test God’s word in your own life rather than simply taking someone else’s word for it. When eternity is at stake, God’s truth is worth testing for yourself.

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 walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving forward looking at prophecies Jesus fulfilled from the Old Testament, we come to a prophecy that seems a little out of place. This prophecy, while appearing to be fulfilled clearly in Jesus’ life in a very real way, seems to not fit very nicely in the passage it is placed in within the Old Testament.

While I will be quick to acknowledge that the original language may read more smoothly than the English translation, when reading the English translation of this prophecy, the verse which contains the prophecy is written differently than the verses that follow it.

However, while there may be some awkwardness in the way this prophecy and passage are written, the way this prophecy is written into this passage points to some very fascinating ways of understanding Jesus’ ministry, as well as God’s people in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

With that said, let’s read this passage, with its included prophecy, and discover some things we can learn from it. Our passage and prophecy are found in the book of Hosea, chapter 11, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1, Hosea writes:

¹ When Israel was a youth I loved him,
And out of Egypt I called My son.
² The more they called them,
The more they went from them;
They kept sacrificing to the Baals
And burning incense to idols.
³ Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them in My arms;
But they did not know that I healed them.
⁴ I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love,
And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws;
And I bent down and fed them.

Let’s stop reading here. While reading verse 1, it is fascinating seeing how Hosea frames and contrasts Israel and Egypt. In this single verse, we have two statements that seem to stand independent of one another, and each statement doesn’t align with the other, while also not opposing the other.

The first statement says, “When Israel was a youth I loved him”. While Israel is written in a singular form in this verse, this name contains a bunch of different ways we can understand it. At the most literal level, God is speaking of Jacob, who was later renamed Israel, while he was young. Moving to slightly more symbolically, we could also understand God to be speaking of the nation of Israel, and while the nation was young, God loved them.

Before sharing a third way of understanding this statement, some people might be quick to draw a conclusion that if God says He loved the nation of Israel early on in their existence, then that means He stopped loving them at a later point. While I won’t claim to speak for God regarding this point, nothing in the verses we read prompt me to think God’s love for the nation of Israel ever stopped. Instead, God’s love may have expanded into a third way of understanding this statement.

The third way we can understand this statement is seeing Israel as a spiritually connected body of people who are united in bringing glory to God. While the verses surrounding our prophecy draw our attention to how God’s people repeatedly fell away from God, this type of criticism or observation could be made towards every group of people who have ever claimed to be God’s people. While there may be exceptions, on the surface every group of people who God has called seems to struggle with staying allied and aligned with Him. We might fall into this same classification if we say we are allied with God while also not actively doing the things He would want us to be doing.

With that said, let’s move to the second statement, which was the prophecy. Hosea finishes verse one by writing: “And out of Egypt I called My son.”

This statement is classified as a prophecy in the New Testament, in the book of Matthew, following Jesus’ birth. In Matthew’s gospel, chapter 2, starting in verse 13, we read:

¹³ Now when they had gone [referring to the wise men who came with gifts to visit Mary, Joseph, and Jesus], behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.”

¹⁴ So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. ¹⁵ He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”

In this short passage that begins Matthew’s transition out of Jesus’ birth, we find a direct reference to Jesus’ time in Egypt being predicted through Hosea’s writings.

From the way Matthew’s gospel frames Jesus’ first years living within this world, we can see an amazing piece of symbolism present. While the literal nation of Israel which had been slaves in Egypt might not have ever believed their time in Egypt, or their exodus, would be prophetic, through Hosea, God draws this connection together.

This type of truth is the same in our lives as well. While some of us begin our journey in a positive place, others among us might begin in what would be considered a very negative place. Some people may feel as though every advantage has been given to them, while others appear to experience non-stop trials. However, regardless of how our stories began, when we were born, which we had no control over, we were given a situation that we must contend with.

While every situation is different, and I can only speak from my own perspective and observation, as we grow up and mature, we will be called into and through a time where we must wrestle out what we believe about the world. One might consider this as forming a worldview or as looking out at the state of the world where we live.

When looking out at the world, whatever it is we are looking to find, we will find. If we want to find examples of love, caring, acceptance, and inclusiveness, there are plenty of examples of this. However, if we set our focus on looking for examples of hate, hostility, violence, and segregation, then we will not have to look far to discover this either.

From a spiritual mindset, we were born into a tyranny, into a world that is filled with sin. Some might metaphorically equate this with the spiritual nation of Egypt. When God calls us to Him, He calls us to come out of the tyranny of the world, and into a life that is closer to Him, into a life that is lived to a higher standard than those around us, and into a life that leaves the past, with its spiritual baggage, behind.

In the history of the nation of Israel, we find this being portrayed as Israel leaves Egypt headed towards the Promised Land. We also discover this in Jesus’ life as He is born into a sin-filled world, with its tyranny, and as we watch Him overcome sin throughout His life and ministry. And we can experience this too when we accept that we were born into a world filled with sin and resolve to invite God into our lives and lead us forward, towards Him, and away from sin.

