Reflective Bible Study

As Jesus was stepping from being relatively unknown and into the public eye, John the Baptist made pointing people to Jesus part of his message. One of these occasions is caught and recorded for us in the gospel of John. In my mind’s eye, this happens just days after Jesus returned from the wilderness where he had been tempted.

On the day Jesus came back from the wilderness, I picture Jesus passing where John the Baptist was preaching, and then we discover that the next day, Jesus returns to the spot where John was teaching and challenging the crowds. Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 1, and we will be reading from the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 35, we learn that:

³⁵ The next day, John was there again, and two of his followers were with him. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Here is the Lamb of God!” ³⁷ John’s two followers heard him, and they went with Jesus.

³⁸ When Jesus turned and saw them, he asked, “What do you want?”

They answered, “Rabbi, where do you live?” The Hebrew word “Rabbi” means “Teacher.”

³⁹ Jesus replied, “Come and see!” It was already about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with him and saw where he lived. So they stayed on for the rest of the day.

⁴⁰ One of the two men who had heard John and had gone with Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and tell him, “We have found the Messiah!” The Hebrew word “Messiah” means the same as the Greek word “Christ.”

⁴² Andrew brought his brother to Jesus. And when Jesus saw him, he said, “Simon son of John, you will be called Cephas.” This name can be translated as “Peter.”

Pausing our passage at this point, I want to point out a pattern that I see present in this passage, and one that continues as we finish off the passage. This pattern is that the people who see, interact, and/or who know who Jesus is tell those closest to them to pay attention to Jesus.

This pattern first starts with John the Baptist. Jesus had already been baptized by John, and John knew who Jesus was. He tells his followers that Jesus is the Messiah, though the specific phrase John uses is “the Lamb of God”. (v. 36)

While I don’t know how many people were in the crowd of John’s followers that day, two of those present are paying attention enough to realize that John just identified the Messiah and that the Messiah John pointed out is someone is who worth following even more.

Andrew and an unnamed disciple, who we could call John, since John is telling us about this event because he was probably present, leave the crowd surrounding John the Baptist, and follow Jesus.

This starts the pattern.

Once these first followers find out where Jesus is staying, one of them, Andrew, immediately finds his brother and brings him to Jesus. We don’t know if John does the same with his brother James, but that may have happened. John tries to keep himself out of the story as much as possible in his gospel because his goal is focusing people onto Jesus.

The pattern we see is that the earliest followers of Jesus immediately seek out those closest to them to bring to Jesus when they learn who Jesus is. This pattern continues the following day. Picking up in verse 43, we read that:

^43-44 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, “Come with me.”

⁴⁵ Philip then found Nathanael and said, “We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

⁴⁶ Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

Philip answered, “Come and see.”

⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said, “Here is a true descendant of our ancestor Israel. And he isn’t deceitful.”

⁴⁸ “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”

⁴⁹ Nathanael said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God and the King of Israel!”

⁵⁰ Jesus answered, “Did you believe me just because I said that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see something even greater. ⁵¹ I tell you for certain that you will see heaven open and God’s angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man.”

One thing I find amazing about this whole passage is the interaction Jesus has with the two disciples who were brought to Him by others. The first one, Andrew’s brother Simon, was given a new name, before Jesus really had spent any time with him. It would be like meeting someone for the first time, knowing this other person is important, and that person’s first response to you is to say He doesn’t like your name and promptly gives you a new one.

While I wouldn’t have been as bold or up front, Jesus gets away with this because He knows something we don’t, and while it sounds strange to us in our day, this might have been a powerful compliment to someone living at that time period. One way we could view this is that parents give their children their names, and Jesus giving Simon a new name, which was Cephas or Peter, was like Jesus was adopting Simon into His family.

The second disciple who was brought to Jesus was Nathanael. Jesus’ interaction with Nathanael is interesting because we know a little detail about Nathanael before the first meeting. John tells us that when Philip tells Nathanael about Jesus, Nathanael’s first response is to challenge the idea that anything good could come from Nazareth. As a side note, Nathanael might have not been aware of what Matthew wrote in his gospel about Jesus being called a Nazarene by the prophets. (This is referenced in Matthew 2:23. Understand that I am aware that a Nazarene is different from simply being from Nazareth, but I am intrigued that these two words sound connected even if they are not.)

When Nathanael sees Jesus, the first thing Jesus does is compliment him. In an odd twist, Nathanael criticizes Jesus because of where he came from, right before we read that Jesus compliments him based upon his ancestry.

