Episodes
Thursday Nov 26, 2020
Command #55 - Be Born Again
Thursday Nov 26, 2020
Thursday Nov 26, 2020
With so much emphasis in Christendom through the centuries on salvation, it is remarkable that Jesus did not spell out in more detail exactly what salvation is. In his conversation with Nicodemus, in which he said that one must be "born again" to see the kingdom of God, in the single most well-known verse of the Bible, he connects being born again with "belief"; For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Tuesday Nov 24, 2020
Command #54 - Seek No Spiritual Signs
Tuesday Nov 24, 2020
Tuesday Nov 24, 2020
One of the curious anomalies to arise out of the Evangelical and Pentecostal renewal of the late 20th century has been an inordinate obsession with spiritual "signs and wonders" as validating the work of the Holy Spirit. Entire churches, ministries, evangelistic movements, and schools have devoted themselves to the miraculous, and the encouragement of its manifestations to the exclusion of many other aspects of a rounded Christian life of obedience.
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
Command #53 - If Someone Takes From You, Do Not Demand Back What You Have Given
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
There are a variety of Commands that all point in the same direction: Give and expect nothing in return. Some emphasize giving more than has been requested: Go two miles instead of one, when asked for your coat give your cloak as well. The Command before us from Luke 6 contains three messages.
Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
Command #52 - Let Your Light Shine Before Men
Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
We continue to encounter the strange dichotomy in the Lord's words between public and private righteousness. How do we balance, Beware of practicing your piety before men, with, Let your light so shine before men? The two commands appear less than a chapter apart in the Sermon on the Mount, yet seem to instruct us in completely opposite directions.
Thursday Nov 12, 2020
Command #51 - Guard Against Hypocrisy
Thursday Nov 12, 2020
Thursday Nov 12, 2020
Note that Jesus does not directly command Don't be a hypocrite. Is the reason perhaps because, in truth, to a degree we cannot help being hypocrites. We are all sinners, and thus hypocrites, together. It is part of the human condition.
Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
Command #50 - Honor Your Father and Mother
Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
None of the Ten Commandments has been so diminished of its power by our modern culture more than honor to one's parents. Independence is the god of our age. The cancer that has infected our time is not merely anti-family, as serious as that threat is. It goes far deeper.
Thursday Nov 05, 2020
Command #49 - Do Not Exalt Yourself
Thursday Nov 05, 2020
Thursday Nov 05, 2020
After passing through Galilee and returning home to Capernaum, Jesus posed a very pointed question to the disciples: "What were you discussing on the way?" Their response was that of a group of children caught red-handed with their hands in the cookie jar. Mark merely says, "They were silent; for on the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest." Jesus had nailed them, and they knew it.
Tuesday Nov 03, 2020
Command #48 - Do Good To Those Who Hate You
Tuesday Nov 03, 2020
Tuesday Nov 03, 2020
Jesus does not even leave it at Rejoice when you are persecuted and Love and pray for your enemies. He goes further still. The three-tiered progression of response to ill-treatment in Luke 6 is incredible and completely impractical. The program Jesus outlines is impossible by any earthly standards.