The Book of Ruth and the Birth of Christ – Part 2

The Spiritual Environment in the Time of the Judges God’s people Israel, whom He delivered from bondage in Egypt and brought into the promised land, began a struggle with idolatry not long after the death of Joshua. Joshua was faithful to the Lord and without his leadership, Israel began to falter. Israel was surrounded by …

The Book of Ruth and the Birth of Christ – Part 1

Each year around Christmas, I reread the Book of Ruth. To me, it is part of the Christmas story, even though it predates the birth of the Messiah by about 1000 years. It takes place in the time of the Judges, before there was a king in Israel. How does a short, obscure story tucked …

The Parable of the Soils Part 4 – Thorny Soil

Every farmer knows that harvest is reduced by weeds which compete with the crop for sunlight, nutrition, and water. If there is no intervention, weeds can reduce yield by about 28% according to a brief internet search. Soil is well prepared by farmers for planting: its well tilled, fertilized, and has the right amount of …

The Lord’s Prayer and the Kingdom of God Part 4 – Deliverance from Evil

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil Matthew 6:13 My last post was about the parable of the soils, specifically, the rocky soil. The “rocky soil” as explained by Jesus is the believer who has a shallow, superficial faith that cannot hold up under challenges of life. The parable lists three …

The Parable of the Soils Part 2 – The Seed on the Path

Who Do You Seek? As I said in the last post, not many people came to Jesus to seek the meaning of the parable of the soils. To the crowds, Jesus probably sounded like a farmer, not understanding there was profound spiritual meaning behind an agricultural parable. But apparently, 15 people – disciples – came …

Kingdom against kingdom Part 4 – Final Observations

This is the final post about the Gadarene incident. My purpose here is to summarize some key points that I would recommend all believers internalize. Why? Because there is a resurgence of paganism throughout the world along with a suppression of the Word of God – just as prophesied thousands of years ago. The first …

Kingdom against kingdom Part 3 – The Confrontation

This is the third part of a series on what I call the Gadarene incident – the well known account in the gospels of the deliverance of a man from many demons by Jesus Christ. In this post, I focus on the deliverance itself, but there are some bigger picture things happening in this encounter. …

The Parable of the Soils – The Key to Understanding God’s Kingdom – Part 1

The central theme of the scriptures is, arguably, the Kingdom of God. Some would say salvation, the redemption of mankind, is the central theme and I would not disagree, but from a big picture standpoint the whole purpose of God’s plan of redemption gets us back to the way things were supposed to be all …

Kingdom against kingdom Part 1- Our Ongoing Supernatural War

The scriptures are full of the supernatural. The bible is an historical account of supernatural activity of the unseen realm interacting with the natural, physical realm, manifesting in ways people can perceive. But are these biblical accounts just for our edification in Sunday school? Or is there something more we need to understand, something more …

The Woman at the Well – Chance Encounter or Messianic Mission?  Part 4 – The Rift, the Revelation, and the Reconciliation

The rift, the dispute between the Jews and the Samaritans was explained in a previous post. As stated, it was a source of hatred between the Jews and Samaritans. While there were other factors involved, it boiled down to where you worship God. The Jews contended that Jerusalem is the only place for valid worship …