Welcome to Cam’s Reflective Bible Study Journal

Cam’s Reflective Bible Study Journal is a blog/podcast where Cam, one of Reflective Bible Study's founders, shares things he has discovered from his time studying the Bible (usually from one or more of the four gospels).

Get these insights via email (Click Here)

Important: Your email address will NEVER
be rented, sold, or shared with others!

Challenging the Experts: Luke 11:37-54

Published August 6, 2024 in Written Journal Entries
Focus Passage: Luke 11:37-54 (NIrV)

37 Jesus finished speaking. Then a Pharisee invited him to eat with him. So Jesus went in and took his place at the table. 38 But the Pharisee was surprised. He noticed that Jesus did not wash before the meal.

39 Then the Lord spoke to him. “You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish,” he said. “But inside you are full of greed and evil. 40 You foolish people! Didn’t the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41 Give freely to poor people to show what is inside you. Then everything will be clean for you.

42 “How terrible it will be for you Pharisees! You give God a tenth of your garden plants, such as mint and rue. But you have forgotten to be fair and to love God. You should have practiced the last things without failing to do the first.

43 “How terrible for you Pharisees! You love the most important seats in the synagogues. You love having people greet you with respect in the market.

44 “How terrible for you! You are like graves that are not marked. People walk over them without knowing it.”

45 An authority on the law spoke to Jesus. He said, “Teacher, when you say things like that, you say bad things about us too.”

46 Jesus replied, “How terrible for you authorities on the law! You put such heavy loads on people that they can hardly carry them. But you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.

47 “How terrible for you! You build tombs for the prophets. It was your people of long ago who killed them. 48 So you show that you agree with what your people did long ago. They killed the prophets, and now you build the prophets’ tombs. 49 So God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send prophets and apostles to them. They will kill some. And they will try to hurt others.’ 50 So the people of today will be punished. They will pay for all the prophets’ blood spilled since the world began. 51 I mean from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah. He was killed between the altar and the temple. Yes, I tell you, the people of today will be punished for all these things.

52 “How terrible for you authorities on the law! You have taken away the key to the door of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered. And you have stood in the way of those who were entering.”

53 When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law strongly opposed him. They threw a lot of questions at him. 54 They set traps for him. They wanted to catch him in something he might say.

Read Luke 11:37-54 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

During a meal Jesus ate with some religious leaders, He challenges them with how they have chosen to live and about where they were placing their focus. This all began when Jesus chose not to ceremonially wash before the meal, and this offends the host who was a Pharisee.

Following, or perhaps interrupting, Jesus’ challenge to the Pharisees, an authority on the law (i.e. a lawyer) speaks up saying that Jesus’ words against the Pharisees are offending him as well. By speaking up, this lawyer opens the door for Jesus to change His focus and extend His challenges to this group as well.

Luke tells us that Jesus replied by saying, “How terrible for you authorities on the law! You put such heavy loads on people that they can hardly carry them. But you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them. “How terrible for you! You build tombs for the prophets. It was your people of long ago who killed them. So you show that you agree with what your people did long ago. They killed the prophets, and now you build the prophets’ tombs. So God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send prophets and apostles to them. They will kill some. And they will try to hurt others.’ So the people of today will be punished. They will pay for all the prophets’ blood spilled since the world began. I mean from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah. He was killed between the altar and the temple. Yes, I tell you, the people of today will be punished for all these things. How terrible for you authorities on the law! You have taken away the key to the door of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered. And you have stood in the way of those who were entering.” (v. 46-52)

Just like He did with the Pharisees, Jesus shares three core issues with the expert lawyers. In some ways, the group of lawyers is even worse than the group of Pharisees.

The first thing Jesus challenges the lawyers with has to do with the lists of laws that they had developed. The lists of new laws they had developed to keep the people from coming close to sinning had taken their focus away from loving and helping others. The issue Jesus has with the lawyers is that they were using their minds and logic to keep people trapped rather than to help people live better lives. With a humble focus, the religious experts could have helped all the Jewish groups live better, be better, and understand God’s character better, but they had instead focused on the negative characteristics of God and turned Him into a villain rather than a loving Father.

The second issue Jesus challenged the lawyers with their honoring the prophets that their ancestors killed. In a somewhat ironic way, by giving the Old Testament prophets honor when their ancestors had rejected them, these leaders in the present were just as stuck in the past as their ancestors were. Both groups chose to focus on what God had done earlier in history while rejecting what He was choosing to do in their lifetimes. By trying to keep things the way they were before, the leaders miss out on what all of God’s prophets were pointing forward to, and the biggest problem with this approach is that these leaders ultimately reject God’s Messiah.

