Reflective Bible Study

As we move through Matthew’s gospel, we come to two events that I am having a difficult time choosing between. One event is an example of Jesus being very different from how we usually see Jesus, while the other event seems similar to one of our previous events, but it has a few details that are significant to pay attention to.

Because of this, I’m not going to pick. Instead, let’s read this passage and both of these events. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 15, and we will read from the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 21, Matthew tells us:

²¹ Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon. ²² A Gentile woman who lived there came to him, pleading, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! For my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely.”

²³ But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. “Tell her to go away,” they said. “She is bothering us with all her begging.”

²⁴ Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep—the people of Israel.”

²⁵ But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!”

²⁶ Jesus responded, “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁷ She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their masters’ table.”

²⁸ “Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed.

Let’s pause reading here, at the end of this first event, because what Matthew includes for us is amazing. While many people focus in on Jesus and how His comments are insensitive towards the woman, I want us to focus for a moment on how Jesus’ actions don’t match Jesus’ words at the beginning of this event.

In verse 21, Matthew tells us that “Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon.” Jesus makes this trip away from Galilee to the region of Tyre and Sidon which are close to the Mediterranean Sea. While He and the disciples are in Tyre and Sidon, we only have one event recorded for this trip, which is what this first part of our passage focuses in on.

While I think other gospels allude to other people being healed, the miracle that takes center stage is the one Matthew focuses in on in our passage. The interesting idea that I want us to pay attention to is that while Jesus tells the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep—the people of Israel,” Jesus made the trip all the way to the region and city where this woman lived like He traveled there to help only her.

I think that the details in this event point to Jesus challenging the disciples with the lesson that God will sometimes call us to help people who are not like us, and we should help people who ask for help regardless of what they look like and regardless of what our preconceived ideas and stereotypes are.

Following Matthew including this miracle, Jesus leaves that region and returns to Galilee. Picking back up in verse 29, Matthew writes:

²⁹ Jesus returned to the Sea of Galilee and climbed a hill and sat down. ³⁰ A vast crowd brought to him people who were lame, blind, crippled, those who couldn’t speak, and many others. They laid them before Jesus, and he healed them all. ³¹ The crowd was amazed! Those who hadn’t been able to speak were talking, the crippled were made well, the lame were walking, and the blind could see again! And they praised the God of Israel.

³² Then Jesus called his disciples and told them, “I feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry, or they will faint along the way.”

³³ The disciples replied, “Where would we get enough food here in the wilderness for such a huge crowd?”

³⁴ Jesus asked, “How much bread do you have?”

They replied, “Seven loaves, and a few small fish.”

³⁵ So Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground. ³⁶ Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, thanked God for them, and broke them into pieces. He gave them to the disciples, who distributed the food to the crowd.

³⁷ They all ate as much as they wanted. Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food. ³⁸ There were 4,000 men who were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children. ³⁹ Then Jesus sent the people home, and he got into a boat and crossed over to the region of Magadan.

In the second event of our passage, we discover another miracle of food multiplication, this time taking seven loaves and a few small fish and turning it into a meal for over 4,000 people. Most people see the similarities between the miracle of feeding 5,000 and feeding 4,000, but each event includes a key difference that makes each event uniquely powerful and distinct. This detail is where the food came from that was eventually multiplied. With the earlier miracle where Jesus fed over 5,000 people, the food came from one of the people in the crowd, specifically from a boy offering his food to Jesus. This later miracle of feeding over 4,000 has the food coming from the disciples own food reserves.

This distinction is important for us to pay attention to. This distinction tells us that sometimes God will send us the supplies we need to help others from someone or somewhere else. However, sometimes God challenges us to supply what is needed for a miracle to happen. The earlier miracle happened because of a boy’s gift of food. This later miracle happened because the disciples gave up what they had left for themselves.

As we look at Jesus traveling to heal a Samaritan woman’s daughter and Jesus feeding a large crowd in a wilderness, we have a shared underlying theme that we can place our trust, our faith, our hope, and our belief in Jesus, who is more than willing to help us when we need help.

Jesus traveled to the region of Tyre and Sidon to heal this woman’s daughter, and He traveled to Galilee to heal and help thousands of others. Jesus also knew that after three days, the crowd had chosen staying with Him over leaving and getting food, and the crowd’s need prompts Jesus to give them one more amazing miracle.

God is willing to help us when we need help, and while sometimes He is waiting for us to ask, and push past a few challenges, other times, He is more than willing to supply what we need without us even needing to open our mouths to pray.

