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 ...

Note: Today's post is from one of my dear brothers in Christ, Ryan Burris. He has been called to the ministry and is currently pursuing his Master's of Divinity at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also a youth minister, a gifted preacher and, as you will read, a wonderful writer and expositor of God's Word. I hope you enjoy his thoughts on this important subject and are blessed and challenged by his message. Christian Ezekiel 3:1 He said to me: “Son of man, eat what you find here.  Eat this scroll, then go and speak to the house of Israel.” A new year is just around the corner, and with that comes resolutions.   Consistently, one of the top New Year’s resolutions is going on a diet or losing weight (which typically includes dieting).   Our culture is crying out for new, more successful diets with quicker results, and this is not necessarily a bad thing.   While I am not a dieter myself, it seems as though most diets that I have heard of a...

What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which was lost until he finds it?   Luke 15:4. Have you ever lost something? Naturally that is a rhetorical question because we've all lost things in our lives. Whether it is the TV remote, our car keys or even something less mundane, we often misplace things that are important to us. What ensues is usually a frustrating series of events to include tossing the couch and living room, rummaging through pockets and disgorging the contents of closets until the lost item is found. In Luke 15 Jesus tells a series of parables to show that God is no less dedicated to the search for lost things than we are. In fact, His search goes over and above the effort we would put forth for all but the most valuable of things. For now, I want to focus on the first two parables in this chapter because they are very, very similar and the third is the parab...

If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:26 There are times when I read the Gospels and wonder if Jesus didn't just get fed up with people misunderstanding Him, following Him for the wrong reasons, and just plain being silly. The verse above represents one of those times for me. Looking at those words one can only wonder if Jesus had simply had enough and laid into the people who were following Him just to see the next cool miracle. In the previous verse it says that "large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me..." you know the rest. Clearly Jesus wasn't up to speed on the current trends in mass evangelism and church growth strategies. That's right folks, Jesus used the word "hate" and He said if we don't we can't follow Him. It almost sounds like Jesus didn...