Reflective Bible Study

In our last episode, we focused in on Mark’s gospel, and what we can learn from it about Jesus’ time on the cross. Mark’s gospel is very similar to Matthew’s gospel. However, Luke’s gospel, which is the one we will be looking at in this episode, shares a unique event that the other gospels don’t include, and this detail may shed light on why Jesus decided to be crucified on that weekend.

While prophecy pointed to the time Jesus would die, remember that the Godhead could have written prophecy to say whatever they wanted it to say, so Jesus wasn’t acting outside of the Godhead’s plan, nor was He trapped by it. The whole Godhead wrote this particular weekend into prophecy and creation for a specific reason and I believe Luke’s gospel shares what this reason might be.

Our last episode focused on and ended with Jesus receiving insults from everyone around Him, but I hinted at not everyone being so hostile. Let’s read what Luke shares with us, and about one condemned man’s request for a favor from Jesus. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 23, and we will be reading from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 32, Luke tells us:

³² Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. ³³ When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. ³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

³⁵ The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

³⁶ The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar ³⁷ and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

³⁸ There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.

Pausing briefly here, what we have just read echoes what we see written in Matthew and Mark’s gospel. However, from this point forward in Luke’s gospel, he draws our attention onto the two criminals, and how each one interacted with Jesus. Continuing in verse 39, Luke tells us:

³⁹ One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

⁴⁰ But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? ⁴¹ We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

⁴² Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

⁴³ Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

When we read these last four verses, it is very tempting to shift our entire focus onto Jesus’ promise in the last verse, how immediate this promise sounds, and on how this criminal gets saved at the last possible moment. It is tempting to focus on the “deathbed confessional” and use it as a model or plan for our lives.

However, focusing on these verses in this way is both risky, and it cheapens the gift God is offering to us. We don’t know anything about these two criminals, about what they did, about when they were arrested, about how long they had been in prison, or if they had any previous interaction with Jesus.

It is very probable to conclude that with how famous Jesus was among the people, that these two criminals definitely knew about Jesus, about His ability to perform miracles, and about His love for the least in society, but we don’t have any idea if either had met Jesus before.

Regardless of their past, what we see displayed on the cross from these two criminals is amazing. The first criminal hurled insults at Jesus and he challenged Jesus to save Himself and them. This criminal had a selfish focus and a focus that was only looking at the present world. In an odd sort of way, this first criminal, who may have been thrown in prison for following a messiah who wanted to overthrow Rome now turns to Jesus and challenges Him with the notion regarding Jesus being the Messiah, even though Jesus has never shown any military interests, and He avoided being sucked into political discussion.

However, the second criminal has a different focus. The second criminal focuses not on the present life and present circumstances, but on the future one. I believe that the Godhead chose that weekend for Jesus to die because they wanted this criminal with them in heaven!

But while turning to God at the end of one’s life might seem appealing, it is a very dangerous plan. At the very least, since we don’t know when we will die, or if we will die suddenly or gradually, following a deathbed confessional plan is dangerous because a sudden death means we won’t have chosen God. This plan only works if our life follows a predictable plan, and while some aspects of life are predictable, there are plenty of cases where lives are cut short quickly because of sin.

However, where this criminal is when He comes to Jesus is different than each of us. We have no evidence for this criminal accepting Jesus, then rejecting Him, then coming back to Him here on the cross. It’s possible this is what happened, because God is ready and willing to forgive, but it is also very possible that this criminal had never met Jesus and sharing a cross next to Jesus was the first chance he got to be with Him.

But this conversation while these men were on the cross reveals three amazing things about conversion that we might not realize at first.

First, this conversion demonstrates a fear and respect of God. The criminal opens his mouth by first defending God against the criticism of the other criminal. Verse 40 tells us the second criminal rebukes the first one saying, “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence?” The second criminal defends God and acknowledges God’s right to judge.

Second, the second criminal acknowledges that he deserves the punishment he is being given. Another way to say this is that this second criminal acknowledges that he is a sinner who deserves to die. At the most basic level, everyone who has ever sinned, and this is everyone who has ever lived except Jesus, deserves death. The second criminal acknowledges that his life and his choices deserve death, by saying in the first part of verse 41, “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve.”

