Reflective Bible Study

As we continue our journey through Luke’s gospel, we come to Jesus’ final week leading up to the cross. For our time together, we will fast-forward past Jesus’ triumphal entry and jump into an event Luke tells us happened during this week, probably early on in this week. While Luke doesn’t give us any hint regarding what day this happened, I suspect it may have been the Monday or Tuesday of that week.

Also worth mentioning before reading the passage we will focus in on is that earlier, most likely the day before, Jesus had thrown out the money changers and upset the commerce that was happening in the temple courtyard.

While it is not any stretch to imagine the first part of our passage to be a direct response to Jesus throwing the money changers out of the temple, when we read what happened together, let’s look past what might have happened earlier and focus on what we can discover from the passage itself.

Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 20, and we will read from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us:

¹ One day when Jesus was in the Temple teaching the people and preaching the Good News, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law, together with the elders, came ² and said to him, “Tell us, what right do you have to do these things? Who gave you such right?”

³ Jesus answered them, “Now let me ask you a question. Tell me, ⁴ did John’s right to baptize come from God or from human beings?”

⁵ They started to argue among themselves, “What shall we say? If we say, ‘From God,’ he will say, ‘Why, then, did you not believe John?’ ⁶ But if we say, ‘From human beings,’ this whole crowd here will stone us, because they are convinced that John was a prophet.” ⁷ So they answered, “We don’t know where it came from.”

⁸ And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you, then, by what right I do these things.”

Let’s pause reading for a moment, because I want to draw our attention onto a powerful idea present in this brief exchange. When the religious leaders ask Jesus what right He has to do what He is doing, while it is tempting to think they are referencing what Jesus had done in the temple when He kicked out the money changers a day earlier, part of me wonders if they are challenging Him on what He was doing at that present moment.

At that moment, Luke has set the stage by telling us Jesus was teaching and preaching the crowds and sharing the good news with them. With this context, I can see the challenge directed at Jesus as who gave Him the right or authority to preach God’s Word or to share God’s message with the world.

I suspect they were fishing for a way to discredit Jesus’ ministry. If Jesus said a specific human, or a specific Rabbi, they could discredit Him because of something in that rabbi or teacher’s life. If Jesus told them that God had given Him the authority, then they could accuse Him of presuming too much, and Jesus would have subtly directed focus onto Himself. Jesus wanted to keep the focus on God the Father and Jesus wanted to direct all the glory to Him.

In Jesus’ simple counter question, we discover that Jesus preferred this question remaining unanswered.

Answering this question would not help Jesus’ mission and ministry in any way, and it wouldn’t have brought God glory, so Jesus counters it with a question that the religious leaders were unwilling to conclusively decide.

However, Jesus isn’t finished pushing these religious leaders. Continuing in verse 9, Luke tells us:

⁹ Then Jesus told the people this parable: “There was once a man who planted a vineyard, rented it out to tenants, and then left home for a long time. ¹⁰ When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent a slave to the tenants to receive from them his share of the harvest. But the tenants beat the slave and sent him back without a thing. ¹¹ So he sent another slave; but the tenants beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him back without a thing. ¹² Then he sent a third slave; the tenants wounded him, too, and threw him out. ¹³ Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my own dear son; surely they will respect him!’ ¹⁴ But when the tenants saw him, they said to one another, ‘This is the owner’s son. Let’s kill him, and his property will be ours!’ ¹⁵ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to the tenants?” Jesus asked. ¹⁶ “He will come and kill those men, and turn the vineyard over to other tenants.”

When the people heard this, they said, “Surely not!”

¹⁷ Jesus looked at them and asked, “What, then, does this scripture mean?

‘The stone which the builders rejected as worthless
    turned out to be the most important of all.’

¹⁸ Everyone who falls on that stone will be cut to pieces; and if that stone falls on someone, that person will be crushed to dust.”

¹⁹ The teachers of the Law and the chief priests tried to arrest Jesus on the spot, because they knew that he had told this parable against them; but they were afraid of the people.

