Reflective Bible Study

On the final day of a festival Jesus went to in Jerusalem, the gospel of John tells us a statement that He makes, which both divides the crowds listening to Him, and it is a statement that prompts the religious leaders to call for Jesus’ arrest. While the statement Jesus says is powerful and challenging, how the people react, including the Pharisees, reveal their character and their hearts. When we think about it, just like the passage we are about to read does, when we bring Jesus into a conversation today, those present are likely to polarize into groups who believe in Him and those who don’t.

Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 7, and we will be reading from the New International Version. Starting in verse 37, John tells us that:

³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” ³⁹ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

⁴⁰ On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”

⁴¹ Others said, “He is the Messiah.”

Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? ⁴² Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” ⁴³ Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. ⁴⁴ Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

Let’s pause reading here to look at a couple things that have just taken place.

First, Jesus makes a challenging statement about Himself from the scriptures. Jesus tells those present, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” This statement is powerful and challenging, and it is a promise that we can depend on.

However, it’s interesting in my mind that John then inserts a note saying that this was a promise that would be granted in the future, after Jesus was glorified. Nothing in Jesus’ words themselves speak to this being fulfilled in the future, or in the present. This makes me wonder if John’s insertion draws our attention onto a bigger truth that we can use to understand Jesus’ promises.

John immediately explains that Jesus’ promise would be fulfilled at a later date, and John says that this would be a date after Jesus was glorified. This makes me wonder if other present-tense-promises are things we can claim today, but things that might not be fully realized until a later date.

This is something that I will think about as we move forward through reading the gospels.

However, the big thing to note in this passage is that Jesus’ statement about Himself challenges those present. Some people believed Jesus to be the Messiah, others believed Jesus to be the Prophet who would come before the Messiah. Some people, as we will soon see, believed Jesus to be a fraud and impostor. There is no denying that Jesus polarized people.

It is interesting that the crowd debates among themselves regarding Jesus’ credentials. No one ever asked Jesus about His birth, to discover that He was indeed born in Bethlehem, and that His mother and “father” were descendants of David. Perhaps the culture they lived in was different from our culture today; perhaps those living in the first century didn’t move or travel as much as we do today.

Now, 2,000 plus years later, where someone lives is not likely to be the place where they were born. I was born in Canada, but have lived in plenty of places that were not my birth town.

The crowd was clearly torn, because they knew Jesus had God’s Spirit on Him because of the healing and miracles, but He also didn’t add up to their picture of the Messiah.

Continuing in verse 45, we learn that temple guards were paying attention, looking for an opening to arrest Jesus.

⁴⁵ Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

⁴⁶ “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.

⁴⁷ “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. ⁴⁸ “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ⁵¹ “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

⁵² They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

Let’s stop reading at this point in the passage. John describes Nicodemus subtly trying to put a pause on the rest of the Pharisees’ judgment. Even though Nicodemus is dismissed, we can learn some interesting things about these Pharisees through their response to both the guards and to Nicodemus.

Firstly, when the guards return empty handed, they are immediately accused of being deceived by Jesus. The Pharisees challenge the guards by describing the crowd in the temple as a “mob that knows nothing of the law”. This description is false on a number of levels, most notably because those present at the temple during this festival would only have been there if it was because of the law. The law included certain festivals where all Jews would travel to Jerusalem to worship, and during this festival, the temple and streets in Jerusalem would be filled with the most devout and religious Jews in their faith.

Also, by describing the crowd of people present as a “mob”, the religious leaders claim they are emotionally drawn to Jesus in an irrational way – and that they are prone to become violent at any moment. If that were the case, the guards would have had reason to arrest Jesus, but when they return empty handed, they tell the Pharisees that no one has spoken like Jesus has, they don’t even hint at Jesus rallying people together for a single purpose or for violence. Because of this exaggeration, the Pharisees show their emotionally irrational rejection of Jesus.

The last way the Pharisees’ description of the crowd falls flat is when we compare it directly to what the crowd says when they are debating about Jesus. The crowd displays knowledge of the law and the prophets when they talk among themselves about Jesus being a descendant of David and from the town of Bethlehem. This detail shows that the crowd, or should I say the “mob”, understands the Messianic prophecies enough to wonder about who Jesus is.

When we look at Nicodemus’ challenge to the Pharisees, we find an interesting angle. Nicodemus knows that Jesus’ actions have all been positive and a blessing to others, so he tries to use that angle to diffuse the tension in the room.