But thirdly, the second criminal acknowledges that Jesus is innocent and that He is being punished while not deserving this punishment. Verse 41 finishes with the criminal acknowledging, “But this man [referring to Jesus] has done nothing wrong.” This criminal defends Jesus publicly against the ridicule of everyone else present, and he publicly allies himself with Jesus even though they both are facing death.

All three of these themes in these two verses of defense ally this second criminal with God, and the only way this criminal could acknowledge this is if the Holy Spirit had been working on his heart leading up to this moment. Even before asking Jesus for the favor, the criminal displays a relationship with God that shows God has been working on his heart and in his life.

This criminal isn’t doing a 180 turn spiritually while on the cross, but in however long he had been locked up in prison, the Holy Spirit had been working on his heart leading him to realize his sin and his need for a Savior.

The declaration on the cross concludes with a request of Jesus. The criminal asks Jesus in verse 42 to “remember me when you come into your kingdom.” The criminal acknowledges that Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world, and that it is of a heavenly nature. The criminal acknowledges the divinity of Jesus in his request.

We could spend an entire other episode talking about the ideas surrounding Jesus’ answer to this criminal’s request and the debates that exist over how immediate Jesus’ promise sounds, but these debates are less relevant than the simple truth that Jesus accepted this criminal and his request. Jesus accepted this criminal’s request because in this request, we see evidence of a changed heart and a changed life, and this sort of change can only come from a heart that has let the Holy Spirit work on it behind the scenes.

Jesus is ready and willing to accept us when we come to Him with a heart that the Holy Spirit has been working on as well. This passage points us to the powerful truth that: Where you finish your life is more important than where you start it – and the only place that is worth ending your life is being allied with Jesus, with the Holy Spirit living in your heart!

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

Always seek God first and choose today to let the Holy Spirit live in your heart and in your life, and publicly ally with Jesus. While it might be easier to hide your faith, a hidden faith is not valuable to others or to God in the big picture. This criminal displays a faith that is public through his defense of Jesus before making his request. God has called us to defend Jesus and to publicly acknowledge Him before others.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with Jesus. Prayer and Bible study are ways of bringing the Holy Spirit into your heart and into your life and God is happy to give you the Holy Spirit when you are earnestly seeking to grow towards Him. Intentionally move and grow towards God today through prayer and studying your Bible.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, chicken out of, or fall away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

On the night Jesus was arrested, as He and His disciples were walking to the garden where He would pray, Jesus began telling the remaining eleven men what they could expect to face in the coming years, and He encouraged them that they would not be alone. Of all the four gospels, only John’s gospel shares in detail the message Jesus told the group of disciples.

Matthew, who was also there, for some reason did not include it in his gospel, and perhaps the reason for this was that Matthew was writing to a different group of people at a different point in the first century. It is likely that Matthew knew that either his audience did not need to hear Jesus’ last message to the disciples before His death, or that something in Jesus’ message would keep someone in Matthew’s audience from choosing Jesus.

While reading what John tells us Jesus said, it’s possible that the part of Jesus’ message we will be focusing on in this episode might be one reason why Matthew chose to leave out this message from his gospel record. Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 15, and we will be reading from the New American Standard Bible translation. Beginning in verse 18, John tells us that Jesus told His disciples:

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. ²¹ But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ He who hates Me hates My Father also. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. ²⁵ But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

Let’s pause reading here for a moment to draw our attention onto a really big idea. In this portion of Jesus’ last message, He points the disciples to a powerful idea that the more openly for Jesus that we live, the more opposition from the world we will face.

It is a strange paradox in that we could take the nicest individual, and place them doing one of the most noble acts we could imagine, let’s say saving starving children in Africa. If this is their mission, many people would rally behind it and there would be little to no opposition. But if this person adjusts their mission to include Jesus, while they still would have support, they would also attract hostility from others.

The more openly this nice individual uses Jesus as the reason for his compassion for these children, the more polarizing his ministry will be. Some opposition he might face would be people saying that he is trying to convert or brainwash the children he claims to help into believing what they believe to be the Christian lie. Others might say this nice individual is trying to earn his salvation through what he is doing.

While the actions of this individual never changed, the more openly for Jesus that one lives, the more opposition from the world the person will face.

