Why Focus On the Future: Matthew 24:26-35

Focus Passage: Matthew 24:26-35 (NIV)

26 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

29 “Immediately after the distress of those days

“‘the sun will be darkened,
    and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
    and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Read Matthew 24:26-35 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

While reading Matthew 24:26-35 for this journal entry, a verse or phrase didn’t really stand out like with other passages in other journal entries. But what did stand out is a big theme that spans the broad teaching that this passage concludes.

Probably more single space is given to Jesus teaching us about what will happen in the end time than most any other teaching Jesus gave in the gospels. Three of the gospel writers include it, and most give it a very prominent place right before crucifixion week.

It is as though, knowing that the time He can spend with His disciples is growing to a close, Jesus begins to shift the topics that He talks about onto teaching about what to pay attention to after He is gone.

I believe Jesus knew that there would be thousands of years of history after His return to heaven, but instead of saying that directly, He described the condition of the world as it would be during those years. In the conclusion, our passage for this journal entry, He describes how He will return again, and what that would be like.

Using grand language and earth shattering imagery, Jesus wants us to know that His return will be nothing like His first appearance, and He does not want us to be deceived. He wants us to be ready, to see the world events that are happening around us, and to know that God’s kingdom is near. (Luke 21:31)

The big theme that I see listed here is this: God does not want us to be scared or surprised when we see bad things happen in the world. Instead, He wants us to focus on His character, on the truth that He is in control, and on the promise that Jesus is returning.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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Seeing Through Healthy Eyes: Luke 11:33-36

Focus Passage: Luke 11:33-36 (NIrV)

33 “No one lights a lamp and hides it. No one puts it under a bowl. Instead, they put a lamp on its stand. Then those who come in can see the light. 34 Your eye is like a lamp for your body. Suppose your eyes are healthy. Then your whole body also is full of light. But suppose your eyes can’t see well. Then your body also is full of darkness. 35 So make sure that the light inside you is not darkness. 36 Suppose your whole body is full of light. And suppose no part of it is dark. Then your body will be full of light. It will be just as when a lamp shines its light on you.”

Read Luke 11:33-36 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Part way through Jesus ministry, He shared an illustration about lighting a lamp and the importance of letting the lamp’s light shine. In this illustration, Jesus gives us an interesting comparison that is incredibly relevant and profound when we stop to think about it.

In the middle of this message, Jesus tells those listening, “Your eye is like a lamp for your body. Suppose your eyes are healthy. Then your whole body also is full of light. But suppose your eyes can’t see well. Then your body also is full of darkness.” (v. 34)

When reading Jesus’ words in this verse, I cannot help but see the similarities between our eyes and our perspective. Jesus calls our eyes “lamps” for our bodies, and with this in mind, if we focus on things that are positive and uplifting, then we will have a positive and uplifting outlook on life. In a similar way, if we focus on negative or unhealthy things, then we will have a negative and unhealthy view of life.

However, when we know how powerful our perspective and focus are, are we the healthiest we can be when we exclusively focus on the good while shunning all the bad – or is this simply a recipe for becoming naïve?

In this passage, healthy eyes are contrasted with “eyes that cannot see well”. This isn’t the same as being blind, but it is one way of saying that our eyes become blind to certain things. I wonder if someone who turns a blind eye to the negatives around them is just as guilty of having unhealthy eyes as the person who cannot see the positives in any situation. In each case, the person’s eyes are blind to the other person’s perspective.

If this is the case, then perhaps the healthiest plan forward is to train our eyes to show us the good and the bad. If we begin to see more bad than good, challenge yourself to shift your focus onto looking for more good, and this could include reading the Bible for encouragement and inspiration or simply turning off negative or draining media. Another idea/challenge to stop seeing the negative sides of reality is to step outside our doors and look for someone we can help who is in need. Helping others lifts our spirits.

Our lives are a mix of the positives and negatives, and the healthiest we can be is when we choose to open our eyes to both sides of life, focus on the positive, and where possible, find ways to help, accept, or change the negatives into positives.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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Missing the Signs: Mark 8:11-13

Focus Passage: Mark 8:11-13 (NASB)

Part way through Jesus’ ministry, Mark’s gospel describes a time where some Pharisees come to Jesus and test Him by demanding a sign. While Jesus responds to a similar scenario in Matthew’s gospel by pointing forward to a sign, in the event we find in Mark’s gospel, we see a different response from Jesus.

Mark tells us that one of the times Jesus was pressured to perform a miraculous sign from heaven, “Sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, ‘Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.’” (v. 12)

After answering this demand, Jesus simply gets into the boat and crosses to the other side of the lake.