While the rest of the conversation proves to Nathanael that Jesus is sent from God, it is less significant in my mind then what we can learn from this big pattern.

In this passage, I see the big truth and challenge to all who call ourselves disciples, believers, and followers of Jesus that we are to share Jesus with others. Arguing with people over who Jesus is, is not productive. Inviting people to experience Jesus is the way to move forward.

In all the examples in this passage, the invitation is presented to simply follow Jesus and see what He is like. We can learn from this first century pattern and example because there are plenty of excuses and arguments people have for not choosing Jesus – and some of these reasons are valid ones. However, arguments are rarely “won”. Instead, when people argue, they become more emotionally attached to their own side of what is being debated.

We learn from this passage that a better way to share Jesus is to invite those to experience Him. The “Come and See” approach is perfect because only by experiencing Jesus can we truly realize His heart for each of us. Experiencing Jesus today is a little different then back in the first century. Today, we can experience Jesus by visiting a Christ-like church community, by reading more about Him from the gospels, and by serving those in need like Jesus did when He was present on earth.

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. If you are on the fence about Jesus, be sure to “come and see” what He is like before discounting Him or His message. If church has burned you in the past, let me apologize for them because while they believed they were doing the right thing, I know they missed communicating in a truly Christ-like way. While the media might make you think differently, there are more churches who model Christ’s character than those who don’t, so please try it again, and if needed, make a personal challenge to see how quickly you can find a church that truly does model Jesus well. They do exist, and I believe when we seek God, He will lead us to the community He wants us to be a part of.

Also, as I always challenge you to do in one way or another, when coming to Jesus, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself. A pastor or podcaster can give you things to think about, but these things can never replace your own personal relationship with Jesus. Your personal relationship with Him grows strong when you know who He really is – and this is learned through the pages of the Bible.

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

One of the events in Jesus’ life that I find incredibly interesting is found in this episode’s passage. Unlike many other passages in the gospels, it would seem that the passages that cover Jesus being tempted in the wilderness have many more layers of depth and insights than other parts of Jesus’ life. This seems to also confirm the idea that you can tell more about someone’s focus and character when they face adversity than when they are successful.

This event immediately follows Jesus’ baptism, and it can be found in both the gospel of Matthew and the gospel of Luke. For our episode today, we will be reading Matthew’s version, which is found in Matthew, chapter 4, and we will read from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us:

¹ Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the Devil. ² After spending forty days and nights without food, Jesus was hungry. ³ Then the Devil came to him and said, “If you are God’s Son, order these stones to turn into bread.”

⁴ But Jesus answered, “The scripture says, ‘Human beings cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks.’”

⁵ Then the Devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, the Holy City, set him on the highest point of the Temple, ⁶ and said to him, “If you are God’s Son, throw yourself down, for the scripture says,

‘God will give orders to his angels about you;
    they will hold you up with their hands,
    so that not even your feet will be hurt on the stones.’”

⁷ Jesus answered, “But the scripture also says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

⁸ Then the Devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in all their greatness. ⁹ “All this I will give you,” the Devil said, “if you kneel down and worship me.”

¹⁰ Then Jesus answered, “Go away, Satan! The scripture says, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!’”

¹¹ Then the Devil left Jesus; and angels came and helped him.

Almost every time I read this passage, something new stands out to me. While on the surface, these temptations seem simple to read and understand, the temptations Satan brings Jesus are incredibly nuanced and multi-layered.

With that said, let’s dive into some of the less obvious themes and details within these temptations and see what we will discover, while also uncovering a big theme we all can learn from how Jesus successfully resisted Satan’s temptations.

The first thing I notice is that these temptations cover three different themes or areas of our lives.

The first temptation, which is turning stones into bread, is to satisfy a physical need. Satan is tempting and challenging Jesus on whether He will use His power to help His “physical self”.

The second temptation, which is jumping from the temple, is to satisfy a social or relational need. By placing Himself in a situation where He should have died, not only is Jesus putting God’s protection on the spot, He is also making the bold statement for people to place their focus on Him. When the Jewish leaders see this, they would take note and they may have even drawn the same conclusion that Satan had quoted from Psalms.

The third temptation, which is worshiping Satan, is to shortcut Jesus’ spiritual mission, which is to give the glory to God. Everything Jesus did, from healing, teaching, and assembling a group of disciples all the way to the big mission of the cross was to give God the Father glory. Satan offers Jesus a shortcut to this mission, which Jesus declined.

In these three temptations, we have the three main areas of life present.