In this parable, I find it fascinating that everyone present understood what this parable meant. Luke tells us that the religious leaders knew who they represented, and they even understood Jesus to be subtly placing Himself in this parable as well.

However, because Jesus used a third-person parable, they could not directly challenge Him on the claim of blasphemy, because Jesus never directly says that He is represented by the vineyard owner’s son. Jesus subtly and strongly challenges these leaders while avoiding directly saying something that would incriminate Himself.

Also, I find it fascinating that Jesus’ parable’s conclusion is met with shock from the people present. When Jesus asks the people the rhetorical question about what the vineyard owner will do to the rebellious, evil tenants, He tells them that the owner will throw them out, kill them, and find other tenants who will hopefully be better.

While everyone knows Jesus was speaking against the religious leaders who had mistreated and abused the prophets God sent Israel and Judah in the many centuries of the nation’s history, Jesus again subtly predicts His death. If the religious leaders wanted to avoid playing into prophecy’s hand, they could have simply ignored Jesus. Jesus tells these leaders that they would ultimately kill the vineyard owner’s son, and by pressing for Jesus’ death, these leaders push Jesus into a role they likely never wanted Him to be in.

By pressing for Jesus’ death, these leaders incriminate themselves because they understand themselves to be the tenants, and they reject Jesus and kill Him. In the parable, the last messenger they receive is the vineyard owner’s son, and because the vineyard owner represents God, by pressing for Jesus’ death, without realizing what it fully means, these leaders acknowledge that Jesus is God’s Son!

The people are shocked not that the vineyard owner would reject these evil tenants, but that their rejection of God’s messengers would ultimately lead to their destruction. While it isn’t a popular message, there will be a point when God stops sending warnings and messengers to the world. There will be a point when the door to salvation closes.

I wholeheartedly believe that this point in time has not come yet, and that we all still have a choice to believe in Jesus. Because of this, let’s choose today to repent and turn away from our past sins, and to intentionally invite Jesus into our lives to change our hearts and minds. With Jesus in our hearts, we will succeed where the evil tenants failed, and we will accept those God sends into our lives with His truth!

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

As always, intentionally seek God first in your life and chose to accept Jesus into your heart, life, and mind. Choose to live your life in a way that gives God the glory and in a way that doesn’t take any glory for ourselves.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Open your heart and mind in prayer and study to discover a God willing to give anything and everything to redeem the people He loves, and what God ultimately chooses to do when He is continually rejected.

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!

As we continue moving through Matthew’s gospel, we come to a passage where Jesus shares a brief message to the city of Jerusalem. In a subtle way, this message isn’t truly for the city of Jerusalem, as in the walls and structure of Jerusalem, but for the religious leadership living in Jerusalem, both during the first century while Jesus walked the earth, as well as during the earlier and later centuries.

Let’s read Jesus’ message for Jerusalem, and discover what we can learn from His message for us living today. Like all our passages in this Year in Matthew, our passage for this episode is found in Matthew’s gospel, and this episode we will focus in on the end of chapter 23, reading it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 37, Matthew records Jesus saying:

³⁷ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone to death those who are sent to you. Many times I wanted to gather your people as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you did not let me. ³⁸ Now your house will be left completely empty. ³⁹ I tell you, you will not see me again until that time when you will say, ‘God bless the One who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

In the chronology of the gospels, some people believe this message was actually given before Jesus entered the city on a donkey. If this is the case, then this would be something Jesus shared on the last trip to Jerusalem before He entered the city on a donkey.

However, Matthew includes this message after Jesus had entered Jerusalem on a donkey with the procession, leading me to wonder if Jesus shared this message again during this week leading up to His crucifixion with the intention that it foreshadows His second coming. While there are many reasons to believe Matthew brought in an earlier teaching into His gospel here, Matthew wouldn’t have done this without a reason. Because Matthew includes this after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, Matthew wants to point us forward to a future time when Jerusalem will see Jesus.

On the surface, this message and event seem to be very narrowly focused on the Jewish people and specifically the spiritual leaders living in Jerusalem. The message begins by calling Jerusalem by name not once but twice. One might think that Jesus was sharing this just for the religious leaders alive during the first century, but leading into this message, Jesus summarizes the response the spiritual leaders had towards the messengers God sent.

