Category Archives: Gospel of Matthew

2021, An Assignment, Calendar Reading Notes from The WORD, Gospel of John, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Matthew, Questions

An Assignment

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I have an assignment for you if you choose to accept it.

Matthew 20: 20-23

I read in Matthew 20 that James and John along with their mother came to JESUS to ask of Him a favor. The favor was that James and John could sit one on His right and the other on His left when He set up His kingdom. 

Mark 10:35-45 also gives an account of this happening. 
Forgive me if I am wrong but from this, I see the Disciples were oh so human. Yeshua is about to be crucified for the sins of the world, including theirs, and they have missed it. At this time James and John are thinking politics, power, getting out from under Roman rule, they are thinking Yeshua would soon be setting up His Rule, His Kingdom and they wanted in on it. Do you see what I mean? 

As you read Matthew 20:20-23, look what Yeshua tells them. 
What does He tell them about His Kingdom and greatness in His Kingdom?

NOW.
John 19:25-27
Where is John? 
Where are the other 10?

Your assignment: What could have happened to John between the Matthew 20 encounter and the John 19 happening?  How different was he, do you think? 

We were meant for this,

2021, Gospel of Matthew, Questions

Not Free

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Perhaps if we stopped telling People JESUS is free they’d be more interested.

A certified, professional Counselor told me decades ago his profession had discovered that people only appreciate and value those things in which they have an investment. In other words, if it’s free, who cares?!

JESUS is costly you know.

Ultimately costly.

HE will cost you your well-deserved place in hell,
your pride,
your anger,
your hate,
your failures,
your miseries,
your prejudices,
your blindness,
your unforgiveness,
your unbelief,
everything that has ever hurt you in your life or ever shall.
HE will cost you; yes, a covenant with HIM will cost you every bit of that! 

And few are willing to pay the price.

Free?
No.
JESUS is not free.

HE is the Pearl of Great Price and if you ever see HIM, you will be willing, thrilled, ready, and overjoyed to lay down His Price.

The question is are you willing to look until you see?

2021, For What It's Worth To You, Gospel of Matthew, It's a Bonus Post, Questions, Romans, Salvation

Simple

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This is an unusual post for me.
It is not directed at my brothers and sisters; it is offered to those who have made that common accusation, that GOD sends people to hell.

David penned in Psalm 51

7 (5) True, I was born guilty,
was a sinner from the moment my mother conceived me. source

David is acknowledging here what is the truth. 
We are born sinners. 
What does that mean exactly?

That we each and every one of us are sinners — there is NONE righteous, no not one. (Romans 3:10)

It means we, each of us, are born on the road to hell.
Moreover, through the course of our lives, GOD intervenes, He puts up roadblocks, He brings people into our lives with the Good News of the Gospel that JESUS is alive to save us and desires to save us; He arranges for us to hear songs, sermons, see Scripture Passages – all these things come into our lives. And we even have creation itself to witness to us that we have a Creator. Creation invites us to look and see GOD.

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,  source

Warning signs.
Flashing Lights.
Roadblocks. 
The Execution Stake
An Empty Tomb!

And people ignore them, go around them, jump over them, and one day they die.
They die on that road to hell. It is their destination; it is the road they refused all their life to get off of.
The Road that JESUS came and met them on and they said, “no, thank You.”

At our deaths, GOD has no choice; His holiness, His love, His mercy, His Justice MUST honor our decisions.

Hell is the place HE tried to keep you out of BUT you refused. 
Hell was not made for YOU but it will open for you if you insist. (See Matthew 25:41)

It’s as simple as that.