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

As I always challenge you to do, be sure to seek God first in your life. Intentionally place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus. Move into your life claiming God’s promise that He will help you when you need and ask for help. God is more than willing to supply us with what we need, and when He does, remember to show Him gratitude and say thank You for the blessings He has given to us.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God stronger. Discover through your own study time what God wants to teach you, and while other people may have good things to say, never let your relationship with God become dependent on anyone else’s relationship with Him.

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 are at, or just over, the halfway point in our year podcasting through Luke’s gospel, we arrive at a passage where someone asks Jesus a question that many of us would like a clear answer for, and while Jesus answers the question truthfully, in many ways, Jesus’ response might not feel like a very satisfying answer. Also, in this passage, is a unique foreshadowing of Jesus’ upcoming crucifixion framed in a response Jesus gives to some Pharisees warning Him to leave the area.

Let’s dive into our passage and discover what we can learn from what Luke tells us Jesus taught those present. Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will read from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 22, Luke tells us that:

²² Jesus was teaching in every town and village as he traveled toward Jerusalem. ²³ Someone said to Jesus, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”

Jesus said, ²⁴ “Try hard to enter through the narrow door, because many people will try to enter there, but they will not be able. ²⁵ When the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you can stand outside and knock on the door and say, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ ²⁶ Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in the streets of our town.’ ²⁷ But he will say to you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Go away from me, all you who do evil!’ ²⁸ You will cry and grind your teeth with pain when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s kingdom, but you yourselves thrown outside. ²⁹ People will come from the east, west, north, and south and will sit down at the table in the kingdom of God. ³⁰ There are those who are last now who will be first in the future. And there are those who are first now who will be last in the future.”

Pausing our reading here, I want to point out that I am always a little challenged by Jesus’ response. The question Jesus is asked seems simple enough for a yes or a no answer while Jesus gives a much more broad and challenging response. From Jesus’ response, I suspect that the question is a little vague, and that Jesus was likely answering the question behind this person’s question. If I were to be asked the question, “Will only a few people be saved?” I would first want to know what is meant by the word “few”.

However, from Jesus’ response, we see a powerful challenge and an amazing promise. In Jesus’ response, I get the impression that salvation is more difficult than many people would like to admit. Salvation is described as a narrow door and a door that will ultimately be closed.

The description of those left on the outside of the door is simply “those who do evil”. The owner of the home tells those outside of the door in verse 27, “I don’t know you or where you come from. Go away from me, all you who do evil!”

The powerful challenge in this verse is that doing evil separates us from God, and that means our present choices outweigh our past decisions for God. Nothing in this passage suggests God will force someone into heaven because they made a decision or prayed a prayer early in their life that they have since turned away from. Our present choices matter when we are discussing salvation because being saved is a decision that is always made in the present!

In other words, saying that we were saved in the past is just as valuable as saying we will choose to accept Jesus in the future. While there is a little value in these “non-present” decisions, the only decision that truly matters is a present decision to accept Jesus, repent and move away from doing evil, and accept the gift of salvation.

However, there is a promise that comes immediately following this. Jesus then describes how those who are outside the door look in and see people who have come from all points of the compass sitting and eating in the kingdom of God. Jesus may be talking about you and me in this verse. Unless you are Jewish and currently living in Israel, the description of a foreigner traveling to eat in God’s kingdom could very easily describe all of God’s people living in every other part of the world.

This response to a question, while being challenging, gives us an amazing promise that God will have people of every type, every nationality, every race, and every group you could possibly think of sitting with Him at His table. The only ones excluded are those described as doers of evil. The only people who are excluded chose evil over entering through the narrow door.

However, I wonder if this response prompts what we read next in this passage. Continuing in verse 31, Luke tells us:

³¹ At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Go away from here! Herod wants to kill you!”

Briefly pausing again, I may be cynical, but whenever I read people described as Pharisees, I always suspect whatever they are about to say. In this seemingly noble act, these Pharisees appear to warn Jesus about Herod plotting against Him.

I have doubts about this plot, because later in Luke, we discover Jesus ultimately meeting Herod, Herod having the chance to kill Jesus, and Herod simply giving this opportunity back to Pilate. Instead, I see these Pharisees giving this threat to try to intimidate Jesus into leaving when they don’t want Him there. I suspect Herod had little to nothing to do with this.

But Jesus does give an interesting response to this threat, and I wonder if Jesus’ response does ultimately make it to Herod.