However, while Jesus shares with us this warning, He also tells us that we are not alone. When we openly increase how we are living for Jesus and including Him in our lives, Jesus continues in verse 26 by promising us a Helper. Jesus tells the disciples:

²⁶ “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, ²⁷ and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

Jesus promised His disciples that a Helper would come from the Father, and that this Helper is also known as the Spirit of Truth. Jesus also says that the role of this Helper-Spirit is to testify about Him. God the Father, through the Holy Spirit – another name for this Helper-Spirit of Truth – will testify and teach the truth about Jesus. The Holy Spirit draws nearer to us the nearer we draw to Jesus – living for Him.

I wonder if at this point some of the disciples wondered why Jesus was sharing this with them. Jesus continues at the start of chapter 16 by saying:

^16:1 “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. ² They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. ³ These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. ⁴ But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.

In this passage, we have come full circle. We can see why Jesus shared this message with His followers on the night He was arrested, and we also have a reason why Matthew may have chosen to exclude this info from his gospel letter.

John includes this message from Jesus because he is writing to Christians, giving them a message of encouragement, and challenging them to grow their faith. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are written with the goal of sharing about Jesus with someone who might not yet know who He is.

This message from Jesus in John’s gospel emphasizes that for all of Jesus’ followers living through the centuries, trouble and opposition will come. There is no way around this because Satan opposes Jesus – and Satan is happy to give power, status, and fame to those who do anything to distract people away from who Jesus is and what Jesus would want from us and for us.

The promise Jesus shares is that when opposition comes, we are not alone – we have the Holy Spirit. We should also not be surprised when opposition comes because the leadership and system in place when Jesus walked the earth was opposed to Him. If the world opposed Jesus for living for God, it will oppose us for living for Jesus.

The choice we all get to make from Jesus’ message is whether we will choose Jesus and opposition in this life, with the promise of a new life with God in the next life, or whether we will reject or hide Jesus so that we will be accepted in this life and risk losing the promised new life with God.

Living openly for Jesus is the key to living the Christian life. While the decision to put your faith, belief and trust in Jesus is a private matter, open Christian living is how you know your faith is certain. Facing opposition in this world is one test you can use to gauge whether you are on the right track.

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

Be sure to decide if you want to live for Jesus and face opposition in this life. While for some making this decision isn’t easy, this decision is the most logical decision anyone can make when looking from the perspective of eternity. After all, what are a few short years of opposition and rejection in the face of a dozen millennia of years with God? If you choose God and eternity, then be sure to seek Him first each day, and then openly live for Him in a practical, loving way.

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself so you can truly know what God is like. While living for God will be an incredible adventure in spite of the opposition, be sure that you are connecting with Him personally each day. A pastor or a podcaster can point you in a good direction, but only the Bible can teach you about how God has moved throughout history, how He doesn’t change, and how this makes Him trustworthy.

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

When we began moving our way through Jesus’ final week, we’ve seen how every one of the four gospels has been building up to the moment Jesus is hung on the cross. For most of the other episodes this year, I’ve picked one or two of the gospels to focus in on, but since this entire year has been leading up to the point when Jesus is hung on the cross, it seems like we should take a little more time on this event. Also, all four gospels share unique details regarding the time Jesus spent on the cross.

While we don’t have enough time left in the year to devote an episode to each gospel for this event while also concluding the year with Jesus’ resurrection, let’s take the next couple of weeks and focus in on some big themes we can learn about Jesus and about God through what is shared about Jesus’ time on the cross.

Since Matthew and Mark are the most similar, let’s group them together in this episode, then in the following two episodes, let’s look at Luke and then John respectively.

With that said, let’s read Mark’s version of Jesus’ crucifixion to discover how he describes Jesus’ time on the cross. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 15, and we will be reading it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 25, Mark tells us that:

²⁵ It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. ²⁶ The written notice of the charge against him read: the king of the Jews.

²⁷ They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. [^[28]  Some manuscripts add a verse here that says: “And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘He was numbered with the transgressors’”] ²⁹ Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, ³⁰ come down from the cross and save yourself!” ³¹ In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! ³² Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

In Mark’s version of this event, we discover that Jesus faced a different type of temptation during the last hours before His death. Up to this point, the temptation Satan has thrown at Jesus the strongest is the temptation to abandon both the cross as well as the human race. However, now that Jesus is on the cross, the temptation Satan throws at Jesus is one challenging Jesus to come down from the cross.

