Though most religious people in Jesus’ day hated Him, Jesus didn’t hate religion. He knew that religion existed to teach humans who were already in relationship with God how to live out that relationship in their everyday life. What he did hate was how the religion God gave His people had been twisted to keep…
With crowds often comes the pressure to keep the crowds happy. Instead of giving in to it, Jesus set expectations by affirming the value of a leper and acting decisively to relieve his suffering. In the process he showed what he really wants from those who follow Him – a spirit of humility, faith, and…
When you are confronted with your own sinfulness, it’s easy to push Jesus away out of shame. Simon teaches us to never do that, because Jesus already knows all about our sin and comes looking for us to invite us to join Him in relationship and on mission anyway.
Jesus had a plan to handle temptation in the heat of the moment – he identified the lie, confronted it with God’s truth, and then declared his allegiance to the truth. Ultimately, God satisfied his needs at the right time. If we are willing, we can begin to experience that same kind of success as…
Jesus suffered through the temptations He faced, but He was fully faithful to His Father. He prepared for these temptations years before they happened by learning to say “no” to his normal human desires and by grounding Himself in God’s truth. He can help us have victory too if we are willing to prepare as…
The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus was fully human, but the implications can make us uncomfortable at times. Jesus had a real body that could be injured and killed; he experienced normal human development and suffered as we do so that He would be qualified to be our Savior and welcomed by us as our…
Jesus was baptized as a PSA to announce to His people that He was the One in whom they could hope and to announce to his Father that He was “ALL IN” to do His will, no matter what it cost. God took advantage of the opportunity to announce to Jesus that He was also…