Marching Forth!

After Jesus called Matthew to follow Him, Jesus ate at his house and many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Him.  When the Pharisees saw this they asked His disciples:  "Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  Merely asking this question exposed the unbelief and ignorance in these religious leaders.  Their question implied they saw His sinful company as a blight upon His character; it showed they did not believe sinners could be redeemed or Jesus unable to cleanse or change them.  Their response showed they did not believe Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah God sent to seek and save the lost. Jesus answered their query in Matthew 9:12-13 :  " When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance .”  Jesus pointed out the...

I had a great conversation with a new believer in Jesus who was saved this week, and we briefly discussed the importance of reading God's word to grow in maturity.  Just like we need to eat food to uphold the health and strength of our bodies, we need to regularly receive God's word to be strengthend in faith as we obey.  When we read the Bible, it can be quite foreign and strange to us because it is not the way we naturally think, God's ways and thoughts being higher than ours.  Careful reading ought to provoke questions in the spiritually hungry, and we will wonder with the disciples at time how things Jesus said could possibly be true. Reading the Bible with faith in God is key to receiving spiritual benefits from God's word, for divine truth is obscured and even appears foolish to the natural man.  It is important for us to allow the Bible to begin to frame our new worldview as children of God and disciples of Jesus Christ rather than imposing our own opinions up...

One aspect of God's character I love is His ability to redeem what we consider avoidable and even unredeemable.  I read a poem in a book titled, "The Saints Should Never Be Dismayed."  While this is a  true statement, we could spend our time beating ourselves up for doing what we never should do--or we could thank God He uses our being dismayed to draw us to Himself.  In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the relationship between the father and son was enriched by the son leaving, losing his inheritance, and choosing to return to his father he trusted to treat him well.  Having always enjoyed the blessings of his father's house he didn't realise how good his father was until he found himself in want.  Sheep should not wander from the Good Shepherd, and sons should not show such disrespect to their fathers, yet God rejoices when the lost are found.  When we are dismayed, let us remember to turn to the LORD. Below is the aforementioned hymn written by Will...

As I tend to think in concrete terms, it was always difficult for me in my younger days to understand what Christians meant when they spoke about "fruit."  Because the Bible spoke about spiritual fruit in a figurative sense, it seemed a very subjective standard legalistic-leaning people were pleased to spell out.  I remember kids in our youth group debating whether we had a responsibility to be "fruit inspectors," that we were the ones qualified to determine whether others were living up to a biblical standard.  While the Bible does provide a clear contrast between obvious works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 , being able to identify faults in others did nothing to ensure we faithfully walked in the Spirit ourselves! Reading what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount would have been very helpful for me to read in regards to His warning about false prophets.  He said in Matthew 7:15-20 :  “ Beware of false prophets, who come to you in ...

Jesus exposed the hypocrisy in people who worshipped God in vain, for their motivation was to seek glory from men.  They wanted to be recognised and credited for their piety, to be seen and known as devout and honourable men in the synagogue and society.  The attention they hoped to gain from fickle men for their actions was their meagre reward, and God dismissed them as hypocrites.  The recurring theme Jesus presented addressed the motives of His disciples in giving, praying and fasting, and Jesus assured obedience to God in secret will certainly be seen by God who rewards openly. Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 6:1-4:   " Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.  2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I sa...

During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told His disciples they were the salt of the earth.  He alluded to the purpose of salt for seasoning food to improve flavour, for flavourless salt is good for nothing.  Clearly tasteless salt lacked the chemical properties of real salt, as genuine sodium chloride always retains its savour.  Salt was relied upon to preserve meat and flavour foods, and "salt" that lacked flavour was proved to be a worthless substitute. Jesus continued in the same vein in verses that followed in  Matthew 5:14-16 :  " You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.  15   Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.  16   Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven ."  A city built on a hill would be visible because the man-made structure stood out from s...