Jesus’ summary of Jerusalem’s response to those who God sends them is that they killed the prophets and stoned to death God’s messengers. The religious leaders’ response is one of continued rejection of God. What is interesting to note is that earlier in Jesus’ ministry, Jesus challenged the Pharisees and religious leaders on this same point. Jesus calls the religious leaders out for how their ancestors rejected God’s messengers, before a few generations later deciding to honor God’s messengers after the punishment and disaster they had predicted actually happened.

One might think that the spiritual leadership would have realized this and changed their ways, but Jesus’ message to Jerusalem tells us that no such change was going to happen. Because of this, many people see in Jesus’ message a prediction of a future where God turns His attention to another group of people instead of the Jews. Some people also believe that this passage suggests God will stop sending prophets and messengers after Jesus.

However, in this passage, while I can understand the logic in both these ideas, I don’t see the context of Jesus’ message being one of outright rejection by God, and I don’t see this passage suggesting that God will stop sending messengers. Instead, I see the context of this passage, and really a big theme in this passage, relating to God giving the Jewish nation protection. God isn’t going to force His protection onto a group of people – especially a group of people who are actively rejecting Him.

With the message Jesus shares, I see God expanding His focus, which does not mean rejecting the old in favor of the new. While prior to this, God had focused on trying to teach and share His blessings through a specific nation of people, this ultimately failed, not because of God’s plan not being good, but because sin-tainted humanity is not that reliable.

Also, the focus of this passage is on the broad group and structure of the religion and not on the individual believers. I do think that this is significant to pay attention to, because Jesus is not saying that from this point in history, or from a specific point in history, no more Jews will be saved. Instead, I believe this message emphasizes how God will broaden His focus because the Jewish religious structure and the culture of the Jewish religious leadership had proven it was more interested in protecting its tradition over being dedicated to God.

Jesus loves the Jewish people just as much as He loves the non-Jewish people. This message is not a rejection of the individual who comes to God asking for help. This message isn’t even a message of rejection for a group of people, Jews in this context, who decide to earnestly seek God with their hearts and lives. Looking at first century history, the Jewish leadership actively rejected Jesus, and in the years and decades following Jesus’ return to heaven, the Jewish community pushed the new Christians away, first by trying to persecute them, but also later by adjusting their worship to be unwelcoming towards a follower of Jesus.

Some might still believe this message was only for those living in the first century world. However, in my mind, this message has much bigger implications. In His message to Jerusalem, Jesus emphasizes that leading up to the first century generation of religious leaders, the Jewish religious leadership had rejected God’s messengers. Unfortunately, this same theme is present in the Christian church following Jesus’ time on earth. The hundreds, if not thousands, of different denominations represent different divisions of God’s people because of one group’s rejection of a messenger who may or may not have been from God.

While there are those in Christianity who focus on unity above everything else, the challenge with this belief is the same challenge Jesus gives to Jerusalem. Regardless of the point in history we are looking at, it is very easy for the leadership in any religious organization to become closed-minded and to reject the messengers God sends their way.

Regardless of the denomination one is looking at, regardless of the “not-a-denominational-church” one is looking at, and regardless of the faith community one is looking at, the temptation is present to reject the messengers God sends in favor of holding onto tradition or compromising further from the truth.

The remedy for this condition is humility. The remedy for a community is to test every belief they have and test it with the weight of the scriptures. The remedy for the leadership of a church is to place the truth of the Bible over the traditions of men, and to support or defend these truths with what is written in God’s Word!

While this approach won’t be popular from our secular world’s perspective, or from the perspective of those who value tradition or unity over truth, placing the truth of the Bible over the traditions of men is the only way for a church or community to stay united with Christ.

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

As I regularly challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and dedicate your life to serving God and His truth over traditions that lead away from Christ.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to stay firmly connected with God and to build a strong foundation for your belief in His truth as revealed in His Word. The Bible is the test we are called to use when evaluating traditions and spiritual truth, and it is the only safe place to go when trying to discern God’s character. While the Bible records some challenging events for us to unpack, the Bible is the clearest picture we have into God’s character and His unfailing love for all of humanity.

