Malchus got up that morning had his coffee, kissed his wife and played for a few minutes with his children. Now it was time to go serve the High Priest. The next thing he knew they were joined by the Chief Priests, the Pharisees and...
Have you ever fallen asleep during prayer, of course you have, we all have nodded a time or two during our prayer time. But this story is different, Jesus asked Peter, James, and John to pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, we are...
Communion, the Eucharist, The table, The Lord’s Supper, whatever you call it, it is a feast of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. When you ingest the bread and wine, you are receiving the mystery of the ages, you are partaking of healing, strength...
Has your mouth ever got you in trouble by saying something your heart could not back up? That is what happened to Peter, “Lord let me follow you right now, I will lay down my life for you.” To which Jesus retorts, “ Will you...
You know that uneasy feeling you get when everyone in the room is trying to avoid the unpleasant task that needs to be done but no one is moving toward doing it. You know the elephant in the room, foot washing. Lets face it if...
There is nothing worse than 12 ambition men in the same room. Jesus was sharing his last meal with them before going to the cross. He had already broken the bread and shared the wine then he broke the sad news to them that one...
This is such an interesting text, many of the rulers were believing in Jesus, but keeping it on the down-low. They were not speaking of their new found faith for fear of losing their place in the Synagogue. We are told the loved the approval...
Amid the backdrop of the Olivet Discourse Jesus talks to His disciples about 10 virgins, 5 were wise, and 5 were foolish. The wise virgins took enough oil and the foolish ran out of oil and begged their fellow virgins for some of theirs. They...
We refer to Matthew 24-25 as he Olivet Discourse because it takes place on the Mount of Olives. But the first two verses tell us that Jesus came out of the temple on His way to the mount when he referenced the temple itself. He...
We know this story as “The widows mite”, and our focus is usually on the widow. But I would like for us to consider the the rich people in this story, and what Jesus says about them. We are told that Jesus observed the rich...
The Pharisees were doing what the Pharisees were always doing attempting to trip Jesus up. They asked him to make a choice of which one of the 613 laws in the Old Testament was the most important. As always Jesus flipped the script on these...
Jesus call them as He sees them. The Pharisees slide up to the Master under the ruse of paying taxes. But He sees right through the smoke and mirrors and calls them “Hypocrites”. You know what hypocrites are right, believing one thing while doing another,...
The Psalmist says: As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people. The truth is Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains on all sides, stately and majestic in all her beauty. So when Jesus uses them as an object lesson everyone understood. He was...
One of my favorite stories in the Gospels is Jesus cleansing the Temple. This magnificent structure built by Zerubbabel and enlarged and beautified by Herod the Great, was called to be a place of prayer for all nations. Yet what the religious people of Jesus...
Can you imagine pouring something worth 300 Denarii (an average years income) over someones head ? Well that is exactly what happens in this story. A woman who the Gospel of John identifies as Mary pours this very costly perfume that the Gospel of Mark...
To have a monkey on ones back means that you are carrying a burden or a problem that you find difficult to get rid of, and this is the story of a man who certainly had a monkey. If you have been saved more than one...
I have always loved this story, for several reasons. First the two blind man one named Bartimaeus (we know from the account given in Mark and Luke) asked for mercy, there is great power in God’s mercy. There is a famous prayer called “The Jesus...
Jesus was traveling with the disciples to Jerusalem when he pulls them aside and begins to explain to them what his last days on earth would look like. Then the mother of James and John approached him on behalf of her two sons who she...
This is one of the saddest stories in the Bible, the rich young ruler. At first he seems to have a spiritual appetite when he inquires of Jesus about obtaining eternal life. But when it gets down to the nitty gritty , he walks away...
Jesus was traveling from Galilee to Judea, when he encountered a group of Pharisees who began testing him. As they were in dialogue with Jesus a group of pesky children happened along wanting of all things to sit on the Masters lap. The righteous 12...
Normally as a church we participate in the Daniel fast for the 21 days leading up to Good Friday. This year I am asking each person to seek God on what form of fasting they would choose....