Continuing in verse 32:

³² Jesus said to them, “Go tell that fox Herod, ‘Today and tomorrow I am forcing demons out and healing people. Then, on the third day, I will reach my goal.’ ³³ Yet I must be on my way today and tomorrow and the next day. Surely it cannot be right for a prophet to be killed anywhere except in Jerusalem.

In Jesus’ response, we see an interesting foreshadowing for Jesus’ upcoming death. Jesus fully knows that Jerusalem is where He would ultimately be crucified, and He even directly suggests this saying that it isn’t right for any prophet to be killed anywhere except Jerusalem. I wonder if this statement reveals one big idea that hurt God. Jerusalem, the city of God, the place where the temple stood, and the capital city of God’s people, is known in history as the city that kills God’s prophets. This single statement is powerful. This statement also shows us just how much God loves us.

God is a God who redeems. God takes the least likely things and He turns them into His greatest triumphs. Before Jesus, the cross represented shame, torture, and death; after Jesus, the cross represents the way humanity can experience salvation through Jesus’ sacrifice. Before Jesus’ resurrection, ascension, and return, Jerusalem is known as the city who killed God’s prophets, Jesus included, but when Jesus ultimately returns, God’s people will get to experience the New Jerusalem, which is the city God built that will ultimately protect His people forever!

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 seek God first in your life. Choose to turn away from sin and towards God, accepting what Jesus has done for us to cover the sins in our past. Remember that salvation is an always-present decision, and even when we make mistakes and slip up, God is willing to forgive us when we genuinely come back to Him asking for forgiveness.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God and to open your heart to the Holy Spirit. When we let the Holy Spirit into our hearts, minds, and lives, He will lead and guide us towards God and away from sin.

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 the gospel of Matthew, looking at Jesus’ life, we come to a place where Matthew tells us some Pharisees ask Jesus a question about the behavior of His followers. Before even knowing what this issue is, it is interesting that Jesus isn’t challenged about His own actions, but about the actions of those around Him.

Seeing how this passage is framed seems to tell us that Jesus actually obeyed the custom that the Pharisees were concerned about. Otherwise, these Pharisees would challenge Jesus and His followers on the idea that they all were breaking the custom in question.

What custom were the Pharisees concerned with? Let’s read the passage and find out.

Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 15, and we will read from the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us that:

¹ About this time some Pharisees and teachers of the Law of Moses came from Jerusalem. They asked Jesus, ² “Why don’t your disciples obey what our ancestors taught us to do? They don’t even wash their hands before they eat.”

³ Jesus answered:

Why do you disobey God and follow your own teaching? ⁴ Didn’t God command you to respect your father and mother? Didn’t he tell you to put to death all who curse their parents? ⁵ But you let people get by without helping their parents when they should. You let them say that what they have has been offered to God. ⁶ Is this any way to show respect to your parents? You ignore God’s commands in order to follow your own teaching. ⁷ And you are nothing but show-offs! Isaiah the prophet was right when he wrote that God had said,

⁸ “All of you praise me
    with your words,
but you never really
    think about me.
⁹ It is useless for you
    to worship me,
when you teach rules
    made up by humans.”

¹⁰ Jesus called the crowd together and said, “Pay attention and try to understand what I mean. ¹¹ The food that you put into your mouth doesn’t make you unclean and unfit to worship God. The bad words that come out of your mouth are what make you unclean.”

¹² Then his disciples came over to him and asked, “Do you know that you insulted the Pharisees by what you said?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Every plant that my Father in heaven did not plant will be pulled up by the roots. ¹⁴ Stay away from those Pharisees! They are like blind people leading other blind people, and all of them will fall into a ditch.”

¹⁵ Peter replied, “What did you mean when you talked about the things that make people unclean?”

¹⁶ Jesus then said:

Don’t any of you know what I am talking about by now? ¹⁷ Don’t you know that the food you put into your mouth goes into your stomach and then out of your body? ¹⁸ But the words that come out of your mouth come from your heart. And they are what make you unfit to worship God. ¹⁹ Out of your heart come evil thoughts, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, vulgar deeds, stealing, telling lies, and insulting others. ²⁰ These are what make you unclean. Eating without washing your hands will not make you unfit to worship God.

In this passage and challenge, some Pharisees come with a somewhat innocent sounding question about hand washing, but Jesus understands that their question is really a question about why He teaches them to disregard tradition and custom. Jesus answers their underlying challenge while also warning people to stay away from this style of belief.