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 through our year of podcasting through Luke’s gospel, we come to a challenging parable Jesus shares about a man leaving to become king. While Matthew has a parable that is similar to this one, Luke’s version of this parable has a little more detail, and Luke’s parable contains a powerful truth we would be wise to pay attention to.

With that said, let’s dive into our passage for this episode and discover some things Jesus wants us to learn from this parable He shared while moving towards the cross.

Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 19, and we will read from the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 11, Luke tells us:

¹¹ While the people were listening to these things, Jesus told them a story. He was near Jerusalem. The people thought that God’s kingdom was going to appear right away.

Let’s pause really briefly after this first verse to draw our attention onto the reason Jesus shared this parable. Luke tells us Jesus shared this parable specifically to those people who believed God’s kingdom was going to appear right away. While it is clear looking back on this event that God’s kingdom appearing has been delayed, many of those living in that era believed God’s kingdom would arrive in full force within their lifetime.

To answer this belief, Jesus shares the following parable. Continuing in verse 12:

¹² Jesus said, “A man from an important family went to a country far away. He went there to be made king and then return home. ¹³ So he sent for ten of his slaves. He gave them each about three months’ pay. ‘Put this money to work until I come back,’ he said.

¹⁴ “But those he ruled over hated him. They sent some messengers after him. They were sent to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’

¹⁵ “But he was made king and returned home. Then he sent for the slaves he had given the money to. He wanted to find out what they had earned with it.

¹⁶ “The first one came to him. He said, ‘Sir, your money has earned ten times as much.’

¹⁷ “ ‘You have done well, my good slave!’ his master replied. ‘You have been faithful in a very small matter. So I will put you in charge of ten towns.’

¹⁸ “The second slave came to his master. He said, ‘Sir, your money has earned five times as much.’

¹⁹ “His master answered, ‘I will put you in charge of five towns.’

²⁰ “Then another slave came. He said, ‘Sir, here is your money. I have kept it hidden in a piece of cloth. ²¹ I was afraid of you. You are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in. You harvest what you did not plant.’

²² “His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you evil slave! So you knew that I am a hard man? You knew that I take out what I did not put in? You knew that I harvest what I did not plant? ²³ Then why didn’t you put my money in the bank? When I came back, I could have collected it with interest.’

²⁴ “Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his money away from him. Give it to the one who has ten times as much.’

²⁵ “ ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten times as much!’

²⁶ “He replied, ‘I tell you that everyone who has will be given more. But here is what will happen to anyone who has nothing. Even what they have will be taken away from them. ²⁷ And what about my enemies who did not want me to be king over them? Bring them here! Kill them in front of me!’ ”

In this parable, we discover some powerful, challenging truths.

Two big truths we can easily pull out of this parable are that Jesus will be crowned King, regardless of the wishes of Jesus’ enemies and that we are not judged on how long it takes for Jesus to return, but on what we choose to do with what He has given to us in His absence.

In many ways, this is a parable that is just as applicable for us living today as it was for those living in the first century when Jesus shared it. We are living in a time that still looks forward to when Jesus returns, and this means that this parable gives us a picture of what God is expecting from us.

While it would be easy to look at this parable and conclude that God simply wants us to multiply our money, or to look at Matthew’s version of this parable, which uses the word talent, and take that to mean we should multiply our talents and skills, allow me to share a different angle on this passage. This different angle is incredibly powerful and one you might not have thought of.

In other places in the gospels, and earlier this year of podcasting, Jesus challenged His followers to not worry and to store up their treasures in heaven where thieves cannot steal it and where it won’t erode or decay. We learned that we store up treasure in heaven when we intentionally serve others with what Jesus has given to us.

While business at its core is an exchange of service between two people, the only treasure that will truly last is treasure that is stored in heaven.

Part of me wonders if when Jesus returns as King, we will be asked how well we used what God blessed us with to serve and help others. While not clearly alluded to in this parable, it is suggested in the rewards that this new king gives his faithful servants. The servant who multiplied his money by ten times is given 10 towns to care for, and the servant who multiplied his money five times is given five towns to care for.