With God, and faith in Jesus, we will outlast sin, and this happens when we have allied and aligned our lives with God, placing our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus, and when we live each day to bring glory to Him.

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 live for God today, and each day moving forward. Lean on Jesus for help and guidance, and look forward to the day when He will return to bring us home.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God each and every day of your life. While authors, speakers, pastors, or even podcasters have ideas to share, take what you read, hear, and learn, and test it against the truth in the Bible. The more you prayerfully test ideas against the Bible, the stronger your wisdom will grow while also growing your relationship with God.

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!

Continuing in Luke’s gospel, after Jesus is rejected in Nazareth, He travels back to Capernaum and on what may have been the following Sabbath, we see something significant happen. I wonder if Jesus ever actually had a normal Sabbath day at a synagogue in His entire three-year ministry. While the gospel writers include many exceptions, like the one we read in our last episode and the one we will read about in this episode, it is unlikely they would give much space to a normal trip to a synagogue.

This means we are left picturing Jesus’ trips to synagogues being very abnormal or hostile encounters, but it is possible that many were simply normal and uneventful. Calculating an approximate number of synagogue visits, 52 weeks in a year times 3.5 years equals 182. However, I would imagine that there were many Sabbaths Jesus did not visit a synagogue, so for the purposes of this calculating, let’s subtract our total number by 22 down to 160. I would venture a guess that many of these 160 probable synagogue Sabbaths were normal.

However, our passage for this episode describes a more abnormal visit to a synagogue, and this event is recorded as happening soon after Jesus was run out of Nazareth’s synagogue. This episode’s passage comes from Luke’s gospel, chapter 4, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 31, Luke tells us:

³¹ Then he [Jesus] went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people. ³² They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.

³³ In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, ³⁴ “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

³⁵ “Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.

³⁶ All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!” ³⁷ And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.

Let’s pause reading here because I want to draw our attention onto something significant. If casting a demon out of someone isn’t significant enough, I am amazed that Jesus commands the demon to be quiet after the demon begins to reveal who Jesus really is.

In my mind, Jesus does this for two big reasons.

First, demons can either lie or tell the truth. They usually lie, making any truth they say suspect. If Jesus let the demon truthfully say who He was, it would potentially taint His ministry and witness because it is never wise to trust a demon. Even a 100% truthful demon is untrustworthy because demons are not always 100% truthful. It is even unwise to listen to a demon to try to discern the truth from the error. Demons have had thousands of years of practice lying in convincing ways and they might lie in more ways that we can catch.

It is safest for us to follow Jesus’ example and simply not listen to any demon. If God wants us to learn or know something important or significant, there is an almost zero chance He would use a demon. While God could use a demon, it would not benefit the bigger picture in any positive-for-God way.

Second, there was too much cultural weight surrounding the role of the Messiah as a military leader who would come and overthrow the Romans. Jesus’ arrival to walk a path different from culture’s expectations would benefit from more ambiguity or uncertainty on whether He truly was the Messiah or simply someone else who was significant.

Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies related to a Messiah coming and suffering, and He left the prophecies related to His coming as a King largely untouched and waiting for His second coming.

If the people early on in Jesus’ ministry latched on too quickly to Jesus being the Messiah they knew God promised, they would likely slip into believing Jesus came as King and would try to force Him into this role. In other cases, such as the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus sidesteps this very issue because the crowds wanted Him to become their King.

However, this Sabbath day is not over yet. Continuing in verse 38, Luke tells us:

³⁸ Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. ³⁹ So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.

⁴⁰ At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. ⁴¹ Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.

It appears in this passage that Satan wanted to derail Jesus’ ministry by proclaiming who He was as much as possible. If the demon that Sabbath morning in the synagogue wasn’t enough, many more demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus and they try to make the same proclamation that evening.

When reading this event, it is difficult to escape one huge truth: The words Jesus spoke contained power. We can see this truth in the simple detail that Jesus’ command was powerful enough to cast a demon out of an individual.

However, Jesus’ word is even stronger than this. Jesus’ command isn’t just strong enough to cast demons out of people, but it is also strong enough to silence demons from speaking! That is amazingly significant in the big picture.

Jesus’ command is also powerful enough to reverse and eliminate sickness. Verse 39 describes how Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law, “So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her.” Rebuking something involves speaking, and this tells us Jesus’ word is powerful enough to heal.

On this Sabbath day, we discover a Jesus that is more powerful than we might first imagine. Jesus’ word is strong enough to cast out demons, it is strong enough to silence them and keep them from speaking, and it is strong enough to heal sickness and disease. When facing struggles, challenges, disease, or discouragement in our own life, we should look to the words of Jesus for the power to overcome!

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, continue to seek God first and place your hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus. When challenges come into our lives, choose to recognize them as opportunities to look to Jesus’ words for power to overcome. Jesus is more powerful than what we often give Him credit for, and I believe He is ready, waiting to help us the moment we decide to ask. While some challenges are given to strengthen our character, I believe other challenges are given to remind us it is best to turn to God for help!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. A strong personal relationship with God is best developed through personal prayer and Bible study. While praying and studying in small or large groups is beneficial on one level, never give up your own personal study time because through our personal study we are able to grow a personal relationship with God and we are able to strengthen our personal faith. Personal Bible study is the best foundation to grow our faith in Jesus on.