The big truth we can learn from this passage and from Jesus’ warning is that any tradition that disagrees with God’s Word must be ignored, adjusted, or discarded in favor of obeying God’s Word above anything else. And, while it is more difficult to do, we only truly know what God’s Word says when we study it for ourselves. This is why I repeatedly challenge each of us on this podcast to personally pray and study the Bible for yourself. It is too easy to simply follow someone else because they sound like they know what they are talking about.

An emphasis on tradition over God’s truth leads people into the exact trap Jesus warned against in this passage. Jesus describes these Pharisees in verse 6 as people who “ignore God’s commands in order to follow [their] own teaching.”

The other temptation in this passage is to think Jesus was strictly talking about food and clean verses unclean foods. This is not the case. Instead, this passage is focused on being fit for worship, and the food we eat does not change how fit we are to worship God.

In the Old Testament, God gave the Jewish people detailed instructions regarding clean and unclean foods, and while this teaching gets wrapped up as a spiritual message, the primary reason for this is more for health than it is for spirituality. Jesus does not make the dietary regulations in the Old Testament void with His statement. Instead, He draws our attention to the truth that our diet does not impact how fit we are to worship God.

In Jesus’ challenge to the people present, He places the emphasis on worship. This doesn’t mean that we ignore what we put into our mouths. Instead, this means we must be extra careful about what comes out of our mouths, because what comes out of our mouths comes from our hearts. When we worship, we offer our hearts as a gift to God, but we also want our gift to be pleasing to God. This means we must protect our hearts from things that would taint, stain, or damage our hearts, because this ultimately damages our gift to God.

A similar example is giving a gift to a friend. If we purchase a brand new item at the store that our friend really wants and needs, would we take this item home, open it up, use it many times, stain it, damage it, break it, and then ultimately package up the not-so-perfect-anymore gift for our friend. Would our used and abused gift show our friend how much we value his friendship?

Or, would we purchase this item, and save it in as perfect as a condition as we can until we can give it to our friend in its new condition.

I hope you would agree with me that we would try to keep our gift in as great a condition as we can. It is the same way with our hearts. While not everyone wants to give their heart to God, when we choose to place our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus, we are giving ourselves to Him and we are promising Jesus our hearts. While our hearts may be stained, damaged, and abused by sin already, when we come to God, we can ask Him to create in us clean, new hearts, and God is willing to repair and recreate our hearts from the inside. When God has created new hearts for us, we now have a gift that is worth protecting. Our new-heart-gift from God is valuable to God, and we are called and challenged to keep this gift safe.

God has called us to follow Him, to place our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus, and to obey His commands. We are to place following God above the rules and traditions of humanity. While there are many areas where we can do both, whenever there is a conflict between God’s rules and humanities rules, the safest choice from eternity’s perspective is to choose God’s way and to obey Him, regardless of what the consequences are in this life. No matter what consequences come in our lives because we chose to follow God, they will be worth it when Jesus returns and gives us our rewards.

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 place His Word, His will, and His ideal ahead of ourselves. Choose to obey God’s rules over humanities traditions, and if there is ever a conflict, choose to obey God rather than man. Humanity’s rules change each year, each decade, and each generation, while God’s rules are eternal. When we obey God’s rules and we live a life of God’s love, we keep our hearts clean and pure and fit to offer God as a part of our worship to Him!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God each and every day. Focus on growing a personal relationship with God and intentionally make your relationship personal. While other people can give us ideas to think about, always take these ideas to God in prayer and ask Him if they are worth paying attention to. Above everything else, trust God’s Word as He has revealed it in the Bible because if you trust God to keep you safe for eternity, He is more than capable of keeping His Word safe for a few thousand years of human history.

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 ridiculed out of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue our journey through Luke’s gospel, we come to a set of events that don’t seem to be related on the surface, but two events that share a similar theme with each other. The first event has to do with Jesus sharing a parable in response to a question He is asked about the deaths some people faced. The second event is a healing Jesus does on the Sabbath.

Let’s read these two events, discover what we can learn from each, and uncover the big, shared theme that both of these events include.

Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will read from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us:

¹ Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ² Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? ³ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

⁶ Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. ⁷ So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

⁸ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹ If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

Let’s pause reading here. This marks the end of the first event and the end of Jesus’ illustration. This event and illustration were given in response to Jesus being asked about the deaths of a group of Galileans. Jesus’ reply answers the question behind the question they were really asking. While those present were telling Jesus about what had happened, Jesus counters their thoughts that God had allowed this type of death because He was punishing them.