Being in charge of a location or a group might feel like a great status symbol, but those who understand the position well understand that it is a position of service above most everything else. When people “look up to you” it is because you are able to serve them in some way, and they benefit when you choose to serve. In this parable, while the clear focus is on multiplying money, I suspect that money is really a metaphor and symbol representing service and storing money in heaven.

The last servant who chose to do nothing with his money offers it back to the king, but with it being hidden and not used, it didn’t collect interest and it wasn’t all that valuable. With inflation, it was actually worth less than before. This last servant represents people who are blessed by God who choose to not bless others with what God has given them. When Jesus returns as king, they get to fumble for words when asked what they did with what God has blessed them with and they will ultimately lose out on the reward they could have had.

In this parable, the soon-to-be-king challenges each of his servants equally. While we may not always feel equally blessed, understand that in God’s eyes, we have all been given much more than we could ever realize, and God has challenged us to use what He has blessed us with to bless others. If you don’t know what God has blessed you with, don’t believe you were missed. Choose to be a blessing for others in any way that you know how and I am positive God will reward you when Jesus returns!

There is no question in this parable whether Jesus will become King. The only open question in this parable is what you will do with what God has blessed you with while Jesus’ return is still in the future!

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 be a blessing to others in any way you know how. Whether blessing others involves giving money or simply helping when help is needed, resolve to help others because God has blessed us in more ways than we can even imagine.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Through the pages of the Bible, discover just how much God loves you and what Jesus was willing to go through to show you God’s love. Discover in the Bible how to accept Jesus’ sacrifice and how to truly love and bless others in a world where these ideas have become foreign.

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

As we continue in Matthew’s gospel moving through the week of Jesus’ crucifixion, we come to an event that stands out in my mind as both brilliant on the part of those who wanted to trap Jesus, and brilliant on the part of Jesus for His response avoiding the trap. During this week, it seems as though the religious leaders amplify their attempts to discredit Jesus, or at the very least, during this week, the gospel writers direct their attention onto these leaders’ challenges more than in the earlier portion of Jesus’ ministry.

Our passage for this episode focuses on one of the more interesting challenges in my mind. We can find it in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 22, and we will read it from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 15, Matthew tells us:

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees left that place and made plans to trap Jesus in saying something wrong. ¹⁶ They sent some of their own followers and some people from the group called Herodians. They said, “Teacher, we know that you are an honest man and that you teach the truth about God’s way. You are not afraid of what other people think about you, because you pay no attention to who they are. ¹⁷ So tell us what you think. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

Before continuing to read Jesus’ response, I want to pause and explain this seemingly no-win scenario. The Pharisees and the Herodians were enemies, but in this one instant, they temporarily ally in order to catch Jesus say something wrong.

From how I understand this event, the Pharisees claimed all life was dedicated to God, and this conflicted with allegiance to the state government that the Herodians supported. In contrast, the Herodians promoted allegiance to the state, and in this case to Herod and Rome, and their big emphasis was on the payment of taxes to support Rome.

Both sides emphasized money, and the Pharisees taught that money should go to the church first, whereas the Herodians taught that taxes should be paid first. Paying taxes was a form of giving allegiance, and the Pharisees taught that allegiance should only be given to God, while the Herodians taught that taxes and allegiance should be given to Rome.

In the minds of these two groups, together they could trap Jesus saying something He shouldn’t, and either Jesus would be discredited among the Pharisees and the religious system, or He would be in trouble with the government.

However, Jesus knew and saw this trap. Continuing reading in verse 18, Matthew tells us:

¹⁸ But knowing that these leaders were trying to trick him, Jesus said, “You hypocrites! Why are you trying to trap me? ¹⁹ Show me a coin used for paying the tax.” So the men showed him a coin. ²⁰ Then Jesus asked, “Whose image and name are on the coin?”

²¹ The men answered, “Caesar’s.”

Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.”

²² When the men heard what Jesus said, they were amazed and left him and went away.

