One day while Jesus is teaching, an expert in religious law asks a question - "Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life." Today we think of eternal life solely as life after death - heaven. But this word 'eternal' was used as a particular QUALITY of life that comes from God. Eternal life
Sometimes, to understand the meaning of a story Jesus told, you have to back up and understand the entire scene. For today’s parable, we can’t just jump into the story without looking at what happened right before it. The situation leading up to the parable is actually the key to understanding why Jesus told it
Luke 13: 6-9, "Then Jesus told this story: 'A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. Finally, he said to his gardener, 'I've waited three years, and there hasn't been a single fig! Cut it
The Bible can be confusing - It can also be so powerful it will radically change your life. There are some books in the Old Testament you can flip to that seem so rigid and so impossible, that a life following God is unattainable. Then there are books in the New Testament filled with overflowing
Matthew 7: 24-27, "Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it is build on bedrock. But anyone who hears my
Luke 18: 9-17 "Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God,
Luke 18: 1-8 "One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. 'There was a judge in a certain city,' he said, 'who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this
This story told by Jesus is quite different. Unlike all his other stories, this story includes specific names. This tells us it's a true story of real people living real lives with a real destiny. These are true events. I'm a documentary junkie. It's the only TV I ever watch. So imagine this story as
This could be one of the most confusing and easily twisted stories Jesus told. Maybe you're like me and you've read it before, said "well that doesn't make sense", and quickly moved on. On the surface this one doesn't make sense. However, if you really seek, you will find a deep message that truly does
Jesus tells us a story of 2 sons. One was the prodigal, and one was not. Of course the prodigal, the one who struggled, the one who messed up is the one who often gets the focus in the story. Afterall, he is the one who was lost and was found. He was the one