The only way this temptation makes sense is if it was within Jesus’ power to do. The fact that Jesus received hostility and insults from all angles suggests that this was prompted by Satan because Jesus could come off of the cross if He wanted to. Out of the challenges Jesus receives, the one Mark chose to include hits all the angles of a solid temptation.

Mark quotes the challenge by saying in verses 31 and 32, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.”

The first part of the temptation hits on pride. This angle of temptation challenges Jesus regarding His ability to come down, and it suggests that Jesus doesn’t come down because He cannot come down. Satan ignores the detail, hoping we will ignore the detail as well, that while Jesus can come down, He chooses not to because the cross and death was His mission and the way we can be saved.

The second part of the temptation hits on Jesus’ mission. This angle of temptation challenges Jesus regarding the mission and role He came to the earth to fulfill. Jesus came as the Messiah that was promised, and Satan challenges Jesus that His death is a failure of His role – especially in the eyes of the Old Testament scriptures and the current generation’s understanding of these scriptures. Satan ignores the detail, hoping we will ignore the detail as well, that the Old Testament describes Jesus’ rejection, betrayal, and death, and that His death was part of the Messiah’s master plan for humanity’s salvation.

The third part of the temptation hits on Jesus’ divinity. This angle of temptation challenges Jesus regarding His right to receive worship as a member of the Godhead. Satan challenged Jesus through this temptation that if the Messiah dies, He is not worthy of receiving worship. In contrast, if Jesus displays His divinity by coming down from the cross, He will receive worship and praise from those present. Satan ignores the detail, hoping we will ignore the detail as well, that while Jesus is worthy of our worship, Jesus isn’t interested in receiving our worship or praise. Jesus would rather point all praise and worship to the Father, and Jesus didn’t come with the goal of being worshiped.

Also, it is significant to note that any praise or worship Jesus would have received would mean nothing if He came down from the cross. Either the worship itself would be empty because it was from shallow, unrepentant hearts, or it would be empty because Jesus would have failed His mission and He would have failed humanity.

Jesus overcame this big temptation because His mission was to redeem humanity. Jesus triumphed over every temptation Satan threw at Him from the temptations at the start of His ministry after His baptism, to this last temptation Satan was saving for Jesus’ time on the cross. Jesus overcame temptation and sin to make it possible for us to accept the gift He offers to each of us.

Mark’s gospel tells us that not only did Jesus receive insults and challenges from the religious leaders and soldiers who were present, but also from those who were crucified with Him. However, not all those who were crucified with Jesus were convinced that Jesus deserved these insults or challenges, but we’ll wait until our next episode to discover what happens when one of the people near Jesus decides to ask Jesus for a favor when they are both about to die.

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

Be sure to always seek God first. Know that Jesus faced and overcame temptation so that when we are tempted, we can lean on Him for the power to resist temptation in our own lives as well. Also, we can know and trust that when we have failed God, He is more than willing to accept us back and forgive us because that is one of the big reasons why Jesus came.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with Jesus. Through a personal relationship with Jesus, He helps us overcome temptation in our lives and He helps us live the life He created us to live.

Which leads us into the challenge 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!

During the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, He shared a special meal with His twelve closest followers. Included in this number, at least for the first portion of the meal, was Judas Iscariot, the disciple who was already plotting to betray Jesus. The reality that Judas Iscariot was the betrayer was not a surprise to Jesus, but neither were the failings and faults of the rest of Jesus’ disciples.

The passage we will be focusing on in this episode happens right after Judas the betrayer had left. Jesus knew that Judas’ departure signaled the countdown to the cross, and it also signaled an urgency in Jesus’ teaching with His disciples. We will be looking at this event using John’s gospel and it is found in chapter 13. Reading from the New International Version and starting in verse 31, John tells us:

³¹ When he was gone [that is, Judas Iscariot], Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. ³² If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

³³ “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

³⁶ Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”

³⁷ Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

³⁸ Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

What I find amazing every time I read this event is that Jesus knows Peter better than Peter knows himself. Peter was quick to speak that he was willing to go anywhere Jesus went, and even giving his life for Jesus – and I believe Peter meant it. Just a few hours later, as the mob was coming to arrest Jesus, Peter is the first and primary one to resort to violence when defending Jesus. It appears as though Peter is bold and strong when he is with Jesus, but just a few hours later, when he is alone by a fire and not next to Jesus, his boldness has completely evaporated – allowing for Jesus’ prediction to come true.

