Month: June 2022

From Matthew 21: 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna[b] to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”[c] “Hosanna[d] in the highest heaven!” 10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” I was reading and re-reading this text in preparation for…

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I used to think the Pharisees were horrible, hypocritical, hyper extreme religious leaders that were in the Bible to teach us a lesson about religiosity. But then an older Christian gently reminded me that the Pharisees loved God too. Some were overly concerned about their power and status, but some were just really earnest in what they believed to be the most faithful way of following God. The only problem is, their desire prevented them from seeing and recognizing Jesus. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 Then the chief…

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I had an experience this morning that was affirming and confirmed for me: if you allow it to, the Bible really does become alive and “speaks” to you. It doesn’t happen overnight, but in my experience, the more I approach the Bible not to “retrieve and study information,” but just to enjoy and read, or just to absorb more of who Jesus was, the more it seems to reflect back to me my own particular experiences. Those are the times the Bible communicates in a way where it’s like someone is talking to you and you go “aha, I see.”…

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I was reading through John 11 and really trying to pay attention to Jesus’ emotions. I know that Lazarus’ death caused Jesus to weep out of grief. But he also said that it was “for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” I love how he talks about himself in third person, because that was a thing with the Pharisees (and other Jews, for that matter) who didn’t accept himself to be the Son of God. One other verse that I thought was interesting, verse 2 in John 11: Now a man named Lazarus was sick.…

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I’m reading through John 10 for the day. My recollection of the chapter title (“The Good Shepherd and His Sheep”, NIV) is that the primary metaphor here is that Jesus is always the good shepherd. But the text here also says, twice, that Jesus is the gate. The Good Shepherd and His Sheep 10 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The…

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