The final problem Jesus has with the lawyers is that instead of using their intelligence to help people grow closer to God, they used their intelligence to push people away from God. These were the people who could have helped everyone understand God’s love and His grace, but they instead pushed people away from God by focusing only on God as the judge. If someone implied that God was loving, the lawyers were quick to redirect the focus away from His love and towards His judgment of sinners.

While Jesus challenged these two groups of religious leaders to help them realize they had misplaced their focus, these leaders ultimately chose to reject Jesus rather than grow based upon His challenges. The leaders chose their pride over the humility God wanted them to have, and this decision closed them off to God like they had closed God off to the people living in the first century. When Jesus challenges us, He doesn’t do it to push us away; His challenges are meant to help us grow into the people He created us to be!

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!

Subscribe to this blog and never miss an insight.

Flashback Episode — Accepting His Messengers: Mark 12:1-12

Published August 5, 2024 in Audio Journal Entries

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: iHeartRadio | RSS

Read the Transcript

As we continue reading Mark’s gospel, and while we are looking at how Mark leads up to Jesus facing the cross, we come to a parable Mark includes that challenged the religious leaders in a very clear way. However, before thinking that we are off the hook with this parable being given back then, this parable also has a strong challenge for us living today as well.

Let’s read what happened, before unpacking why I believe this parable is just as relevant today as it was in the first century. This parable and our passage are found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 12, and for our time together, we will read it from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 1:

1 Then Jesus spoke to them in parables: “Once there was a man who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a hole for the wine press, and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to tenants and left home on a trip. 2 When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent a slave to the tenants to receive from them his share of the harvest. 3 The tenants grabbed the slave, beat him, and sent him back without a thing. 4 Then the owner sent another slave; the tenants beat him over the head and treated him shamefully. 5 The owner sent another slave, and they killed him; and they treated many others the same way, beating some and killing others. 6 The only one left to send was the man’s own dear son. Last of all, then, he sent his son to the tenants. ‘I am sure they will respect my son,’ he said. 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the owner’s son. Come on, let’s kill him, and his property will be ours!’ 8 So they grabbed the son and killed him and threw his body out of the vineyard.

9 “What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do?” asked Jesus. “He will come and kill those tenants and turn the vineyard over to others. 10 Surely you have read this scripture?

‘The stone which the builders rejected as worthless
    turned out to be the most important of all.
11 This was done by the Lord;
    what a wonderful sight it is!’”

12 The Jewish leaders tried to arrest Jesus, because they knew that he had told this parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.

In this parable, Jesus gives a strong message against those living in the first century. In this parable, we see messenger after messenger coming to ask for the owner’s share of the harvest, but the tenants outright refuse all requests. The owner lastly sends his own son hoping and believing that the tenants would accept him. However, the tenants believe that killing the owner’s son would then mean that the property would become theirs.

But when we logically summarize this parable, these evil tenants are not thinking rationally. These tenants have a strictly inward focus and they have lost sight of what they were hired to do. While it is possible that the vineyard would become the owner’s sons when the owner passed away, there is no guarantee that this would be the case. The owner could sell the land off and leave money for his son instead.

Part of me also wonders if the tenants believed the owner to have died already and that the son was now the rightful owner. While not accurate at all, it could explain why the tenants decide to kill the son and believe that they would then inherit the land they were actually only hired to manage.

But the thought process these tenants have is not rational or logical. It does not make sense in my mind that killing someone’s child would make them like you or want to keep you around. If jail wasn’t in the picture for someone today who murdered another person, it would be illogical for an employer to keep an employee hired after the employee had killed the employer’s child. Nothing these evil tenants do in this parable makes them worthy of staying hired.

After sharing the parable portion, Jesus attaches this parable to an Old Testament scripture that wasn’t written as a prophecy, but was turned into a prophecy that symbolized Jesus’ ministry. The stone that had been set aside as the corner stone those building Solomon’s temple believed to be worthless. However, when they reexamined their plans, they realized it was the most important stone of all.

In the exact same way, Jesus, who many of those in the first century believed was worthless and a nuisance, turned out to be the most important Person in history. Most of the religious leaders in the first century rejected Jesus and plotted His death. The first century Jews rejected Jesus and they rejected Jesus’ followers after Jesus returned to heaven. The first century Jews rejected the One who is the most important of all like the builders of Solomon’s temple rejected the stone that had been cut as the cornerstone.