But looking back on our passage, it appeared as though Peter derailed Jesus’ thought, and his question overshadows the powerful statement Jesus had just shared before.

In verse 33, Jesus tells the disciples: “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.” Peter responds to this statement in verse 36 by asking Jesus where He is going. It is likely that Peter completely missed hearing the two verses between Jesus’ statement about leaving and his response – and if Peter missed this two-verse message, I wonder how many of the other disciples missed it too.

We are also tempted to miss it, but less so because we already know that Jesus was referring to His death and then future ascension.

Let’s focus for a moment on the message that is included in these two verses. In verses 34 and 35, Jesus tells His followers (and this is all of His followers; not just His eleven remaining disciples): “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

On the surface, this new command seems redundant. After all, earlier in Jesus’ ministry on at least two separate occasions, Jesus referred to the two great commands as loving God and loving one’s neighbor. It really appears like Jesus is simply reemphasizing these two other commandments and grouping them into one. I have heard scholars who are much smarter than me with the original languages of the Bible present the case that Jesus is reemphasizing this command rather than introducing something completely new.

However, while the “loving your neighbor” command covers how we should relate to every other human being, I wonder if Jesus is taking the original command to love your neighbor and pushing it deeper. While no one would argue with Jesus’ explanation of the Good Samaritan being the best example of being neighborly, this too can be rationalized away because many times, the idea of loving our neighbors must also be present when there isn’t a clear need. Showing love was clear in the illustration of the Good Samaritan that the man dying on the road needed help. In cases where clear help is needed, we are called to help – even if it is a stranger we are helping.

In some ways, it is easier for us to help strangers and more difficult to help those we know really well.

As I read Jesus’ “new command”, I am challenged to think Jesus may be commanding his followers specifically to love each other – even if the other person has a strange or different understanding of a certain doctrine than we do.

In some ways, while Christians can rally together when helping a social cause, like caring for those who are homeless, defending the rights of those who are being persecuted, or even adopting orphans from countries on the other side of the world, some of the harshest criticisms come from scholars of different “Christian” backgrounds who are stuck debating the validity of certain doctrines. I wonder if Jesus’ command to “Love one another” has to do with Jesus telling His followers to love those other followers who believe something different about a certain doctrine or passage of scripture. If this is the case, Jesus’ command is a very high calling that has not been obeyed very well at certain points in history.

Jesus’ command does not mean that we must agree with everyone on every doctrine, nor does it mean that we must erase all differences and distinctions and be 100% united in thought, belief, and doctrine. In some ways, when any group – sacred or secular – does not allow for debate or challenges, that group stops being able to grow. If Christianity were to ever unify 100% in thought, belief, and doctrine, it would be inevitable that eventually the church would stop growing towards God because it would close itself off from all opposing thoughts. In some ways, certain denominations have closed themselves off in this way and have stopped growing as a group.

But Jesus’ command is for all of His followers, regardless of denominational affiliation, doctrinal obedience, or church attendance. The true test of whether we are Jesus’ disciples is if we will be loving towards others who call themselves followers of Jesus, but who live, look, believe, and/or act differently than we do. If we truly love like Jesus loved, we will look past our differences and towards how we are unified through what Jesus did for us on the cross.

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

Choose to intentionally seek God first by obeying Jesus’ command about loving one another. Be sure to love and help your neighbor when they need help, and be doubly sure to love those who are Christians but who don’t believe along the same side of an issue as you do. Focus on where we are together, and be civil on the issues we don’t agree with.

Also, as I always say, pray and study the Bible for yourself and take to heart the other side’s argument for or against a certain doctrine. Only when we truly look at the positives of both sides of an issue will we be able to decide what is most likely accurate for us to believe. Rarely is one side 100% wrong while the other is 100% right. Usually both sides have valid arguments that must be reconciled.

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!