Thoughts From the Bible

  Read Mark 6: 21- 29-   This is a horrible story. This is a story about a king who was responsible to  no one but  ended up making himself responsible to everyone when he granted the request  to have John the Baptist beheaded.  Verse 26 says,  ‘And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her.’  The king could have easily said the request was  obscene and refused to fulfill the request. His pride was of greater interest and concern to him than was decency.  I want to make sure when I am making declarations, that I do not commit to something that could be  taken to extremes and place me in a bad position. I need to learn from this story to not be so prideful that I cannot say I made a mistake in speaking if confronted with something outrageous.  I need to be sensitive to the things  i  say and the things I commit to doing.   Proverbs  6: 1-3...

Read Mark 6: 14-  20-   Herod was a conflicted person. Herod had listened to what John the Baptist was  saying,   and we read that he was not offended while listening to John the Baptist’s message. Verses 19 and 20 say,  ‘And Herodias had a grudge against him and  wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod fear e d John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was  greatly perplexed , and yet he heard him gladly. ’  Herodias hated John the Baptist because John had spoken out against her marrying Herod.  Herod, however, knew John’s message was pure.  We need  to listen to the Holy Spirit when it comes to  messages;  we hear from people who are spreading the Good News so we can differentiate between who to listen to and who to not  listen to. The Holy Spirit will guide us if we listen to Him. We need to be listening intently to our soul and what the Holy Sp...

Read Matthew 2: 19- 23- Joseph was acquainted with fear.  I know there are those who preach we as Christians should not have a spirit of fear and that Satan is the author of fear.  I am certainly not going to debate that idea, but I read in this passage Joseph was afraid to return to Egypt. In verses 22 and 23 we read, “ But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a c ity called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.” Joseph was leading quite a life. First, he wanted to marry a woman who told him she was pregnant but had never had sex with a man. Then an angel appeared to Joseph telling him Mary was tell ing him the truth, and he would be the father of the Messiah. There was the dream telling Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt because of Herod...

Matthew 2:16- 18- Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.  Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”   This passage is a clear picture of the battle between God and Satan.  Those were times of dramatic actions, and the value of life was not always high.   Many small children were killed because of one person’s insecurity.   The lesson I take from these verses in the Bible is to continue to pray for those living in societies today who persecute and kill those who believe in Jesus Christ. We cannot always control those individuals much like Herod who randomly kill people becaus...

Matthew 2: 13- 15- I have had many dreams.  There are those who will tell you we dream every night we sleep; we just may not remember the dreams.  I have never had a dream that caused me to change the direction of my life. In this passage, we have Joseph at a very young age recognizing a dream being from God and he took direction action because the dream. ‘Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise take the child and His mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy Him.” And he rose and took the child and His mother by night and departed to Egypt and rem ained there until t he death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, "Out of Egypt I called my son.” How sensitive are we to the Holy Spirit? Are we listening to hear the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit may be working to get our attention through all the no...

Read Matthew 2: 7- 12 - The dichotomy in this short passage is i nteresting.  Verses 10 through 12 say this, “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.  And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and wor shiped Him. The, opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.” T he joy of seeing Jesus was great for the wise men.  They offered great gifts but rejoiced in seeing Jesus.  This is a good picture for us to etch in ou r minds, the joy we should feel in knowing Jesus. The next thought is no different from our world today.  The wise men knew Herod did not have good intentions toward Jesus and left the country without Herod knowing because they kn ew Jesus was very special . We have events and things that happen in our lives that cause us distress and cause ...

Read Matthew 2: 1- 6- Many of us know the Christmas story, the birth of Jesus, very well. One of the interesting things, is how a person can read the Bible and find something in a passage that may have been read many times before but jumps off the pages as something new.   We know the wise men followed the star that was evident when Jesus was born.  We knew Herod was troubled by all of this.  It was a threat to his position.  In verses 1-3 we read this, “Now after Jesus was born in Bethleh em of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw His start when it rose and have come to worship Him.’ W hen Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” We know the shepherds in the field saw the angels proclaiming Jesus’ birth. We know about the wise men following a new star.  We kne w Herod was concerned.  Did we fully realize al...