When we look at Jesus’ parable, it is easy for us to look back and conclude that this parable represents the Jewish nation over the generations. God had sent prophet after prophet and messenger after messenger to help lead the people back to Him, but these prophets and messengers were killed, abused, and rejected by the Jewish leaders at the time God sent them. Since this parable concludes with the owner sending his own son, it is tempting to conclude that this parable was only for the Jews. However, this would be a mistake.

The big conclusion in this parable and the transition statement Jesus makes emphasizes a more lasting truth. In verse 9, Jesus asks and answers the question: “What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do?” He will come and kill those tenants and turn the vineyard over to others.” This is because the tenants refused to return His portion of the harvest to Him.

In this parable, there is no indication that the next tenants would be any better. All it says is that the current tenants were evil. It is very reasonable in my mind to conclude that another set of tenants, if they turned out to be evil as well would be rejected and a third, forth, or even fifth set of tenants would be chosen. I suspect that this could continue forward until the owner actually found tenants who were both responsible and mature.

While I’d hope the owner of the vineyard ultimately finds tenants that are not evil and tenants who return His portion of the harvest to Him, looking at the history of the Christian church doesn’t paint a great looking picture.

However, the key in this parable and in the prophecy Jesus points back to, is how we respond to the messengers God sends our way and what we do with God’s Son Jesus. Will we stay focused on Jesus and pay attention to the messengers God sends? Will we return God a portion of what He has blessed us with? This is what we are challenged to do in this parable, prophecy, and promise.

While the first century religious leaders rejected the owner’s Son Jesus, we don’t have to. While the Jewish people rejected God’s messengers throughout the years leading up to Jesus, we don’t have to reject those messengers or any current messenger God sends our way. The messengers that God sends our way today will all have one set of things in common: The messengers God sends will point people back to what Jesus did on the cross for us, they will amplify what the Bible teaches us about God, they will call us to repent and rededicate our lives to God, and they will remind us to look forward to Jesus’ return.

This is the role of God’s messengers today. God’s messengers lift God up and they don’t seek their own fame or glory. God’s messengers give God the glory. God’s messengers have their focus fixed on living for eternity!

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 pay attention to what He is doing in the world today. When God sends us messengers, pay attention and let the presence of a messenger prompt us to return to God. Even if false messengers come, take the opportunity to open your Bible and rediscover what God teaches us in and through His Word.

This is why I always also challenge you to pray and study the Bible for yourself. Only by praying and studying the Bible for yourself will you discover what the Bible really teaches. When eternity is at stake, the most dangerous thing you can do is assume truth based on what someone else has said or done. Don’t let anyone else filter the Bible for you. Study the Bible in prayer personally and discover what God wants to teach you about Himself in your life today!

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!

Flashback Episode: Year in Mark – Episode 32: When Jesus shared a parable about a vineyard owner who rents his land to some evil tenants, discover how this parable is just as relevant to us living today as it was to those in the first century. Also, discover the best response we can have when messengers come claiming to be from God in our world today!

The Statement for Cynics: John 6:22-59

Published August 2, 2024 in Written Journal Entries
Focus Passage: John 6:22-59 (NCV)

22 The next day the people who had stayed on the other side of the lake knew that Jesus had not gone in the boat with his followers but that they had left without him. And they knew that only one boat had been there. 23 But then some boats came from Tiberias and landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 When the people saw that Jesus and his followers were not there now, they got into boats and went to Capernaum to find Jesus.

25 When the people found Jesus on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Teacher, when did you come here?”

26 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you aren’t looking for me because you saw me do miracles. You are looking for me because you ate the bread and were satisfied. 27 Don’t work for the food that spoils. Work for the food that stays good always and gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give you this food, because on him God the Father has put his power.”

28 The people asked Jesus, “What are the things God wants us to do?”

29 Jesus answered, “The work God wants you to do is this: Believe the One he sent.”

30 So the people asked, “What miracle will you do? If we see a miracle, we will believe you. What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the desert. This is written in the Scriptures: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

32 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven; it is my Father who is giving you the true bread from heaven. 33 God’s bread is the One who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 The people said, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

35 Then Jesus said, “I am the bread that gives life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you before, you have seen me and still don’t believe. 37 The Father gives me the people who are mine. Every one of them will come to me, and I will always accept them. 38 I came down from heaven to do what God wants me to do, not what I want to do. 39 Here is what the One who sent me wants me to do: I must not lose even one whom God gave me, but I must raise them all on the last day. 40 Those who see the Son and believe in him have eternal life, and I will raise them on the last day. This is what my Father wants.”

