Tuesday, 21 February 2012
One of the greats of the church has to be St. Francis of Assisi. As an early monastic, he taught those in the brotherhood to live simply and rely upon the Lord. He believed if it was good enough for Jesus, it was good enough for us. Jesus taught the disciples to go out and share God's ...Read More...
Posted on 02/21/2012 12:32 PM by Grant Ray
Sunday, 19 February 2012
We spend so much time talking about Jesus' and his ministry, we sometimes neglect the people around him. Jesus had almost rock star status and he had crowds around him to prove it. These roadies of Jesus' followed him wherever he went. They had hearts that were in need of his mercy ...Read More...
Posted on 02/19/2012 7:32 PM by Grant Ray
Saturday, 18 February 2012
Jesus talks to Peter about two men who had been forgiven debts -- one of 500 denarii and the other 50. Obviously the one who had owed 500 was more relieved. He said this as a Pharisee was complaining about a sinful woman had come in and had begun to wipe Jesus' feet with her tears, kissing ...Read More...
Posted on 02/18/2012 7:12 PM by Grant Ray
Friday, 17 February 2012
I love building things. I'm not saying I'm good at it, just that I love doing it. My father and grandfathers taught me a lot and I've learned quite a bit over the years since being on my own. One thing I've learned about construction is the importance of the foundation on ...Read More...
Posted on 02/17/2012 6:19 PM by Grant Ray
Thursday, 16 February 2012
I firmly believe that God wants to do some awesome things in the lives of his people. I also believe that he won't do them without his people having a heart of obedience.
Take, for instance, Peter. In Luke 5, Jesus meets up with Peter by the Sea of Galilee (aka Lake Gennesaret) and ...Read More...
Posted on 02/16/2012 11:59 AM by Grant Ray
Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Preachers of many different kinds of churches talk about the anointing of God in a charismatic sort of way. While I firmly believe God can do whatever he wants (after all, he is God), not all of the anointing of God is quite so flashy.
In our text, Jesus had gone into the synagogue on the ...Read More...
Posted on 02/15/2012 11:33 AM by Grant Ray
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
It is said that if you are ever tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the fire department usually uses water! John the Baptist was the one chosen to prepare the way for his cousin, Jesus. We don't really know how close they were as I've blogged before, but when the crowds that ...Read More...
Posted on 02/14/2012 11:15 AM by Grant Ray
Monday, 13 February 2012
Luke 2 is usually thought of as the "Christmas Story". So often we read about the holy birth and gloss over the rest of the chapter, which covers his childhood. That is the part I want to address today.
In verses 41-52 we read the account of when Joseph, Mary, and Jesus had gone ...Read More...
Posted on 02/13/2012 10:18 AM by Grant Ray
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Dr. Luke is an amazing biblical writer. He seems to have a flair for some details that the other writers do not. That's probably because he is a doctor. We know that he is a physician by trade because of Paul's statement in Colossians 4.14. He would have been trained in Greek ...Read More...
Posted on 02/12/2012 11:41 AM by Grant Ray
Saturday, 11 February 2012
Everyone that knows me knows that I startle easily. I have no idea why, but I always have. I can remember getting up on a cold winter morning and standing on the floor vent in our kitchen, only to have my dad come down the hallway and stand perfectly still so that when I turned, there he ...Read More...
Posted on 02/11/2012 5:09 PM by Grant Ray
Thursday, 09 February 2012
If you've ever experienced a dust storm, you know how dark and chaotic they can be. I experienced a dust storm as a teenager. Driving home on a beautiful day, I was half way home when the sky grew, not black initially, but brown. It was a very strange sight. In a matter of ...Read More...
Posted on 02/09/2012 9:26 AM by Grant Ray
Wednesday, 08 February 2012
Gethsemane was one of Jesus' favorite places to get away. Gardens (orchards) were often somewhat solitary and beautiful. Gethsemane is a word that means roughly, "oil press." In other words, this was a place where people squeezed the oil from olives in a press. ...Read More...
Posted on 02/08/2012 11:21 AM by Grant Ray
Tuesday, 07 February 2012
For 10 long years, every morning I would get up and get ready for school, eat my breakfast, and stand at the back door and look across the fields about 3/4 of a mile away to see my school bus on its way to pick me up. This was especially helpful in the winter because I could stay warm until the ...Read More...
Posted on 02/07/2012 10:06 AM by Grant Ray
Monday, 06 February 2012
When asked what the greatest commandments were, Mark 12 describes Jesus' response differently than anywhere else in the Bible. Most places we look at talk about loving the Lord with all of our heart and soul, or with all our heart, soul, and strength. But Mark describes Jesus' response ...Read More...
Posted on 02/06/2012 11:29 PM by Grant Ray
Sunday, 05 February 2012
Ever been to one of those places that exchanges your money? They're all over the United States and, for a fee, they will exchange the form of money you have with another kind for the purpose of paying bills, wiring money to someone far away, ...
Even in Jesus' day there were currency ...Read More...
Posted on 02/05/2012 11:10 PM by Grant Ray
Saturday, 04 February 2012
The account of the blind man named Bartimaeus fascinates me. What is most intriguing is Jesus' statement in Mark 10.52 when he says, "Go, your faith has healed you." Please tell me, how could my faith or your faith heal either one of us?
The answer to that question may lie in a ...Read More...
Posted on 02/04/2012 10:04 PM by Grant Ray
Friday, 03 February 2012
It's no wonder that some give God a bad rap when they read the Bible. There is so much that to the unenlightened would seem to make God out to be brutal. I know when I was a kid, in my B.C. days (i.e., "Before Christian"), passages like Mark 9 scared the bejeebers out of me (is that ...Read More...
Posted on 02/03/2012 9:34 PM by Grant Ray
Thursday, 02 February 2012
It absolutely makes me crazy to hear someone use needing to "find themselves" as an excuse for anything. Jesus tells the disciples in Mark chapter eight, 'Whoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me."
There are a lot of people who choose ...Read More...
Posted on 02/02/2012 4:03 PM by Grant Ray
Wednesday, 01 February 2012
A little girl in my home church in Paris, Illinois wanted to be baptized. So one Sunday evening we gathered as we usually did for Sunday evening service, and as we prepared for the baptism, the little girl froze in fear. She began crying, almost to the point of hysterics and no one could ...Read More...
Posted on 02/01/2012 10:41 PM by Grant Ray
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
There is nothing more defeating to a person than to have no support. If no one believes in you, why bother, right? Jesus was faced with this same issue. Out of the people he should have been closest to, some of them didn't believe in him.
In Mark chapter six, Jesus had returned ...Read More...
Posted on 01/31/2012 12:33 PM by Grant Ray
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