Thoughts From the Bible

  Read Luke 23: 26- 32 - In verse 28 we hear Jesus say this, ‘(28) B ut J esus turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. (29) For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren wombs that never bore , and breasts which never nursed.’”’ Jesus, in the middle of His torment, is letting those women around Him know there will be times when living in the world will create great turmoil and stress. Satan is working hard to convince people to not follow Jesus, and all the turmoil will end. We know that will not happen. This struggle between Jesus Christ and Satan is for the souls of men and much of the problems we see in our world today are because of this conflict Jesus knew would occur. Jesus was continuing to let us all know things we would be able to refer to see His Deity .   Proverbs 17:14- The beginning of strife is like releasing water; therefore, stop contention before ...

Read Luke 4: 9-13-  We see two things in this short passage of Luke. Verses 12 and 13 says, “And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘It has been said, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.”’” (13) Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.”  We need to remember that Satan is a lesser being. He is also a disrespectful and angry being. Jesus was exerting His rightful authority in rebuking Satan when He states God should not be slighted. This is the height of hatred and disrespect.  The second item is that Satan left until another time. We need to understand Satan will never stop until Jesus Christ returns and wins the spiritual battle once and for all. We may rebuke Satan when he tempts us and he may leave us for a time, but he will return. We need to realize this and prepare ourselves for this. This is a spiritual battle for us all that will not end until Jesus Christ returns and casts Satan away.  Proverbs 12: 9- Bette...

Read Luke 4: 5-8-  In these verses we see Satan tempting Jesus with power, authority, control and celebrity. Verse 5 says, “Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  (6) And the devil said to Him, ‘All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.’”  These are things so many people strive for in this life. They want power and authority. They want celebrity and all the money and fame. These traits drive so many people. We see Satan using those things at temptations. We should take a lesson from this and know those traits could be detrimental if not carefully considered.  The other lesson we must take with us is how Jesus deflected Satan’s overture. Verse 8 says, “And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Hm only you shall serve.’” Jesus gives us scri...

Luke 4: 3-4-  Jesus is now in a weakened physical condition after 40 days in the wilderness and fasting. Satan then appears to tempt Him. We see in verse three, ‘And the devil said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”’ We need to understand this is one of the many ways Satan works. When we are at our weakest points, Satan will jump in to get us to fail in our commitment to Christ. He looks for our weaknesses.  Then we see Jesus respond in a weakened condition, ‘ But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God.’”’ Jesus fought Satan with the word of God.  Satan knew Jesus was hungry and physically needed food so that is where the temptation came. We need to spend time understanding our weaknesses and work to guard against Satan working to take advantage of them. We need to follow Jesus’ example and know the word of God so in situations of conflict we can rely on His Word, and w...

Read Luke 2:1-14 In this chapter we see the birth of Jesus. In verse 11 we read, “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” An angel appeared to shepherds. Those same angels then started to proclaim in verse 14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!”   For many years, people have wondered why God chose to bring Jesus into the world the way he did. Why didn’t millions of people see the angels? Why weren’t the religious leaders visited by angels about the arrival of the Messiah? God had a plan. We know what the plan was and how it was realized with Jesus being crucified and being raised from the dead. For me, this points to God’s overall plan for this world and Him allowing people to have a freewill.  We have three forces in our world, the power of God, the opposition of Satan, and man’s freewill. God allowed us to be able to look at the life of Jesus, to the history of God in the world and then d...

Mark 15: 15- 26-   This is the  crucifixion  of Jesus. Mark does us somewhat of a favor by not writing the gory details of the reality of the  situation .  We also see humiliation. Verses 24, 25 and 26 we read,  ‘ (24) And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots for them  to   determine  what every man should take. (25) Now it was the  third  hour, and they crucified Him. (26) And the inscription of His accusation was writte n above, “The King of the Jews”.’  Not only did Jesus pay a deep physical price and then was killed,  but the people also  surrounding the event worked to humiliate Jesus was much  as they could. This highlights the grace Jesus extends to us and this is a lesson for us. We should work to avoid humiliating people beca use of the demeaning nature of the action. Humiliating others feeds directly into what Satan wants to see. We need to show more respect for others and av...

Read Matthew 26: 36- 42-   Jesus knew what was going to happen to Him. His disciples thought they knew but they lacked the intensity of knowledge that Jesus  p ossessed . The words to Peter were  very interesting  and a lesson for me for today.  Verses 40 and 41 say,  ‘And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And  he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with  me  one hour? Watch and pray that you may not  enter into  temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”’   I know I need to be prepared to stand for Christ at any  time,  but I also need to understand there will be temptations in my way.  Jesus said to watch and pray. I need to be alert to what is happening around  me,  so I am not blindsided by temptation and fall when I should be standing tall. I need to pray so  I will be actively listening for the  H oly Spirit  to alert me when Satan is worki...