41 Some people began to complain about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that comes down from heaven.” 42 They said, “This is Jesus, the son of Joseph. We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

43 But Jesus answered, “Stop complaining to each other. 44 The Father is the One who sent me. No one can come to me unless the Father draws him to me, and I will raise that person up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 I tell you the truth, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread that gives life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but still they died. 50 Here is the bread that comes down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will never die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give up so that the world may have life.”

52 Then the evil people began to argue among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

53 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, you must eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. Otherwise, you won’t have real life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day. 55 My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them. 57 The living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father. So whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 I am not like the bread your ancestors ate. They ate that bread and still died. I am the bread that came down from heaven, and whoever eats this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus said all these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Read John 6:22-59 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

During one of Jesus’ more straightforward conversations He has with a group of people during His ministry, He shares a prophecy and then He directly ties that prophecy to Himself. In all the gospels’ recorded conversations, this is a very unusual thing for Jesus to do, however I believe Jesus does this to emphasize the true nature of what it means to follow Him.

This conversation happens the day after Jesus fed the crowd of more than five thousand people when He is back in the city of Capernaum. Jesus tells those present, “It is written in the prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only he has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, whoever believes has eternal life.” (v. 45-47)

The phrase that really jumped off the page in this section of the conversation is when Jesus clearly states that “Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.” (v. 45b)

I don’t think Jesus could be any clearer or more disruptive. This single statement is probably the best statement a cynic could use to reject Jesus. This statement sounds arrogant, closed-minded, and exclusive. All these traits mirror the negative characteristics of the spiritual leaders at that time.

In culture today, where the postmodern mindset has spread throughout most people’s minds, the idea many people believe is that truth is not absolute. Instead, truth is relative and based on the person who is thinking it. Mixed in this thought process is the idea that all spiritual paths lead to God.

However, this could not be more opposite to Jesus’ teaching in this statement. This statement, which Christians believe is from God, basically says that the only message God sends to us is one that points towards Jesus. We could say the same thing in the opposite way by saying that any message from “God” that does not point towards Jesus cannot truly be from God.

Mixed in with this challenging, exclusive statement is a reminder of the reward those who choose God and choose to come to Jesus will receive. Jesus draws our attention to this reward by saying, “I tell you the truth, whoever believes has eternal life.” (v. 47)

Before thinking that this eternal life begins at the instant one believes, it is worth looking at Jesus’ words a little earlier, regarding raising people up on the last day. What we receive when we believe is the assurance and guarantee of eternal life when Jesus gives the reward out. It is like the ticket that guarantees our seat to a sold out show or our seat assignment to a sold out flight. In both cases, we have not been given access to the seat, but we know we will have it when the time arrives.

God the Father uses the Holy Spirit to point us towards Jesus. It is our belief in Jesus that gives us the assurance of salvation and within the gift of salvation is the reward of eternal life. Jesus says this reward is exclusive to those who believe and who have come to Him. This isn’t a belief that blends with popular opinion, but it is the only way eternal life can have any “eternal value”.

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!

Subscribe to this blog and never miss an insight.

Jesus’ Last Big Challenge: John 12:37-50

Published August 1, 2024 in Audio Journal Entries

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: iHeartRadio | RSS

Read the Transcript

As we continue moving through John’s gospel, and what John tells us Jesus did and said during the week leading up to the cross, John takes a brief detour and shares how two prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus’ life and ministry. When we look a little closer, these prophecies are not ones Jesus had much control over, because both of these prophecies focus on how the people would respond to the Messiah God would send. Both these prophecies focus on how the people would ultimately reject Jesus.

However, our passage doesn’t just cover these pessimistic sounding prophecies. It also continues past the pessimism to share an amazing promise and challenge Jesus shared as well.

With that said, let’s read our passage for this episode and discover what we can learn from what John tells us. Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 12, and we will be reading from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 37, John tells us that:

37 Even though he [referring to Jesus] had performed all these miracles in their presence, they did not believe in him, 38 so that what the prophet Isaiah had said might come true:

“Lord, who believed the message we told?
    To whom did the Lord reveal his power?”

39 And so they were not able to believe, because Isaiah also said,

40 “God has blinded their eyes
    and closed their minds,
so that their eyes would not see,
    and their minds would not understand,
    and they would not turn to me, says God,
    for me to heal them.”

41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.