The next thing I notice about these three temptations is that they all hinge on the word “if”. The first two hinge on the challenge of whether Jesus is God’s Son, and the third hinges on the idea of worship – and whether it is important or not.

For many of us, worshiping the wrong thing, then repenting and asking for forgiveness is commonplace. However, for Jesus, if He was to be the perfect sacrifice, and a true substitute for our sins, then He must not have any sins of His own. That would mean living a life that there is nothing to repent of and nothing to ask forgiveness for. While we are already sin-stained, Jesus needed to live a life that kept Him from becoming sin-stained in the first place, in order to effectively take our stains onto Himself.

Another thing I notice in these three temptations relates to how Jesus responds to each of the temptations. Not only does Jesus push back at the devil’s challenge, He also quotes a piece of scripture that supports His position. It might be easy for us to think prayer is the answer for temptation, but if we look at Jesus’ temptations, prayer was not the weapon He used. Instead, Jesus used the Old Testament scriptures, and while we also have the New Testament to lean on, if the Old Testament was good enough for Jesus to use when facing temptation, then it should easily be good enough for you and I to use when facing temptations in our own lives.

In all the temptations Jesus faced, the root temptation was to use His own power and position to benefit Himself, and in every case, Jesus resisted the devil. Jesus did not come to strengthen His position in the universe; He came to show us what God the Father is like, and to give His life as a substitute for ours.

Before wrapping this episode up, I also want to point out one more interesting idea within this event. After Satan had tempted Jesus the third time, Jesus tells Satan to go away. The simple detail that Satan obeyed Jesus’ command is evidence that Jesus is stronger than Satan, and that Jesus would ultimately win the cosmic battle against sin.

While I’m sure that we could discover even more themes and layers in this event, this seems like a great place to conclude.

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

As I always open by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life and if you are facing temptation today, choose to fight back with a passage or promise from the Bible. If you are unsure of what verses to use, be sure pray and ask God for help with finding verses and promises to use.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. When looking for promises and what God has done, take notes of good verses to combat challenges you are currently facing in life. Also, take note of verses that could be good verses for others to use as well. You never know when a verse you saw might be able to benefit someone else, and I am positive God will lead you to the verses He wants you to use, learn, and grow from when faced with challenges and temptations within your life.

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 continue into the gospels this year, we transition out of the Christmas story of Jesus’ birth, and now come to the introduction of Jesus’ forerunner in ministry, John the Baptist. While the gospel writers focus heavily on Jesus in their books, which we want and expect them to do, all four gospels give a little focus towards John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus to step into His public ministry.

The gospel of Luke, chapter 3, sets the scene and identifies the point in history this all happened. Let’s read what Luke shares as he makes the transition from talking about Jesus’ birth and childhood onto John the Baptist’s public ministry. We’ll be reading from Luke, chapter 3, starting in verse 1 from the New Living Translation:

¹ It was now the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, the Roman emperor. Pontius Pilate was governor over Judea; Herod Antipas was ruler over Galilee; his brother Philip was ruler over Iturea and Traconitis; Lysanias was ruler over Abilene. ² Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests. At this time a message from God came to John son of Zechariah, who was living in the wilderness. ³ Then John went from place to place on both sides of the Jordan River, preaching that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven.

Let’s pause reading here because I want to draw our attention onto something that might be very easy to miss. If we look at how Luke sets the stage and how he words the first verses of this chapter, it reads more like a historical stage than a fictitious stage. In other words, Luke draws our attention onto a specific point in history, which lends credibility that he wrote his gospel to document history, despite what critics might say or think.

Luke also draws our attention to the detail that John gets the nickname of “Baptist” or “Baptizer” because his message was one of repentance and he stressed that those who wanted to show they had repented should be baptized in a public setting.

Continuing on, Luke also describes how John the Baptist was prophesied about in the Old Testament. Picking back up in verse 4, we learn that:

⁴ Isaiah had spoken of John when he said,

“He is a voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!
    Clear the road for him!
⁵ The valleys will be filled,
    and the mountains and hills made level.
The curves will be straightened,
    and the rough places made smooth.
⁶ And then all people will see
    the salvation sent from God.’”

Pausing briefly again, I wonder if John had read this prophecy about himself and felt a little overwhelmed. Imagine for a moment this message described you. How might you live your life if you knew you were helping to prepare the way for the Lord’s coming?

How did John do this? Luke then describes how John framed his message and what he challenged those who came to listen to him to do with their lives.