However, his attempt fails because the other Pharisees are blinded to the idea that anything from God could come from Galilee. They choose not to investigate Jesus’ back-story like Matthew and Luke do to discover that Jesus really was born in Bethlehem, and it was from concern over the rulers in the land that Jesus’ parents settled in region of Galilee. These religious leaders also show a limited belief in God because when we are certain that God cannot use something, that He cannot work through a certain action, or that He won’t step in to help us at a certain point, we may be surprised to discover that He does.

Another way to say this is that just because a prophet has never come from Galilee does not mean that a prophet will never come out of Galilee at some point in the future. Perhaps I am missing a scripture reference or something credible that they knew, however I doubt it. I am certain that they based their belief and bias against Galilee on the foundation that no prophets had ever come from that area, so therefore, the belief would be that no prophets would ever come from there either.

This thinking set the Pharisees up to reject Jesus without cause – and we can fall into this trap too. When we close our eyes and our minds to the possibility God could use some tragic event, a certain group of people who are different from us, or even a certain style of music for His purposes, we set ourselves up to be challenged when God decides to use the thing we believe He would not use.

Instead, we should delay judgment and look at the results of what we are tempted to judge and see if people are truly drawn towards God, towards repentance, and towards placing their trust, faith, and belief in Him. If the results are present, I wouldn’t be surprised if God was working through it.

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

Be sure to seek God first and be open to Him working in areas we might not typically expect. Look at the results and the methods, and reserve judgment because we cannot always predict the methods God will use to bring people to Him.

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself. Don’t take my word, or anyone else’s word for anything. Instead, test what I and others say to determine if it truly is what the Bible teaches. A pastor or podcaster can give you things to think about from their own journey with God, but don’t let their relationship with Him replace your relationship.

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!

If you ever wondered whether Jesus was the sort of person to sneak around, the event in this passage could definitely be used as a proof text. Perhaps Jesus didn’t sneak everywhere He went, but it seems that every so often, He chose to travel in a way that did not draw attention to Himself.

It’s possible we could think this was because Jesus wanted to avoid people, but if that were the case, He simply would not have traveled to the event that our passage for this episode focuses on.

For those of you who want a reference, we will be looking at the gospel of John, chapter 7, and we will be reading from the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 10, John tells us:

¹⁰ But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret. ¹¹ So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, “Where is He?”

Pausing our reading briefly, it would seem that Jesus wanted to avoid the Jewish leaders who may have been looking to arrest Him at this time. Continuing in verse 12:

¹² There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray.” ¹³ Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews.

¹⁴ But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. ¹⁵ The Jews then were astonished, saying, “How has this man become learned, having never been educated?” ¹⁶ So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. ¹⁷ If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. ¹⁸ He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

In this passage, Jesus shares a pretty profound statement, and it helps us frame both His own ministry, and really the ministry of many of the prophets in the Old Testament.

The verse we ended off at, which is verse 18, records Jesus telling the crowd, “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”

While Jesus is speaking about Himself in this passage, the way He phrases this statement implies a truth that can be applied to not only Himself, but to all supposed messengers from God throughout the ages.

In the Old Testament, the role of a prophet was not something that many would want. Not only were many of God’s prophets hated and hurt by those they were sent to give messages to, God often asked them to do crazy things with their lives to illustrate a truth He wanted to share with His people. And as a specific example, while it was not one of the craziest things that God ever asked someone to do, we can read about the prophet Jonah trying to run away from his responsibility as a prophet – even though that didn’t work out so well for him.

But the one thing that all God’s messengers had in common was that at their core, they were seeking to give glory and obedience to the One who sent them. Using Jesus’ words, a false prophet seeks His own glory, while a true prophet doesn’t really care about his fame or glory, but instead focuses in on the glory of the One who sent Him.

Jesus touches on this key idea in a very practical way in verse 17 when He says, “If anyone is willing to do [God’s] will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.”

Obedience is what prompts us to be able to have the experience that can confirm or deny who Jesus really is. There are thousands, if not millions or billions, of people who are content to discredit Jesus from a place of disobedience. While sitting outside of God’s plan, a skeptic has plenty of one-sided evidence when taken at face value to reject God. Only through experientially testing God’s plan out will we be able to know the truth about who Jesus is.

This prompts me to look at the question from the crowd that inspired this statement. In verse 15, we read, “The Jews then were astonished [at Jesus’ teaching], saying, ‘How has this man become learned, having never been educated?’”

Something about this question strikes me as funny. I think it has to do with what is implied behind the question. While on the surface, the question is simply “How did Jesus get to be so intelligent since He was not formally educated?” under the surface, the implied statement is that intelligence is only developed through formal education.

Jesus was educated, but it was through an informal way – which consisted of prayerful personal study, and through what many might call home schooling, as Mary, Jesus’ mom pushed him and taught Him as He was growing up.

