Lovin' Tellin' The Story

"They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them...If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead." Luke 16:30-31. God's Church is in desperate need of a revival of our commitment to His Word. We are far too focused on things like worship styles, programs, methods and turning the Gospel message into a self-help theory. While I believe that things like worship and programs are worthy discussions to have and are certainly worth our attention the basis of our lives both personally and corporately must  be the Word of God. In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus. While there are many, many takeaways from this story the one thing that jumped off the pages to me was Jesus' statement, through the mouth of Abraham, regarding the sufficiency of God's Word. Miracles, signs and wonders are all wonderful confirmations of the one proclaiming God's truth, but the real transfor...

But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of one letter of the Law to fail. Luke 16:17 I was talking to my dad on the phone this past Saturday and he asked me what the message was going to be about on Sunday. I told him that we were going to talk about Jesus' confrontation with the Pharisees in which He addressed their manipulation of the Law of God. I went on to say that that is exactly why people don't like lawyers today, they can use technicalities and loopholes to get guilty people off. My father, who has been a lawyer for most of his life said, "Yeah, that is why people hate lawyers and they don't like them until they need one." That, my dear father, will preach. You see the same thing is true about people and their view of the Law of God. No one likes it or wants to have anything to do with it until they see what its true purpose is. In Luke 16:14-18 Jesus "lays down the Law" for the Pharisees and other religious le...

The other day I was scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook when I ran across a link that a friend of mine had posted to a blog post. The post was clearly dealing with the issue of homosexuality, that much I could see from preview. It also looked like it may be coming from a slightly new angle so I clicked on it to investigate further. One of the primary arguments that the author was making was that many Christians are very literal in their interpretation of the Scriptures on issues such as homosexuality. However, when it comes to other issues like alcohol, gluttony, divorce, etc. we beg for "a little context." Now, let me say this, on that particular point I absolutely agree with the author and applaud her boldness in pointing it out. One of the things that frustrates me the most is that we, as evangelical Christians, like to categorize sins and typically the really bad ones, the ones God abhors, are the ones that someone else is guilty of. I want you to hear me very clear...

Photo courtesy of McGoo84 And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails; they will receive you into the eternal dwellings. Luke 16:9 Unless you're talking about making more of it very few people like to talk about money, especially in a church setting. To be sure, giving is a private matter between a person and God and we will see more of that later. However, the issue of how we view and handle our earthly resources is not only a matter of discipleship it is also something that Jesus addressed frequently during His earthly ministry. Some have estimated that about 1/3 of Jesus' parables dealt with material wealth and possessions in some form or fashion. That should tell us that money matters, and it matters to God. Why? Because how we deal with our earthly resources tells God an awful lot about where our hearts really are and that is one of the most important lessons of the parable of the unrighteous steward ...