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 be tricked or deceived out of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving forward in our journey through Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled, we come to a prophecy that I had a difficult time deciding where to place in our year together. On one hand, this prophecy that’s found in the book of Isaiah would fit nicely within the group of prophecies that focus on Jesus’ mission and death. However, there is another aspect of this prophecy that gets fulfilled near the beginning of Jesus’ time on earth.

For this second reason, I pulled this prophecy up to this week, and placed it here, at the point in our prophecies right after Jesus arrives on earth to help give us a frame and an understanding of why He came to this planet of sinners.

Let’s read the prophecy, then unpack some of the details shared within it. Our prophecy is found in the book of Isaiah, chapter 59, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 12, which is part way into this prophecy, Isaiah writes:

¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before You,
And our sins testify against us;
For our transgressions are with us,
And we know our iniquities:
¹³ Transgressing and denying the Lord,
And turning away from our God,
Speaking oppression and revolt,
Conceiving in and uttering from the heart lying words.
¹⁴ Justice is turned back,
And righteousness stands far away;
For truth has stumbled in the street,
And uprightness cannot enter.
^15a Yes, truth is lacking;
And he who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey.

Pausing reading our prophecy, I cannot help but see in what we just read a description of our world today. However, I suspect that what is described here could be relevant to most points in time in history, and I suspect that the first century when Jesus walked the earth, and also the century several hundred years before this when Isaiah was alive could be described this way.

However, let’s continue with this prophecy to discover what God does with the world in this state. Picking back up in the second half of verse 15, we read:

^15b Now the Lord saw,
And it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice.
¹⁶ And He saw that there was no man,
And was astonished that there was no one to intercede;
Then His own arm brought salvation to Him,
And His righteousness upheld Him.
¹⁷ He put on righteousness like a breastplate,
And a helmet of salvation on His head;
And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing
And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.
¹⁸ According to their deeds, so He will repay,
Wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies;
To the coastlands He will make recompense.
¹⁹ So they will fear the name of the Lord from the west
And His glory from the rising of the sun,
For He will come like a rushing stream
Which the wind of the Lord drives.
²⁰ “A Redeemer will come to Zion,
And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” declares the Lord.

²¹ “As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from now and forever.”

In this prophecy, after seeing that there was no way for humanity to redeem itself, God decides to take matters into His own hands and step into history as a Redeemer. Looking out at the inhabitants of this planet, from God’s perspective, there was no one available who could intercede on our behalf to fix the sin problem. Because of this, God decided that He would send Himself, specifically Jesus, one member of the Godhead, to intercede for us and be the Redeemer for humanity.

At the very beginning of Jesus’ time on this planet as a baby, Luke’s gospel describes a fascinating encounter Jesus and His earthly parents have when they go to dedicate Him in the temple a few days after His birth. In Luke, chapter 2, starting in verse 25, we read:

²⁵ And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. ²⁶ And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. ²⁷ And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, ²⁸ then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,

²⁹ “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace,
According to Your word;
³⁰ For my eyes have seen Your salvation,
³¹ Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
³² A Light of revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.”

³³ And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him. ³⁴ And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed— ³⁵ and a sword will pierce even your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

³⁶ And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷ and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers. ³⁸ At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

When Joseph and Mary enter the temple, they are greeted by two people who have amazing things to say about Jesus. The first person Luke’s gospel describes as a man, Simeon. For most of my growing up life, I had pictured Simeon as the priest on duty that day, but nothing in Luke’s gospel suggests this.

Instead, Simeon happens to be a somewhat regular guy who had an extra-close relationship with God. Luke’s gospel describes Simeon having the Holy Spirit in his life, and Simeon speaks a prophetic word over Jesus’ life and ministry.

Anna, who is called a prophetess, was also there, and while we don’t know exactly what she said, she drew the attention of everyone present onto Jesus and who He was.

Here at the opening of Jesus’ time on earth, we find a partial fulfillment of the covenant promise found at the end of Isaiah’s prophecy. “As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from now and forever.”

Looking at Jesus’ life and ministry, He came to be our Savior, our Intercessor, and our Redeemer. While there was nothing we could do to break free from the grip of sin, because of Jesus, and through the help of God’s Holy Spirit, we can leave sin in our past and live a redeemed life with God. When we place our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus, and live with and for God in this life, drawing close to Him, we prepare ourselves for eternity when we will live with God in the new heaven and new earth forever.

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. Intentionally place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and lean on Him as your Redeemer and Intercessor. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross pays the debt our sin caused, and when we let Jesus, He is happy to pay this debt when we choose to align our lives with God while also turning away from sin.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow personally closer to Jesus each and every day. Through regular prayer and Bible study, discover how God loves you personally and just how far He is willing to go to redeem you from the sin that has infected this world.

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!