Sadly, I see this mentality in today’s culture. While I am not discounting formal education, which I am a product of, or encouraging home-schooling, I see a trend among people that assume degrees means knowledge. Degrees do generally mean that knowledge has been acquired, but degrees are not the only way of acquiring knowledge – and the knowledge behind a degree is highly subjective. Sure, a person passed a set of classes, signifying that they at one point knew the material, but was the material they learned the most up-to-date and practical information? Hopefully, but that is not guaranteed. Also, knowledge is great, but when it is not applied, it is not internalized, and it is eventually forgotten. While I know I learned some advanced level math in school, I don’t remember the importance of sine, cosine, and tangent except to say that they have something to do with angles and the bunch of weird buttons on my scientific calculator.

Knowledge is great. Intelligence is valuable. But when we look at Jesus, we see a bigger truth about our mission. Jesus tells the crowd and us in verse 16, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.”

Jesus depended on God and the Holy Spirit to teach, train, and speak through Him. He did not depend on His own ability when sharing God’s message. This tells me that if Jesus depended on God’s Spirit for His message and His knowledge, God’s Spirit should be the first place I look to when seeking knowledge that is useful for my life. And part of me wonders what would happen if more of us took this approach in life.

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

As I always open these challenges by saying, intentionally place God first in your life, and if you are up for the challenge, intentionally look to God and lean on Him for knowledge in your own life. Look to God for knowledge and allow Him to teach you what He wants you to learn.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do in one way or another, continue praying and prayerfully studying the Bible for yourself to grow closer to Jesus and allow God to develop your mind. Through Bible study, we can sharpen our mind and we can develop wisdom which can be more practically useful than intelligence in many situations. While knowledge is good, knowledge is easier to acquire than wisdom, while wisdom by many people is considered more valuable. Look to the Bible to learn wisdom!

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!

As we are approaching the half way part of the year, and our half way milestone in the gospels, one might think that we would be about half way through Jesus’ ministry. However, this thought is not correct, because as we approach the middle of each gospel, we learn that most of the gospels dedicate a significant percentage of their space focusing on Jesus’ final week leading up to the cross.

However, in our walk through the gospels for this year, we haven’t arrived at this point just yet. Instead, we come to a passage that may have happened several weeks leading up to Jesus’ final week, as He begins to make His way towards Jerusalem and towards the cross.

In this passage, we can get a picture of God’s character, and this picture challenges each of us regarding how we choose to react when faced with other people who are mean to us. Also found in our passage is a great example of a subtle issue that gets various groups of Christian’s pointing their fingers at each other rather than realize that we are all on the same team – especially regarding the issue found in this passage.

Our passage is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 9, and we will be reading from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 51, we read that:

⁵¹ When the time was coming near for Jesus to depart, he was determined to go to Jerusalem. ⁵² He sent some messengers ahead of him, who went into a town in Samaria to make everything ready for him. ⁵³ But the people there would not welcome him, because he was set on going to Jerusalem. ⁵⁴ When James and John, followers of Jesus, saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven and destroy those people?”

⁵⁵ But Jesus turned and scolded them.

At this point in our passage, most Bible translations either exclude a statement, or they include it with a note. The statement in question is this:

 [And Jesus said, “You don’t know what kind of spirit you belong to. ⁵⁶ The Son of Man did not come to destroy the souls of people but to save them.”]

Then all translations finish this passage by saying: “Then they went to another town.”

The reason I draw emphasis on this distinction between how certain translations vary in their recording of this event is because how people treat this discrepancy is very similar to one big theme found in the passage itself.

In this passage, we find Jesus traveling to Jerusalem, and instead of going the long way around to avoid passing through Samaria, He decides to travel through it. Samaritans and Jews had a very hostile history and they were among the most prejudiced people towards each other that we can find in history.

By this point in Jesus’ ministry, the disciples have already traveled through Samaria a number of times, so it doesn’t surprise them that they decide to go through this region again — however, this might be the first time that a Samaritan town has refused their presence.

The reason: Because Jesus was a Jew traveling to Jerusalem for a festival. Whether this town knew who Jesus was or not, they let their prejudice of Jesus’ ancestry get in the way of them experiencing what Jesus could do for them.

In response, because the town rejected them, two of Jesus’ closest disciples make the suggestion about calling fire from heaven to destroy “those people”.

This passage clearly shows prejudice of both sides, and each side believes they are justified in their actions or suggestions. Both the disciples and the Samaritans fall into an “us vs. them” trap – and if we are not careful, we too can fall into this same trap.