In Jesus’ response, we see an example of answering the issues at hand while avoiding the trap of choosing one side at the expense of another. Those challenging Jesus only saw two possible outcomes, because they had their focus entirely on the money portion of the debate. It never crossed their minds that all money with Caesar’s image was simply being loaned to them by the Roman government.

The response Jesus shared is brilliant because it amplified what we actually give God as being more than simply money. Looking at God’s blessing from the other direction, God has blessed us with so much more than money and what we are called to return to Him is more than simply money. While God can bless us with money, and while we are called to give tithes and offerings, God has given us much more than money, and without the other things God has blessed us with, money would be irrelevant.

Society also has more benefits than simply giving us money, but the majority of society’s benefits are supported in part by the monetary system of the society we are in, and in many ways, this makes money a more central theme in the society portion of this discussion.

I have heard people use this passage to support paying taxes and to refute the necessity of paying taxes. However, I believe both sides of this debate miss the much bigger challenge in Jesus’ response.

Leading into Jesus’ reply, we find an interesting description of Jesus shared by those bringing Jesus this challenge. Whether it was a Pharisee or a Herodian who asked the question in verse 16, he opens the question by saying, “Teacher, we know that you are an honest man and that you teach the truth about God’s way. You are not afraid of what other people think about you, because you pay no attention to who they are.”

In my mind, this is an interesting way to describe Jesus. First, Jesus is described as a teacher, as an honest man, and as someone who teaches the truth about God’s way. Either this opening is an empty compliment from someone who doesn’t believe this, or it is a window into how these leaders understood Jesus, even if they didn’t like Him. Next, Jesus is described as someone who isn’t afraid of what other people think about Him and as someone who doesn’t pay attention to who other people are.

Is this an accurate description of Jesus?

As I look at Jesus’ ministry, I would agree that this is an accurate description. As I read the gospels, I see Jesus fulfilling the role of a teacher, Jesus living honestly, and Jesus teaching the truth about God’s way. I also see Jesus as someone who isn’t afraid of what other people think about Him. About the only potentially questionable descriptor is the last one, which is someone who doesn’t pay attention to who other people are.

Does Jesus ignore or not pay attention to who other people are?

In the context of the religious leaders of that day, the answer is definitely a yes. In first century culture, the religious leaders looked at race, nationality, age, and gender among other things to determine who to pay attention to and who to interact with. In contrast, Jesus didn’t selectively choose to help others based on physical appearance or any characteristic present. Jesus only focused on helping the specific need that an individual had, and He did this to show to those present that God is interested in helping each of us exactly where we need help.

With this framing of Jesus’ character and ministry, what can we then see in Jesus’ reply about taxes?

In my own mind, I see Jesus minimizing money to simply being a cultural tool that we use in the context of the society we live in. We pay tax to help support the society we live in, and specifically the services within our society.

To contrast this, Jesus challenges us to give to God what is God’s. When looking at our lives and when looking at what the Bible teaches, what is clearly God’s?

The clearest answer I see for this question is that our breath is God’s. At creation, God breathed life into humanity, and in many places in the Old Testament, the breath is described as returning to God when we die. Some might call this breath our spirit, but regardless of how the Hebrew word is translated, what God gave us when He created us returns to Him when we die.

God is not interested in our breath returning to Him before our mission on this earth is finished. Instead, God has loaned us breath so that we can fulfill the mission and purpose He has placed us on this earth to fulfill. In this challenge Jesus shares, I see Jesus challenging every person who has breath to dedicate their breath, or we could say their spirit, or we could say their lives, to God and to the mission He has placed us on this earth to accomplish!

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 seeking God first in your life and choose to place Him first. Choose to give God what is God’s and to dedicate your breath, your spirit, and your life to Him and fulfilling the purpose He placed you on this earth to accomplish.

If you don’t know what God has placed you on this earth to do, be sure to take this question to God in prayer. Through prayer and studying the Bible for yourself, you are able to grow a strong, personal relationship with God, and the closer you grow to God, I believe the clearer you will be able to see His mission for your life.

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!