Teaching about Salt and Light

When I was a kid, I used to hear a lot: " You are salt and light in this world!" , and I guess that everyone who grew up in church heard of it at least one time. So we all know that, but are we living acording to our identity?

Ephesians 5 :8 says" For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!"

The Sermon on the Mount

This passage shows us exactly what kind of person is blessed and how.

If you realize your need for God, the Kingdom of Heaven is given to you.
If you mourn before God, you will be comforted.
If you are gentle and lowly, the whole earth will belong to you.
If you are hungry and thirsty for justice, you will receive it in full.
If you are merciful, you will be shown mercy.
If your heart is pure, you will see God.
If you work for peace, you will be called the children of God.
If you are persecuted because you live for God, the Kingdom of Heaven is yours.
If you are mocked and persecuted and lied about because you are his followers, a great reward awaits you in heaven. So, Be Happy about it.

I tried applying "you" instead of "they". You will see how amazing we can be blessed.
If we are living for God like that, there must be no sorrow in our lives.

Only a joy and comfort.

The Teacher, the Healer, and the Savior

"Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people" (matthew 4:23).

what impressed me about today's passage was the order in which Matthew lists Jesus's activities as He starts His ministry. notice that although "people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases" (matthew 4:24),

Jesus's primary activities were first and foremost going from place to place "teaching in the synagogues [and] preaching the good news of the kingdom (verse 23). 

In other words, Jesus put a higher priority on the preaching of God's Word and the teaching of the people than on the healing of their diseases (even when the healing was the main reason for His popularity and the "great crowds").

i think this is so important.  we so often come to Jesus when we have a problem.  we desire comfort or relief from our afflictions,

when our most urgent need is not healing from our "diseases and pains", but to be in a right relationship with God. our first duty is not to seek healing, but to repent and "to believe in the One that He has sent" (john 17:3).  our greatest need is forgiveness for our sins.

in the modern-day church, we are often encouraged to come to Jesus for a variety of reasons: failed marriages, substance abuse, physical healing, depression, financial difficulties, broken relationships, a troubled past etc etc.

and rightly so.  Jesus proves in verses 24 and 25 that He has the power to heal "all manner of disease and pain" (verse 24). 

yet whatever problems we may have, as legitimate as they are, they pale in comparison to the fact that we are estranged from God. 

in fact, i wonder if many of our present unhappinesses come from the fact that we are so far away from Him and have been disobedient to what we know to be right and true.

Jesus recognized this.  i think that's why He put priority on His teaching and preaching ministry.  yes, He is the Healer and the Teacher, but first and foremost He is the Savior, and He came to this earth to give us "the one thing that is most needful".

we would do well to remember that our first and foremost need is to repent and "believe the good news" . all manner of healing will surely follow.

The Calling of The First Disciples

Today's passage talks about when Jesus first called out to Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John to come and follow him to become the first of his disciples. As I read this passage, I thought it was amazing how they simply left everything they had and knew and followed him, a complete stranger, without any hesitation. It doesn't say that Jesus had to persuade or bribe them with the "riches of Heaven" or outlandish promises but he simply said to them, "Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men" (vs. 19). And they dropped everything: their fishing nets and left their boats, which was their livelihood, and their families. I mean James and John left their father right there on the boat and I'm sure they all probably had wives and kids who needed them too. But despite all this, they choose to follow Jesus, when he called out to them without any hesitations, doubts, or second thoughts about it.

It takes so much for me to even believe and trust in any of the promises Christ made. Even though I know in my mind that His way is the right way or that He will do what is best for me in the long run, I still have trouble to listening, obeying and following Him and His commands. I wonder if it is my lack of faith or the distractions this world gives that hinders me in following him. What was it about Jesus that made the first disciples choose to immediately leave all the comforts of their lives to follow Him when he called out to them? What would you do if you were put into that situation and Jesus called out to you to come follow him?

I mean He does this everyday through the Word but are we willing to laid down everything, step out of our comfort zones, and choose to walk the path that we all know will be hard but worth it in the end. In all truths, I know I should but there is something that always holds me back from doing this. I don't know what it is but I wish that I could do what the disciples did and follow Jesus without any second thoughts.

Jesus begins his ministry...

...two things stood out for me.

first, the theme of obedience that leads to fullfillment of yet another messianic prophecy (Isaiah 9:1-2). and the second in verse 17, "Jesus began to preach and to say Repent! For the kingdom of Heaven is at hand..." which sounds familiar to what John, who is now in prison has been preaching in order to "prepare the way"... for Jesus!

what does this passage reveal about God?
that when we are obedient and in line with His will, we can be used mightily of God

The tempation of Jesus

This passage is another "familiar" one. I'm sure all of you have read it and heard messages on it multiple times. This time around, the thing that stood out to me the most is the supremacy of God's Word. While Jesus was hungry, He refused to turn stone into bread but leaned on God's Word to overcome the devil's temptation. The passage Jesus quoted, Deut. 8:3, alone declares the supremacy of God's Word. Though food is so essential to human survival, Jesus lifts up God's Word as the supreme means of Life.