The big challenging truth in Jesus’ response is that everyone is equally worthy of death because of their sin. Sin in our lives makes us worthy of death because we have broken God’s law. However, death in this life is different from eternal death.

To contrast the death that is in this life, Jesus challenges those present with the truth that repenting is the way to avoid perishing, which is Jesus’ preferred term that He uses for eternal death. John, chapter 3, verse 16, which is one of the most famous verses in the entire Bible contrasts perishing with eternal life: Repenting leads away from perishing and towards eternal life.

The parable Jesus shares is amazing as well. This parable focuses our attention onto what it means to be a follower of Jesus. In this parable, the expected activity of the fig tree is bearing fruit. On one hand, bearing fruit is part of what the fig tree was designed to do, but beyond this, the goal of the fruit of any fruit tree itself is to create more fruit trees. In the fruit of a fig tree, or any fruit tree for that matter, are seeds that will ultimately grow into more trees if given the chance.

This parable does not have an ending, and in my mind, this is because we are living in the year of the parable where the tree is being cared for and God is eagerly awaiting us to bear fruit.

Not bearing fruit is the way to ultimately be cut down and removed from the vineyard.

However, while it is easy to stop reading here and disconnect what comes next as being a completely separate event, the event we just finished reading shares a big theme with the event Luke includes next. Continuing in verse 10, Luke tells us:

¹⁰ On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, ¹¹ and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” ¹³ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

¹⁴ Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

¹⁵ The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? ¹⁶ Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

¹⁷ When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

Before touching on the big shared theme of these two events, a detail I don’t believe I’ve ever noticed before stood out to me while reading it this time. When the religious leaders react against Jesus’ healing this woman, they assume this woman came to the synagogue that day to be healed by Jesus. However, nothing like this is even implied.

This woman had spent the last 18 years being disabled. While it is possible she traveled to see Jesus and was visiting the synagogue that day, nothing in this passage suggests this or anything other than that this woman simply had come to worship God in spite of her disability. The implication of the synagogue leader is that anyone who was sick should intentionally avoid Jesus at all costs on the Sabbath day.

However impractical this implication is, especially since Jesus traveled around and actively sought out people who He could heal, what the synagogue leader shared suggests that those who are sick or disabled shouldn’t accept Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath. Another subtle implication is that those who are sick or disabled should avoid going to the synagogue on the Sabbath, or perhaps they should actively avoid going to any synagogue where Jesus might be.

The reaction the synagogue leader gives in response to Jesus healing is against the people who were in the synagogue. If the synagogue leader was mad at Jesus, I find it a little humorous that this frustration is directed towards those who simply came to worship God together.

However, this isn’t humorous at all, because this is often what happens. Instead of taking our frustrations out on those who frustrate us, we usually take our frustrations out on those closest to us who simply get to be around us when we are frustrated. This synagogue leader was frustrated with Jesus, and those who came to his synagogue that day were targeted because of this frustration.

In these two events, there is a huge shared theme. This theme says that God loves sinners and He wants to free them. In the first event, Jesus calls sinners to repent because it will free them from the sin that is holding their lives back. In the second event, Jesus frees someone who Satan had physically trapped in a disability. God loves sinners and He wants to free us.

Another big, bonus, shared theme is that the state of someone’s life or death does not reflect their relationship with God. Someone could be far away from God and be appearing to succeed, while someone else could die a tragic death and ultimately be saved because of the final state of their heart. While God can directly punish people for sin in their lives, I don’t believe this happens as often as some might think. Instead, I believe that sin naturally brings consequences and destruction, and that the longer a person sins, the more consequences they bring upon themselves because of their own choices.

God isn’t interested in seeing us perish because of sin. God wants us to repent, which means to turn away from sin in our lives and back to Him, and ultimately outlast the presence of sin in the universe. God wants each of us to experience a new, eternal life with 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 repent and turn to Him if you have felt like your life is turning away. Choose to rededicate your life to God and let Him lead and guide you forward. Trust in and lean on Jesus’ sacrifice for your sins and accept the gift Jesus offers of a new life with God!

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Choose to pray and study the Bible personally to grow a personal relationship with God and one that isn’t based on the opinions of others. While other people have opinions and ideas, filter what you read, hear, and see through the themes of the Bible to discover what God’s truth truly is!

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