Continuing our reading in verse 7, we learn that:

⁷ When the crowds came to John for baptism, he said, “You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? ⁸ Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. ⁹ Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.”

¹⁰ The crowds asked, “What should we do?”

¹¹ John replied, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.”

¹² Even corrupt tax collectors came to be baptized and asked, “Teacher, what should we do?”

¹³ He replied, “Collect no more taxes than the government requires.”

¹⁴ “What should we do?” asked some soldiers.

John replied, “Don’t extort money or make false accusations. And be content with your pay.”

If you ever wondered if God or Jesus would have a message for us living today about how we should live, we can take what John says and pull out some big themes.

John challenged those in the first century to “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God” and I believe this could be a challenge for all of us living today as well. The best decision you can make is putting your belief, faith, and trust in Jesus to save you from your sins, but the way you make your decision public is by repenting, which is a fancy religious word for choosing to intentionally not do a particular bad action anymore and instead replace it with a good habit and action.

John challenges Christians throughout time that our lives are our greatest witness to others whether we have truly accepted Jesus into our hearts.

John challenges us to not rest on our past ancestry, our past choices, or even our past accomplishments. Instead, he challenges us to live our repentance each day we want Jesus in our lives.

John challenges believers to be generous, to be honest, and to be kind to each other. While this sounds incredibly simple, it is actually one of the hardest challenges for each of us to live out each day. While there are some people who can love others effortlessly, others, such as myself, must intentionally choose to love in this way because there are some people who don’t make loving them easy.

John’s message cut to the heart of the people living in the first century, and Luke draws our attention to another interesting detail. Continuing in verse 15, we learn that:

¹⁵ Everyone was expecting the Messiah to come soon, and they were eager to know whether John might be the Messiah. ¹⁶ John answered their questions by saying, “I baptize you with water; but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹⁷ He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.” ¹⁸ John used many such warnings as he announced the Good News to the people.

While I might not think that John’s warnings sound like “Good News”, we can see from the anticipation in John’s message that he believed Jesus would come and usher in a new age of the world. Some people living today believe this to be the case. All the Old Testament prophecies seemed to point to the Messiah coming and setting things straight, but we might wonder why things are still messed up. Is the urgency in John’s message misplaced?

Should we give our message about Jesus a sense of urgency similar to John, or would that be misplaced too?

I don’t believe any message about Jesus is wrong to have a sense of urgency applied to it. Every time we share Jesus with others, we should include a sense of urgency because of two things.

First, there will be a time that the world will end and Jesus will come back. Each day brings us one day closer to this event.

Secondly, with rare exceptions, each of us don’t know when our lives will end, and if our lives end before Jesus returns, then it doesn’t really matter when Jesus comes back for us specifically. If you or I only have a week or year to live, this makes our decision for Jesus urgent for us. Since we don’t know the day we will die, it’s safest to live every day with the sense of urgency that either Jesus will return today, or that our lives might end today leading to the next thing we see being Jesus.

John challenged those present in the first century to be ready for Jesus’ first coming, and all of us in the 21st century should focus on preparing ourselves for Jesus’ second coming!

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

As I always start by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life. Live your life with a sense of urgency, and with an intentional purpose of growing closer to God. While we don’t know when our lives will end or when exactly Jesus will return, we do know that only one decision matters in the end, and that is whether we have placed Jesus first, repented, and intentionally chosen to put our focus, faith, trust, and belief on Jesus.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do in one way or another, as we move forward in life and history, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself so you will be able to know and understand what God and Jesus are really like. The better we know the God of the Bible, and Jesus who came showing us a picture of God, the better we will be able to recognize Jesus when He returns.

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

As I read Jesus’ birth story from the gospel of Matthew, I am continually amazed at just how foreshadowed this event was. There was so much foreshadowed about it, that it is really surprising to me how the priests and religious leaders missed it.

First off, to set our passage up, there was a cosmic event of some kind. Some say that there was a specific shift in the constellations that the wise men saw that prompted them to begin their journey, while others say that angels shone in the night sky like stars, and it caught the wise men’s attention.

Either way, it is likely that the star and/or angels would have been visible to everyone who was paying attention, though it would seem as though the only ones paying attention were far away from the event. This is the first sign that should have been seen by the religious leaders – especially as this was just a few months after John the Baptist’s miraculous birth that we looked at in the previous episode.

When we then turn our eyes onto the passage for this episode, we see four places where Matthew directly states that an event happened to fulfill prophecy. While I might normally read the full passage, pausing periodically to insert comments, for this episode, we’ll just focus on the four specific places Matthew tells us prophecy was fulfilled.