One way this trap has captured the spotlight recently is certain groups of people taking offence at modern translations for “removing” certain key verses or passages. This passage is one great example. The questionable phrase fits completely, and it even helps the dialog of the event. The statements in question give us a frame of reference for how Jesus scolded the disciples for their statement.

The trap for us today is falling into an “us vs. them” mentality because if we see modern translators removing text from the Bible, we might begin distrusting all modern translations because they have been “tampered” with. I recently read an article that focused on this issue.

While I cannot speak for all translations present in the world today, I will say that the majority of the translations that are well-known, modern translations have teams of people much smarter than I who are heartfelt Christian men and women. These people would be appalled at the idea that they are tampering with the text.

Instead, what we are discovering, is that as ancient manuscripts are being discovered and dated, we are learning that the early copies of the writings, including our passage for this episode, actually do not include any details about how Jesus scolded the disciples. Jesus very well could have said the statement in question, but when Luke wrote His gospel, he didn’t include it.

What happened at some point in the manuscript copying process is that a scribe, wanting to help make the idea clearer for those reading, pulled a similar teaching from John’s gospel, and he included it in our passage to help us see God’s character better. It is probable that the scribe looked at John, chapter 3, verse 17, which says “God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)

No one on either side of the debate doubts the statements which were added on whether they align with God’s character. In this regard, we are all on the same team. Also, both sides of the debate want the most accurate translations of the Bible available and shared with others. This also makes us all on the same team.

Where we are left to debate is whether we should include the additional insights and cross-references that some well-meaning scribes included as they were copying the Bible. Most passages in question are included in other portions of the Bible. An example of this would be if Matthew included a detail that Luke didn’t. A scribe copying Luke’s gospel who also knows the event from Matthew’s gospel may have included Matthew’s detail in Luke’s version to help Luke’s version be better. In the early years of manuscripts, it was not as easy to compare between translations or gospels as it is today, so we can and should thank these early scribes for their work keeping the scriptures alive throughout the early parts of Christian history. This makes these early scribes part of our same team.

Prejudice doesn’t help anyone. The Samaritans miss out on Jesus because of their prejudice, and the disciples are scolded because they were prejudiced as well. Jesus modeled the right response at the close of this event. Everyone agrees that after scolding the disciples, Jesus and His followers “went to another town.”

Not all towns in Samaria were prejudiced against Jesus, and Jesus uses this opportunity to teach His followers to not be prejudiced towards others even if they reject us. Instead, we should simply move on.

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

Be sure to model Jesus’ attitude in this passage. If other people hurt our feelings or reject us, we shouldn’t get mad or revengeful. Instead, we should simply move on. Know that we are all on the same team – especially those of us who have placed Jesus first in our lives.

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself and trust that God has kept His message safe for the thousands of years of history we have been keeping track. If you are doubtful about a translation, the best place to go is to the original manuscripts in the original language they were written in. However, if you don’t know the original languages like I don’t know them, then the next best place we can go is to other translations. When we have lots of translations available in our own language, we are able to see a bigger and clearer picture of what the original said when we don’t know the original language of the text. By using lots of translations, God is able to keep His message alive and relevant for us living over 2,000 years later.

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 doubt yourself into leaving where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Of all the topics that the Bible shares, one of the most relevant and challenging topics the Bible deals directly with is the issue of conflict management. While some people might think of the Bible as only a place to receive spiritual truth, when we sit down to read what the Bible says, we discover that the Bible includes a lot of practical advice in other areas as well.

In the case of conflict management, anytime two or more people get together to do anything significant, expect there to be some level of conflict. I suspect that Jesus was very aware of this, and because of Jesus’ knowledge that conflict happens, I believe He included the passage we will focus on in our time together for this episode to help us navigate the interpersonal challenges we are destined to face.

However, while Jesus’ advice might seem to be too general, or too spiritual, the truth of the concept Jesus shares is amazingly relevant to every area of life.

Let’s read what Jesus advises. This teaching is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 18, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 15, Jesus continued teaching those present saying:

¹⁵ “If your fellow believer sins against you, go and tell him in private what he did wrong. If he listens to you, you have helped that person to be your brother or sister again. ¹⁶ But if he refuses to listen, go to him again and take one or two other people with you. ‘Every case may be proved by two or three witnesses.’ ¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen to the church, then treat him like a person who does not believe in God or like a tax collector.

