Thoughts From the Bible

  Luke 19: 41- 44 -  Jesus prayed for the people of Jerusalem in this passage of scripture. He prayed for the people, and He prayed for the city of itself. It was a prophetic prayer .  Verses 41 and 42 say, (41) Now as he drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, (42) saying, "If you had known, even you, es pecially in this your day, the things that make for your pence! But now they are hidden from your eyes."   Time would show Jesus' words in these verses to be true. It also shows how Jesus prayed for the peace of Jerusalem as we should pray. It also shows how we should pray for our cities and the people who live in those cities. This larger, more general type of prayer is still something we should not lose sight of, praying for the movement of the Holy Spirit in people in order to invite the spirit of God into a spec ific area.    Proverbs 16:9 - A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

Read Luke 9: 12- 17-   Why d id Jesus bless the food they had for the people. In this passage in Luke, Jesus blessed the food t hey were about to eat. Verse 16 and 17 says, “Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven. He blessed and broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. (17) So, they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.”   There was a need for food. Jesus blessed what they had and the need was met. Jesus also looked to heaven to simply thank God for giving them a way to meet the need. Many have a quick prayer before they eat, and this may be one example in the Bible for doing this, but we need to personalize it a little more and realize we have an oppo rtunity to thank God for some of our basic needs that He enables us to have. Yes, this was an opportunity for Jesus to show the people who He is. He also respected God and wanted to thank Him for what He was ...

Read Luke 8: 22- 25 -  The disciples had already seen Jesus perform many miracles. They had also been with Him as He instructed the people on how they should live their lives. In spite of the time they had spent with Jesus, when the storm rose, they ran to Him frightened of the storm. Jesus used the situation to teach them a quick lesson.  In verse 25, Jesus said, But He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him?   Yes, the disciples realized with even greater certainty that Jesus was the Son of God however, did they spend time listening to the very short sentence Jesus said? Jesus said, “Where is your faith?” H e expected the disciples to see their situation and pray and believe that God Almighty would protect them. The disciples had not learned they need to pray and believe God will intervene. We need to learn this lesson, too. When e...

Read Luke 6:12-19-  (17) And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases.  In this passage of Luke, we see multitudes of people were gathering to listen to Jesus and to be healed of their physical problems. This made the religious leaders nervous at the time. People were following Jesus and listening to Him. Jesus was teaching and showing the people how to be better servants of God. He did this after He prepared for this gathering. In verse 12 it says, "(12) Now it came to pass in those days that he went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God."  Jesus was modeling the behavior He wants us to use in our daily lives. Jesus prepared Himself through prayer even though He was the Son of God. We need to do the same. Proverbs 11:30- The fruit of the righteous ...

Read Luke 5:12-16-  Jesus healed a man of leprosy. People were amazed but Jesus was not looking for publicity. Jesus continued to teach the people, and the Bible say great crowds followed Him. What did Jesus do? Verse 16 says “But He would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”  This is another lesson from Jesus and how He actually lived. Too many people are still all caught up in what the world thinks. Jesus prayed and He did not pray in public so that everyone could see. This is a lesson for us and how we should live each day.  Proverbs 12:20- Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy.

Luke 4:38-44- (40) "When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him, and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them." We will see Jesus heal people many times in the four gospels. Jesus has instructed us to pray for the sick and those in needs.  Many times, we pray for the sick and those people die. We do not understand God's ways. We do not always understand God's will in different situations. We see people suffer and we wonder why God is allowing this to happen. Our jobs is to pray for them. We want to pray they are healed but that does not always happen. We are to pray for those people even if that means we are praying for some sense of calm and peace as these people battle with sickness. We are to have faith God will minister to those people and help them regardless of what we want the outcome to be. This is one of those situations where our faith in God is paramount knowing His plan is great.  P...