Read Matthew 18: 7- 9- Our world is full of temptations. There are more temptations in our world t oday than that probably ever before in history. Jesus is wanting us to see we all have a responsi bility to work to not succumb to temptation. Jesus wants to see us strengthen our weaknesses. As we review the Bible and the principles we learn , we develop a strong sense of what is right and what is wrong. As we grow and learn, we can recognize temptation.  In verse 7, Jesus says this, “Woe to the world for temptation to sin! For it is necessary that temptations, come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes .” The person who authors these temptations will not be welcomed by Christ. We have a responsibility to resist temptation but those who present the temptations will feel the wrath of God. We need to realize Satan wants to see us fail and Jesus is telling us we need to do whatever is necessary to resist Satan so we can present a better testimony of Jesus Christ.  ...

Read Matthew 8: 5- 13- This part of this passage of Matthew is telling me something that many are wanting to ignore today. So many people do not believe in Satan and do not believe in Hell as literal places. In this short passage, Jesus mentions a difference that will happen. In verses 11 and 12 Jesus says, “ I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gn ashing of teeth. ” I understand why people want to ignore God’s judgment on our lives. That is a very negative thought, and we have many preaching “God is love and will never punish people ”. That is not what Jesus is pointing to in this passage. There will be a difference, and we need to understand that. God desires we all accept His Son, but humans do have a choice whether to follow Jesus or not.

Matthew 6:22-23- The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light., but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! I really think Jesus knew things were going to get harder and harder in the future when it comes to the topic of what we see and what we think about. There were obviously temptations and negative but enticing things when He walked the earth. Our world today has those things in abundance and it is at our fingertips in our cell phones. We can see anything we want and we can read anything we want. Here’s the real deal, we can dwell on anything we want. Jesus is warning us to choose the good and the right over the bad.  We need to work at controlling what we let into our minds and that may require it becoming a matter of prayer for us. Not controlling it can change us as a person. Sometimes control for us may mean complete abstinence. Satan ...

Read Matthew 5:27- 30 - Jesus was preaching to people over two thousand years ago. This specific topic has not changed in those two thousand years. In our society today, so many problems are caused by greed.   Lust is also an overriding problem in our society as evidenced by the sexual nature of entertainment and advertising and social media. Jesus tells us in verses 27 and 28, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shal l not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman (or a man) with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Acting is one thing, wanting to act is no different as Jesus teaches in this passage. Jesus is laying down basics of Christian beliefs but also Christian behavior. He is expecting t hose who believe in Him to exercise restraint not only in our actions but in disciplining our hearts and our thoughts. Satan has used the sexual nature of people’s lives to distract people from a sexually pure life, and w...

Read Matthew 4: 5- 11- Jesus is in a weakened physical state and Satan continues to tempt him. We need to know Satan will do the same to us.  He will tempt us and attack when we are weak so He can win in our lives and point to our failures hoping our faith in God will weaken. Again, we see Jesus living out a lesson we need to learn. In verse 10, ‘Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “’You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.’” ’   We need to guard very carefully who w e actually serve but we also need to be bold, even in our weakness, and tell Satan to who we serve.  We also need to be bold enough to tell Satan to leav e in the name of Jesus. Jesus will continue preserve us in our battles against Satan just as God preserved Jesus.

Read Matthew 4: 1- 4- We have heard preached and taught how Jesus was tempted greatly by Satan before Jesus’ ministry began. Jesus was preparing Himself to begin His ministry by fasting and prayer.  Satan knew who he was confronting wh en he told Jesus to turn the stones into bread.  I think this may have been a desperate attempt by Satan to find a weakness in Jesus when Jesus was at His physical weakest. We need to learn how to stay strong in the face of the temptation s Satan brings against us and Jesus tells us how to do this.  In verse four Jesus says this , ‘ But He answered, “it is written , “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”’   This is a big reason why we as Christians must continue to read and study the Bible but more than just that, we need to meditate on what we read.  We need to give time to thinking about what we read and how we can apply the principles to our lives.  Yes, it takes time ...

Read Revelation 22: 1- 5- During the Tribulation, Satan will be pushing to terrify people into following him and ruining a ny chances of them to leave forever with God.  Satan will be requiring people to take his mark, a form of the number 666, and this will denote his ownership of these people.   See what is written in verses 4 and 5 , “They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.  And night will be no more.  They will need no light or lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” God will show His place in the hearts of His followers with His name on our foreheads. We have spoken of the glory of God serving to light the world but to know the God of the universe considers us His own children is a thought we should carry with us each day.  Again, His love for us is shown daily.

Read Revelation 20: 7- 10 - I enjoy reading and I enjoy reading books without knowing what the story is about at the beginning.  Never, do I ever, read the end of the book first to see how the story ends.  God has provided us with direction for our lives through the Bible. God has also shown us how this whole story of mankind actually ends . In verse 9 we read this, “ and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. ” Satan defied God.  Satan has worked to destroy God’s creation, and all the people God created.  Even after being bound for almost 1000 years, God will still allow men and women a chance to choose God over Satan.  Unbelievably, there will be those who will still side with Satan, even though we know how this story ends. Satan’s end is known. We need to understand Satan has only our destruction in mind. God has his...

Revelation 20: 4- 6- “Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed.  Also, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.  The rest o f the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended .   This is the first r esurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with Him for a thousand years.”   As Satan reigns in the Tribulation period, it will take great courage for those to deny him and be committed to God.  God’s plan rewards those courageous people by giving them a special place in His Kingdom. God’s great plan for the peo...