We’ll stop reading here because I want to point out a specific statement Jesus concluded this sequence by saying. Jesus’ concluding remarks in His advice are, “If he refuses to listen to the church, then treat him like a person who does not believe in God or like a tax collector.” (v. 17b)

While some people might believe this conclusion warrants looking down on or shunning those who have been excluded, the truth of this idea is that God calls us to love and witness our faith to non-believers. Note also that Jesus even invited Matthew, the author of this gospel, who was a tax collector by trade, to be one of His twelve disciples. Jesus spent time with people who did not believe in God and he had positive interactions with tax collectors. Nothing in Jesus’ ministry suggests that we should push away those who we disagree with.

However, looking at the sequence Jesus shares, this conflict resolution method has more to it than simply treating people who won’t listen like the don’t believe or belong to the church; this conflict resolution has steps that build upon one another and steps that shouldn’t be skipped over.

Verse 15 begins our passage by saying, “If your fellow believer sins against you, go and tell him in private what he did wrong. If he listens to you, you have helped that person to be your brother or sister again.” The first thing we must do if we have a conflict with someone is to talk directly to the person who we have the conflict with. At this point, they are the only one who can help resolve the conflict, and they are the only one who really benefits from being talked to. Talking about the conflict with anyone else before this step signals the start of gossip, and gossip erodes relationships.

If you have conversations about people while those people are not present, it tells everyone you talk to that you will talk about them behind their back as well. Someone who shares with others about a third party plants the seed in the mind of the one they are talking to that they cannot be trusted because if the person who is talking is sharing with them about someone else, they will also share with someone else the details that get shared with them.

While on the surface, people talking about others believe communication is happening, under the surface, those involved close off and stop sharing about themselves because when people gossip, trust ultimately disappears.

The brilliance in Jesus’ method is that there is never any gossip. The first step is a one-on-one conversation with the only person who can help remedy the situation, and if it works, then trust is actually built in this scenario and a friendship is strengthened.

But if it doesn’t work, then we move on to verse 16, where Jesus gives us the next step in the process. He says, “But if he refuses to listen, go to him again and take one or two other people with you.”

This next step is a scary one for most people, because it opens up both parties to scrutiny. If the one who feels wronged takes a couple individuals with them, then the tables may turn. Whoever has been chosen as a third-party to observe the conversation may take the side of the other person after hearing both sides. This actually happened to me a number of years ago, and describing this process actually bothers me for this reason. It is not pleasant to be told that you are on the wrong side of a conflict when you believe yourself to be right.

While we might be tempted to skip over this second step, we should resist this temptation because Jesus finishes verse 16 by saying that “Every case may be proved by two or three witnesses.” Taking one or two people with you is necessary for step number three, because if one presents a case to a third party, then it is one person’s word against another person’s word. While it is emotionally difficult for us to do, step number two gives us credible witnesses for step number three.

Those witnessing the conflict resolution in this second step are prime candidates to be witnesses for the third step, which Jesus shares in verse 17. Jesus tells us, “If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.” This final step begins a more formal discussion about this topic with a much broader group of people, and like in the second step, it is possible the church in this case could side against the one who felt wronged. Again, there was a time – separate from the earlier case – where it felt like the church sided against me in a conflict resolution matter. I honestly don’t remember the details of what happened, and I am no longer attending that church, but I remember there being a conflict of some sort where I felt wronged.

The key for someone who is asked to be a witness in step two, or a third party juror of sorts in step number three is to objectively look at what happened, and what the one who felt wronged feels. If an apology is necessary from the one who did wrong, even if it doesn’t seem all that significant to those looking from the outside, it should definitely be recommended. If the one who did wrong refuses to apologize, even if it is a small matter, then there is likely something deeper at work in the one who did the wrong.

Apologies require humility, and humility is a vital ingredient for good relationships.

Bringing things around to where we began the discussion, “If he refuses to listen to the church, then treat him like a person who does not believe in God or like a tax collector.”

God did not call us to hate, avoid, or put down those who don’t believe in Him or those who collect taxes. He calls us to love them. Jesus loved people who didn’t believe in God, and Jesus loved tax collectors. He compliments Zacchaeus the tax collector, and He called Matthew the tax collector to be one of His twelve closest disciples. While the one who doesn’t listen to the church will be moved to the outside of the ring, there is nothing in Jesus’ words that tells us that the circle of the church is to be exclusively focused inward.

But that is another issue entirely – which we don’t have any time left for in this podcast episode. With that said, 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 remain humble. Always assume the best in others, and choose to apologize even if you don’t think it is necessary.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn what Jesus is like, and the sort of love He wants us to have towards each other. It is through God’s love living within us that allows us to be humble, loving, and willing to apologize even if we don’t think it is necessary. God doesn’t let minor details stop Him from having a relationship with us, and we shouldn’t let minor thinks sabotage our relationships with others.

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!