A Prophecy Fulfilled, A Cost to be Counted

The way Jesus cared for people, healing their sickness and freeing them from bondage, not only demonstrated His great love for them. It also fulfilled Isaiah’s 600 year old prophecy that he would heal our diseases and make us well. It was another sign that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah.

Believing is Seeing

My wife was getting irked by my oft time failure to hear what she or others were saying. She urged me to talk to the doctor about it, so the next time I went in to see him I mentioned, “My wife thinks I’m hard of hearing.” He checked my ears and said, “Your hearing is fine. Tell them to speak up.”

A New Kind of Kingdom

After Jesus’ arrest he was brought before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. As Pilate tried to determine the nature of the charges against Jesus, he asked him about the accusation that he was a king. Jesus answered, “My kingdom doesn’t belong to this world. If it did, my followers would have fought to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. No, my kingdom doesn’t belong to this world.” (John 18:36)

Of Seeds and Weeds

A farmer carefully prepares the soil to increase the chances of a good harvest. But the quality of the seed is of utmost importance. If one out of every ten seeds a farmer planted failed to grow, he would lose ten percent of his crop. If two out of every ten seeds failed to germinate, the farmer would lose 20 percent.

In this story the seed was the highest quality possible.

Light in the Darkness

A friend of mine was a Marine in the Vietnam war. He was on reconnaissance patrol with a group of soldiers one day when they found themselves trapped on a hilltop as night fell. In the darkness they could hear the Vietcong in the surrounding jungle working their way up the slope chanting, “Marine you die. Marine you die.”

Suddenly, in the distance, the Marines could hear the faint sound of a chopper sent to rescue them.

Calm the Storm in Me

As the disciples wrestled with the question, “Who is Jesus?” it was a slow learning process. They had already seen him heal a Roman centurion’s servant and raise a widow’s son from the dead. They ate with him, walked with him, talked with him. But did they really KNOW Him?

That day’s “lesson” began with a simple request from Jesus: “Let’s cross the lake” (v 22).

Jesus’ Authority Over Demons

Some people playfully use the phrase, “The devil made me do it.” Usually they’re kidding. But they are flirting with a subject that is far more real than they know.

Mention the word “devil” and a Halloween street scene comes to mind with red-suited, barb-tailed, pitch fork wielding devils of all sizes mixed in with the princesses, witches and super heroes. But evil is a dark reality in the world today. And it has been since the seduction of Eve

Does God Heal Today?

Does God heal today? That question took on personal significance in 1998 when my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was invasive. Cancer cells were found in all 18 of the lymph nodes that were removed.

Three weddings and eight grandchildren later, the word that had become hidden in the dark recesses of our vocabulary resurfaced. In February 2013 we were told that the breast cancer of long ago had metastasized.

So Close, and Yet So Far

The Pharisees were experts in interpreting and in keeping the Jewish laws. But although they were good at keeping rules and regulations, their hearts were far from God.

It is possible to be outwardly religious while your heart is self-centred and hardened to the things that matter to God. History bore witness to their hard heartedness. They killed or persecuted the prophets who brought God’s message. And now that God’s own Son had come, they prevented people from receiving his truth, and they themselves refused to listen to the truth.

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Show Me!

In the 1971 Broadway hit Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber with lyrics by Tim Rice, King Herod was fascinated by Jesus – maybe more amazed at what Jesus could do than by who He was. In King Herod’s song, “Try it and See”, he says:

“So if you are the Christ …