Thereafter, with each attack from the devil, Jesus strikes back with God's Word. We see Jesus not only know the Words of God but literally living by them.

The Baptism of Jesus

As I was reading the passages, I realized there must be significant reasons why Jesus' baptism was added in the Bible and what message that God conveys through these passages. By using my reference there are several profound significance of Jesus' baptism .

At Baptism, Jesus was consecrated to God and officially approved by God to carry on His ministry. God's righteous requirement for the Messiah was fully met in Jesus.

At Jesus' baptism, we know that he came as a man although he has no sin thus no need of repentance, yet we humbled himself and became our substitute. Jesus' baptism was also a great example for his followers because baptism itself is public announcement of declaring our faith in Jesus Christ and commitment to live as a follower of Christ. At his baptism, we encountered with Holy Spirit for the first time in New Testament.

We also see all three person of Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in these passages. I have read these verses many times yet it's until now I realized how significant Jesus' baptism was to us because it is the starting point where Holy Spirit equipped Jesus as a fully man and fully divine Messiah to carry on God's redemptive work on this earth.

John the Baptist Prepares the Way: Mathew 3:1-12

This passage begins with John the Baptist preaching in Judea that God's kingdom is near and lives must be changed. Many people gathered to hear his message and confessed their sins and baptized into changed lives.

The part that stood out to me the most were verses 7-10, where the Pharisees and Sadducees come to get baptized because everyone else seemed to be doing it. They may have also wanted a quick fix to be prepared for God's arrival. You could sense John the Baptist's frustration with them when he says:

"You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit with keeping in repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' because God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

It's obvious that John the Baptist could not stand those that try to take advantage of God's grace, as if they deserve it or are entitled to it. He completely calls them out and explains the reality of the situation. I relate much more to the Pharisees and Sadducees in this passage. Not that I feel entitled to enter God's kingdom, but I often think that if I do certain things it will increase my chances of eternal life. For example, doing my QT's everyday or praying every morning on a consistent basis is all I need to do in order to be "safe."

But I know it's more than that. I need a life change that is accordance to God's will. What is His will for me or you? I know it's in His word and that's where I ought to start.

Matthew 2

When I realized which chapter I had to read today, I thought..."Oh the three wise men...easy." After reading it through I just sat there not knowing what I could really write about. The story is well known and obvious, right?

After several readings of the chapter one thing different about this passage that I noticed was looking at the many different instances of people obeying God's command or listening to his warnings whether it be through an angel appearing or a dream.

¹²And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
 ¹³When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."
 ¹⁹After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead."
²²But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, ²³and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. 

Each time they obeyed, there was fulfillment of prophecy and sets everything up for what we know now was God's plan all along. 

This got me thinking about how many times I must have disobeyed God's command or the promptings of the Holy Spirit knowingly or unknowingly and how I may have missed opportunities to further God's will for my life and perhaps even in the larger scheme of things. If just one person in this chapter did not listen to or ignore God's warnings or command, where would we be today?


I know we don't have the angel of the Lord speak to us or show up in our dreams--I can never even remember my dreams and am convinced that I don't regularly dream when I sleep. But I am sure that I have missed opportunities, ignored 'promptings', did not spend time with God in prayer and the reading of his word to even be able to hear him because I am busy doing my own thing. I wonder what the effects of my disobedience have been so far? I'm afraid to know. 
 

Jesus's Notorious Family Ancestry

"A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1)

There are only 4 women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ: Tamar, who seduced her father-in-law Judah and bore twin sons through him; Ruth, a Gentile woman, Rahab, a prostitute, and Uriah's wife . . . well, we all know about Bathsheba, and King David's adultery and murder on account of her.

Why were these women, three of them quite notorious, specifically singled out in a Jewish genealogy where only fathers mattered and the mothers counted for nothing at all?

And why, of all of Jacob's 12 sons, did Jesus Christ descend through the line of Judah through one of those twin boys, and why, of all of David's numerous sons, was Jesus Christ born through the line of Solomon, whose mother was Bathsheba?

Jesus came from such a people as this. His human ancestry includes not only these women but some of the most evil and notorious kings in Israel's history.

Instead of covering up these facts, Matthew makes particular note of them.  I can't think of a very good reason for this except that maybe he was emphasizing how much Jesus the Son of God condescended to become the Son of Man; how much Jesus humiliated Himself in leaving His eternal glory forever to become '"Immanuel", which means "God with us"' (Matthew 1:23). In Jesus's ancestry we see all the best and worst of people--people like you and me.

Jesus, in His humanity, came from such a people as this. And He came to redeem such a people as this.