The first prophecy in our passage to be fulfilled is found in Matthew, chapter 2, verses 5 and 6. Reading from the Contemporary English Version, Matthew tells us:

“They [the religious leaders] told him [Herod], ‘He will be born in Bethlehem, just as the prophet wrote,

 “Bethlehem in the land
    of Judea,
you are very important
    among the towns of Judea.
From your town
    will come a leader,
who will be like a shepherd
    for my people Israel.”’”

The Jewish leaders knew exactly where the Messiah would be born. It’s difficult to say if they were reluctant to share this knowledge with Herod, or if they freely shared the details when asked. Either way, they should have taken note of Herod’s question and perhaps paid a little closer attention to what was happening around them.

The next prophecy to be fulfilled is just a few verses later in verse 15, where we read, “So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, ‘I called my son out of Egypt.’”

It is interesting that Joseph, Mary, and their family would flee to Egypt. This event happening makes the beginning of Jesus’ life a prophetic representation of the children of Israel, who began in the promised land, before moving to Egypt during the great famine we read about in the last chapters of Genesis.

God then called the Israelites out of Egypt, and this prophecy echoes this event by saying that God will also call His Son out of Egypt as well. I’m not sure if any other aspects of Jesus’ life were representative of the nation of Israel, but there is a very clear prophetic parallel within this event at the beginning of Jesus’ life on earth.

The third prophecy that is fulfilled in Jesus’ birth event happens back in Judea. Matthew draws our attention to it when he quotes it in verses 17 and 18 by saying:

“So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet Jeremiah had said,

‘In Ramah a voice was heard
    crying and weeping loudly.
Rachel was mourning
    for her children,
and she refused
to be comforted,
    because they were dead.’”

The Jewish leaders may have given up looking for the promised Messiah after Herod went and slaughtered all the baby boys that were 2 years or younger there. Perhaps Jesus was only months old when this happened, but Herod was the sort of person to be extra thorough in his methods. 

However, if the religious leaders stopped looking for the Messiah because of Herod’s mass killing here, then it shows how little faith they had in God – specifically in God’s ability to protect the Messiah that He promised to send. This event may have shifted the focus of some of the Jewish leaders at the time.

The last prophecy that Matthew points out to be fulfilled in our passage for this episode comes right at the end, at the close of verse 23, where it says, “So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, ‘He will be called a Nazarene.’”

When the leaders push back at a Messiah coming from Nazareth, I wonder where this prophecy was in their minds. Matthew draws our attention to the significance of where Joseph and Mary return to when they move back to the area, but it would seem as though there was a prophecy in place that the leaders either were not aware of, or one they discounted or dismissed. In a quick search of the Old Testament, I see no mention of the word Nazareth or Nazarene anywhere in it, so this makes me wonder what prophet Matthew is referring to.

Perhaps this was a prophecy that John the Baptist shared that is not included in the Bible, or maybe it is something included in one of the other ancient writings that was not included in the Bible. What we do know is that while Matthew draws our attention to this prophecy fulfilled, it is likely that the validity of the prophet or prophecy itself was debated at the time of Jesus.

All this comes together to point us to a significant truth that we might easily miss:

Knowledge is a poor substitute for attention, and if we are not paying attention, no amount of knowledge will keep us from drifting away from God.

Both nature and history pointed the Jewish leaders to pay attention to Jesus’ birth, but if they were not interested or looking for the Messiah to arrive, then there was no way for them to see it coming. Herod, who is known for being a little paranoid about people challenging his rule, clearly saw the sign of the wise men, and in this regard, he was more observant than the religious leaders.

Like Matthew did when writing his gospel, it is much easier to see how God has moved when looking back on the events that happened. Seeing the outcomes make it easier to see how God has moved and directed. This truth then leads us to a challenge when living our lives over 2,000 years later: Will we take our past and the evidence God has moved within it and use it as evidence to trust Him with the challenges we face in the present?

Today will become the past tomorrow, and while we might not clearly see God working in today’s challenges, that doesn’t mean He is absent. It may simply mean that we are looking from the wrong perspective.

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 seek God first in your life and push yourself to look for God moving in your present circumstances. If you doubt God, look for evidence of His love, protection, and guidance from your past and use that to stand on to face your present challenges.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do in one way or another, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself, so you will better be able to recognize God in the present. While other people have ideas about God, look to the Bible to discover what God is really like, so you can recognize Him more clearly when He is moving in the present.

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 abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!