42 Even then, many Jewish authorities believed in Jesus; but because of the Pharisees they did not talk about it openly, so as not to be expelled from the synagogue. 43 They loved human approval rather than the approval of God.

Let’s pause reading here for a moment because what John has just said is powerful. John draws our attention to the truth that many Jewish authorities believed in Jesus, but they were secret about it because they didn’t want to lose influence or status. John frames this position as loving human approval more than the approval of God.

This is fascinating to read, because while we might think that being a secret disciple can get us both God’s approval and human approval, because we believe in Jesus while also not being open about it, John frames this idea as placing God in second place.

From this set of verses, we learn that God desires people who will stand up in a public way for their faith. While a secret faith is okay to have temporarily, ultimately a faith that is never publicized is worthless. Faith is the most valuable when it is visible and when it doesn’t step down in fear.

It is interesting to note that from Isaiah’s second prophecy, we might conclude that God purposely blinded the people’s hearts to keep them from turning to Jesus. This is what the prophecy seems to indicate.

However, I wonder if this second prophecy is linked closely to the first one, and that because God’s Spirit was so visibly present in Jesus’ life through the miracles, it had a polarizing effect on the people in the first century. Because of Jesus’ miracles, some people loved Jesus, while others disliked Him greatly.

When we then mix in a series of very challenging things Jesus shares, some even sounding blasphemous, it pushed those who liked the miracles to question whether Jesus was really from God or not.

I don’t believe for a moment that God actively kept those in the first century from opening their hearts to Jesus. Instead, I believe that the way Satan had twisted the culture leading up to that point prompted the way Jesus went about His ministry to close people off. In that culture, there were so many preconceived ideas about who the Messiah would be that anyone coming who didn’t fit the mold could easily be rejected. God, through Jesus, allowed for those in the first century to be blind and their hearts to be closed because Jesus was not interested in stepping into the role of Messiah they had built for Him to take.

It would have been easy for Jesus to gain the approval of the people, but if He had done so, He would have given up more than we could possibly imagine.

Our passage concludes with a challenge Jesus shares. This challenge is one that likely continued the polarizing effect of Jesus’ ministry. Continuing in verse 44, John tells us that:

44 Jesus said in a loud voice, “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in him who sent me. 45 Whoever sees me sees also him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. 47 If people hear my message and do not obey it, I will not judge them. I came, not to judge the world, but to save it. 48 Those who reject me and do not accept my message have one who will judge them. The words I have spoken will be their judge on the last day! 49 This is true, because I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has commanded me what I must say and speak. 50 And I know that his command brings eternal life. What I say, then, is what the Father has told me to say.”

In this final challenge Jesus shares with those in the first century, we see a fascinating truth and a powerful challenge. Just like John includes early in his gospel, framing Jesus’ ministry as one that focused on saving the world instead of judging it, here in this last challenge we see Jesus clearly proclaiming that He did not come to judge, but to save.

Instead of Jesus being the judge, or coming to judge, the words Jesus shares will be the judge. We will be judged on whether we accepted Jesus’ message or not. Jesus frames this as being true because the message He spoke came directly from God. Jesus is not interested in judging people. Jesus instead came to save.

However, Jesus frames the judgment happening on the last day, which in other places in the scripture is the day when Jesus returns. With this framing, we come to a powerful truth: If Jesus’ words will be the judge for people, we can be sure that a just God would protect and preserve Jesus’ words throughout history. This makes the most logical sense.

This is one big reason why I regularly challenge you to keep praying and studying your Bible. Through the Bible, we discover Jesus, and when we have placed our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus, accepting His message, we gain eternal life.

While our current world is hopelessly stained with sin, disease, and death, God plans to redeem His people and recreate our world into the perfection it was at the beginning, prior to the fall. When we accept Jesus, we are promised eternal life and a future within God’s perfectly recreated world!

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 Jesus first. Like I said earlier, be sure to place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and accept His message that brings eternal life. Eternal life isn’t found in reading the right Bible translation, or in having the right doctrine. Eternal life is found in the person of Jesus, and when we accept Jesus’ life and sacrifice into our lives.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and move closer to God and Jesus. Through prayer and Bible study, we can discover who God is and what He is like, and we can grow a personal relationship with Him that begins today and extends into eternity.

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!

Year in John – Episode 31: Before John shifts focus onto the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, he shares briefly a set of prophecies about Jesus being rejected by the people, and he shares Jesus’ last big challenge to those in the first century who were struggling whether to place their faith and belief in Him.

Join the discussion. Share your thoughts on this passage.