Read Mark 14: 32- 42-   Jesus knew all too well what would be happening in the next few hours. Jesus prayed in verse 36, ‘ A nd He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”’   This prayer and this situation can plunge us into some d eep theological conversations about Jesus, the Son of God, and God, the Father but them being one. Knowing that Jesus knew what his immediate future held, I see the humanity of Jesus Christ in that he prayed this situa tion might not happen. He knew His  purpose,  yet He also knew the trauma  that  awaited Him.  Despite  knowing the trials  He was facing, He prayed God’s will be done.  I need to be that focused on God’s hand in my life that I can consistently pray God’s will in all that is happening in my life regardless of the difficulty I may face .     P roverbs 10: 32-   The lips of  the  ri...

Read M ark 11: 20 -24-   Jesus is continuing to teach the disciples and providing guidance on our intents in prayer. Verses 23 and 24 speak loudly to  connecting  our faith and  our prayers.  (23)  “ For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not  doubt in  his heart, but believes that those things he say s will be done, he will have whatever he says. (24)  Therefore,  I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will   have them.”   I know these two verses can open up  to  much debate about faith and answered prayers and God’s will in our lives.  We can get many opinions about the dynamics of prayer,  faith  and God’s will but what is my part in this  situation.  I feel I  need to make sure I do not over-complicate the situation and do my part. I need to pray for those in need ...

Read M ark 4: 1 0- 15-  Jesus was teaching the disciples about parables. While giving meaning to the parable in verses 1 through 10, some did not understand. Jesus wanted those who chose to believe in Him to be able to  understand the parables so they could apply the meanings to their lives.  Verse 13 through 15 say,  ‘And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable?  How then  will you understand the parables? The  sower  sows the word. And these are the ones along the path, where the word is   sown; when they hear,  Stan  immediately   comes and takes  away the  word  that is sown in them.”’   We have people in the   world today who chose to readily ignore Jesus  Christ,  and anything associated with Him.  They fight to have Jesus  excluded from society in every way they can.  Jesus is telling us Satan has a firm grip on those individuals and will fight to  maint...

Read Mark 1: 35 -45-   Although Jesus knew who He was, He knew as a human being, He needed to pray . The disciples found Him praying. He was setting an example for them to follow and setting an example for us to follow. Jesus was there to make the world at that time to know what God  was al l  about but He still knew He needed to pray prior to presenting His gospel .   Jesus also still saw the people and what their needs were.  In verses 43, 44, 45 we read this,  ‘And  Jesus  sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and said to  him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” But he went out and began to talk freely about it , and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to Him from every quarter.’   Jesus was there for the people to see who ...

Read Matthew 26:  36-42-   So   much of what Jesus did was to set an example for us to follow. In verses 38 and 39, He gave us another example of what we need to do in our lives,  ‘Then He said to the m, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here and watch with me.” And going a little farther He fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”’   Jesus was about to experience something very awful. He prayed. His followers would scatter. He prayed.  Jesus knew this was why He was on earth. He prayed. Jesus  made time  to pray. Regardless of what was swirling around Him, He prayed.  That is the example He left for us. We should be praying whether we are going through good or  bad times . We need to take His example and graft it into our lives so we can stay  sensitive to the Holy Spirit and know God will provide what we will be nee...

M atthew 21: 12- 13-   ‘And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the money-changes and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to the, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ b ut you make it a den of robbers.”’  People were making money on the  whole process  of sacrificing animals for the sins of the people but  there may be another lesson to be learned from Jesus acts in this passage. Our society is getting  more and more  informal and relaxed. Some people do not have any filters on what they say, where they say it and how loud t hey say things.   We need to be aware of where we  are,  and we need to continue to be respectful of places built and designed to worship God.  Distractions of various kinds can easily cause people to not focus on  God,  and we need to be disciplined and respectful of these places. Yes, there can...

Matthew 18: 18- 20- As I read through the Bible and find ways I can improve my walk with Jesus, this is one verse that strikes me as one with spirit ual power. Verses 18 through 20 says, “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where tw o or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” I need to better understand Jesus is giving us spiritual tools and principles to use in our daily lives. This is one of those powerful tools. When we bind together, even two or three of us, Jesus will respect the intents of our hearts and work on our behalf. We cannot predict what God’s will is in a given situation all the time, but we can know He will be working on our behalf .   W hen we bind together with other Christians , Jesus will honor our prayers.