It is profound to think about how Mark describes Jesus’ reaction. Mark tells us first that Jesus “sighed deeply in His spirit”. This is significant to think about because we can imagine in our mind’s eye Jesus letting out a long, deep sigh as the weight and implications of the request hits Him.

However, what Jesus says when He ultimately answers the challenge is amazing. The Pharisees are demanding a sign so that they can know if He is from God, and Jesus denies their request while grouping them with their entire generation.

What is incredible to think about is that while Jesus refused to give these leaders a clear sign like what they were wanting, the generation they were in was the one that received most of the signs. To those who were paying attention, almost every prophecy was being fulfilled in one way or another through Jesus’ life, and while many prophecies focused on His death, those paying attention could clearly see God moving powerfully through Jesus’ life and ministry. In a strange almost ironic twist, those living in that generation missed seeing what every other generation wished they could have been present to witness!

Jesus refuses to give that generation a sign because they were closed to the idea that God was already giving signs all around them. If these religious people were not perceptive enough to recognize the signs God had already given, no miraculous sign from heaven would be enough to convince them Jesus was sent from God.

If we demand God prove Himself to us through specific signs, we are likely to be disappointed. However, if we look for signs that He is moving in the world around us, we will have more than enough evidence that He exists and that He loves each of us!

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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The Secret to Marital Success: Matthew 19:1-12

Focus Passage: Matthew 19:1-12 (NCV)

After Jesus said all these things, he left Galilee and went into the area of Judea on the other side of the Jordan River. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

Some Pharisees came to Jesus and tried to trick him. They asked, “Is it right for a man to divorce his wife for any reason he chooses?”

Jesus answered, “Surely you have read in the Scriptures: When God made the world, ‘he made them male and female.’ And God said, ‘So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become one body.’ So there are not two, but one. God has joined the two together, so no one should separate them.”

The Pharisees asked, “Why then did Moses give a command for a man to divorce his wife by giving her divorce papers?”

Jesus answered, “Moses allowed you to divorce your wives because you refused to accept God’s teaching, but divorce was not allowed in the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman is guilty of adultery. The only reason for a man to divorce his wife is if his wife has sexual relations with another man.”

10 The followers said to him, “If that is the only reason a man can divorce his wife, it is better not to marry.”

11 Jesus answered, “Not everyone can accept this teaching, but God has made some able to accept it. 12 There are different reasons why some men cannot marry. Some men were born without the ability to become fathers. Others were made that way later in life by other people. And some men have given up marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. But the person who can marry should accept this teaching about marriage.”

Read Matthew 19:1-12 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Hidden within this journal entry’s passage that makes many people uncomfortable is a clue about how to avoid failing at God’s ideal in our most significant relationship. While many people shy away from these verses because they speak against divorce, also included in this passage is a clue about how to have a successful marriage.

This clue is found as Jesus finishes teaching us what God’s ideal is in verses 4-6. Jesus ends this description of marriage by saying, “God has joined the two together, so no one should separate them.

The big idea here is that God is the one doing the joining, and if this is truly the case, God will be in the middle of a successful marriage. It will also be true that we must be connected to God in order to truly connect well with our significant other half.

A statistic I learned about recently confirms this idea: A Gallup Poll done in 1997 by the National Association of Marriage Enhancement showed the divorce rate among couples who pray together regularly is 1 out of 1,152. If we were to make that into a percentage, it would be 0.087% — Less than 1/10th of one percent.

In culture today, where divorce is more common than we want to admit and marriage is not viewed as “till death do us part”, it would seem like the missing piece in our equation is God being the connecting link. Most people who want to get married want it to last forever, and most of those who have faced divorce don’t wish for their failed scenario to be repeated by themselves or others in the future.

In this passage, Jesus seems to imply that God is actively involved in a person’s marriage; but He doesn’t recognize divorce. We see this in Jesus’ words about God doing the joining, and also in the warning about not separating what God has joined and in the reality that God views second marriage sexual relations as adultery.

This is not condemning those who are divorced or who have remarried, but instead, it expands the definition of sin to be anything that is outside of God’s ideal/will. We all have fallen short of God’s ideal, and that is why Jesus came.

God wants us to experience the best life possible, and that includes the best marriage possible if marriage is in our present or future life. In this passage that speaks about God’s ideal regarding marriage, Jesus shares the secret to what makes a marriage successful: Don’t separate what God has joined together. God is the one doing the joining, and only by staying connected to Him are we able to truly stay connected with our spouse.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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