This Week With Jesus

Pastor David Jacobs, trying to understand his mothers forgiveness asked her, "Would you be able to forgive me of I had committed murder?" She answered - "You will always be my son. I would not approve of what you did but I would be there in jail, visiting you whenever I could." So would God!  This leads to a thought: what does forgiveness from God look like?   I would guess pretty much the same. When we sin, He would still love us and still guide us, if we wished, but He would not approve of what we had done. David's story is a case in point. He broke the 6th, 7th and 10 commandments and had to pay the price, yet God loved Him. Like David, we sin all the time, yet God sacrificed His son to save us from complete annihilation. Just as knowledge of the depth of our mother's love fills our heart with joy and gives encouragement to abstain from hurting her, understanding the depth of God's love also gives us that desire to not hurt him, but try and please Him...

Voltaire once wrote: “Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” There’s a lot of wisdom in that. A man questions what he /she genuinely wants to know, yet a fulfilled life isn’t so much determined by what you know as it is by how willing you are to learn. We can memorize the Bible and quote at the drop of a hat and answer any question in a Bible quiz and still not know Jesus. Memorizing verses is good, but knowing their meaning in your life is important too. Knowing Jesus can take a lifetime. It's a lifelong process. Every time one reads the Bible thoughtfully, a new picture of Jesus emerges. Jesus as a son to Mary; Jesus as a son to God; as a friend; Jesus as a carpenter; as an ordinary human; as a God; as a Godly human; as logical; as wise and so on. Different stories paint a new picture of Jesus. So, today let us determine to learn more about Jesus, studying His life, His character and His thoughts, because He is the ideal we strive to become. That is the first s...

  If you had a choice between winning or losing what would you choose? This is a story of Shay, shared by a well-wisher, friend and a social worker. In this story there is no hero, no punchline and yet brings tear to the eyes. This is how it goes: "At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?' The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature prese...

                                                   

Matthew 20: 21 21 “What is it you want?” he asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” Man's natural instinct is to strive for Glory, small or big. The question is who's Glory? Self or God? 1 Corinthians 10:31 says "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God". Yet, some people credit all their successes to their own knowledge and hard work, (much like Nebuchadnezzar and his self-praise regarding Babylon, Daniel 4, 28-37) relegating God's grace to church circles at best, and some not even that. Some even preach the gospel, inspired by themselves and uninspired by God, for their own glory as speakers or knowledgeable people. We thus become idols to ourselves. Romans 12:3 ... According to Paul Tripp in TGC, Typical signs of self glorification (among others), are - Parade in public what should be kept in private. - Be way too self-referencing. - ...

                            The primary purpose of reading the Bible is not to know the Bible but to know God. — James Merritt The goal isn’t to have a Bible collection on your shelf, but a collection of the Bible stored up in yourself. — Wendy Speake, The 40-Day Feast The questions we ask of the Bible impact the wisdom we glean from it. — Tara-Leigh Cobble When asked, ‘What is more important: prayer or reading the Bible?’ I ask, ‘What is more important: breathing in or breathing out?’” — Charles Spurgeon "The Bible redirects my will, cleanses my emotions, enlightens my mind, and quickens my total being". — E Stanley Jones “There are two ways to read Scripture — the way a lawyer reads a will and the way an heir reads a will.” — Alexander Whyte [People] do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself but because it contradicts them. — E. Paul Hovey HAPPY SUNDAY!