Young man: “Satan isn’t really like a person, right? I mean there’s evil in the world, and there’s such a thing as evil–as a force. But Satan, if he did exist, would be just one person. He would be limited. He couldn’t be everywhere at once or anything. So what could he really accomplish in the world?” Read More
Last Sunday at 8 PM I watched The Bible miniseries’ (episode one) on the History Channel. First I had to recover from the shock of seeing actual history on the history channel, instead of Swamp People and Pawn Stars. Then I had to decide if I liked it. Read More
[To see the last post on Genesis go to The Consequences of Calling Your Own Shots–Genesis 49:29]
So Joseph went up to bury his father. All Pharaoh’s officials accompanied him—the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt—
Chariots and horsemen also went up with him. It was a very large company.
When the Canaanites who lived there saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “The Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning.”
What’s All The Fuss?
I was involved in a huge funeral once. Two friends died in the prime of life, in an ATV accident. They were firefighters and we had this huge procession through town with fire department vehicles. The streets were lined with well wishers. There were even helicopters flying overhead above the procession. One helicopter flew a giant American flag underneath. Another filmed the whole event in high def. Had my two friends been insurance salesmen none of that would have happened. It was their relationship with the fire department that resulted in such an ambitious funeral.
Jacob’s funeral was a much bigger deal than my friends’. Every single one of Pharaoh’s officials were there. Every dignitary from the nation of Egypt was there. All of Joseph’s family was there. Chariots and horsemen were even there. The funeral lasted a whole week. This thing was huge. When the people of Canaan saw it, it was easy to recognize someone very important had passed away. But why? Why was Jacob honored in such spectacular fashion? Read More
An interesting article from the Huffington Post of all places:
The Most Persecuted Religion In The World
Some of you will find this very surprising.
[Image: Persecution of John the Apostle via Art History Images (Holly Hayes) Creative Commons]
[Image via betsyweber – Creative Commons] [To see the previous Love Like Jesus post, go to Trading Recognition for God’s Glory]
When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.”
Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” –Matthew 8:5-8, 13
How Jesus Loved People
Jesus loved people by doing for them, what they couldn’t do for themselves.
Love Like Jesus
So you want to live and love like Jesus did. So you can please God, and you can be someone who attracts people to Jesus, and hopefully glorify God’s name. But when you study the life of Christ, you think to yourself, “Ha, what chance do I have? Jesus, without coming anywhere near the centurion’s servant, healed him of his paralysis. Even a great doctor couldn’t do that, and I’m not a doctor–I’ve never even played one on TV. Jesus made the blind see and the deaf hear. Jesus cast out demons. Jesus even raised people from the dead! What chance do I have to live and love like Jesus?”
Hope For Those Of Us Who Can’t Raise People From The Dead Read More
Jacob said: “I am about to be gathered to my people.” -Genesis 49:29
Jacob was about to die. He found himself in the same position every single one of us will find ourselves. Jacob was about to be gathered to his people.
And of course, so will you. The question is: Where are your people gathered?
I Have A Confession
I have a confession to make. I have this tendency–I tend to change my worldview to accommodate my own selfishness. Reflecting back I realize I had a desire for personal glory in a variety of arenas. At various times those areas in which I sought my own honor included work, running, hang gliding, and basketball–to name a few. At my core, Read More
Click link to watch Lecrae Extended Interview on PBS. Such a great piece–had to share it.
Image via: dichohecho — Creative Commons
“Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone.” -Matthew 8:3-4
How Jesus Loved People:
Jesus healed the man with leprosy, then he told him in no uncertain terms, “See that you don’t tell anyone.”
How To Love Like Jesus:
Wow, is this the opposite of me or what! My human tendency is to want credit for what I do. One afternoon during a family gathering, Kathy was sharing with the female contingent of the Bennett clan, how I had done something nice for her on a recent Saturday morning:
“He brought me coffee in bed,” she said.
I, sitting nearby with the male contingent of the Bennett clan, happened to overhear. “Boy,” I thought to myself, Read More
(From the Archives…)
Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:8-9
The Garden
A little trivia to start: The Bible tells us that the land in which God’s garden is located is called Eden, however we are never actually given the name of the garden itself, only the name of the land in which it is located. But one thing’s for sure, the word Eden means delightful, and we do know from the Bible that without a doubt, whatever the name of the garden, God’s garden was a delightful place to live.
Notice that in the middle of His garden God puts both the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “Why?” You may be asking. “Why include the forbidden tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the middle of the delightful garden? Why ruin a perfect place with a forbidden tree?” The answer is that God desired a meaningful relationship with Adam and Eve, and a meaningful relationship requires a choice.
Marriage and Slavery
Hadijatou Mani is a 24 year old woman from the Sahel region of Nigeria, on the Southern fringe of the Sahara. Hadijatou’s story is the story of someone who wasn’t given a choice. When she was just 12 years old she was sold to a man named Souleymane Naroua. When she was just 13 she was raped by her master and forced to bear his children. Read More
The following is a guest post by my friend Fred Saada. You can learn more about Fred at the bottom of this article.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. –Ephesians 6:12
Call for a Chaplain
The phone rang around midnight and I was notified that the Sheriff had requested a chaplain for a suicide. Read More
The following is a guest post from the blog Ambling Saint. I’ve never heard of anything like it before.
At Easter 1985 I went to a J John evangelism talk. J John said that you could take the Bible, assume it is true and act on that assumption. Test it out for six months or so, believing it completely during that time, and then you could look back and see whether it had made a difference to you. I decided to give it a go for myself.
I got a Bible and highlighted it in different colours. One colour highlighted practical instructions – these being the things I now needed to do, and then a different colour for the blessing which should follow that particular action. I found out quite soon that a lot of the Bible is written in this ‘IF you do this, then THAT will happen’ style, which is quite easy to test out in this way. Read More
Love Like Jesus–Encourage and Commend: Matthew 11:11
How Jesus Loved People
Jesus loved people by commending them publicly. Here in Matthew 11 we see Jesus commend John the Baptist publicly. Jesus commended the faith of the formerly blind Bartimaeus when he said, “Go, your faith has healed you.” (Mark 10:54) Jesus commended the woman who anointed his feet with perfume when he said, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Jesus commended Peter when Peter called him the Messiah, he said, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah…” (Matthew 16:17) And on, and on it goes.
Jesus commended people–often.
How to Love Like Jesus
Lighten up.
Encourage, commend, and even–dare I say it–compliment people. Do it today, just for today, focus on commending and encouraging.
Jesus did.
You can too.
[Image via Paul L Dineen, Creative Commons]
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Posted on March 16, 2013 by Kurt Bennett
Bible Commentary, Bible Study, How Jesus Loved People - How You Can Too, Marriage
commend, compliment, encourage, Love like Jesus, Matthew 11