Living life with steps of faith

Jesus is a great teacher.  He teaches with wisdom and great deeds of power. In Matthew 13 we find him teaching about the kingdom of heaven.   He recognizes that at some point evil will be removed from the earth. Jesus claims to be a prophet. He uses parables to teach so that those who are to hear do hear the message and those who are not to hear remain hard of hearing.  Yet, he wants his disciples to understand so that they can record and pass down his message. He reveals to them the secrets that have been hidden since the beginning of the world. Jesus walks among the people and uses agriculture as an illustrative tool. He teaches the crowds (strangers) along the shoreline, his disciples in a private home, and his family and neighbors in the synagogue. Jesus is part of a family that includes brothers and sisters. Big Idea: Jesus walks among the people teaching and prophesying about the kingdom of heaven. Profound Identity Jesus left the house (Matthew 13:1). J...

  “ So God created mankind in his own image,    in the image of God he created them;    male and female he created them. “ Genesis 1:27 This is the foundation of our identity as human beings – created beings made to reflect the image of God.   As such, we are blessed with authority and abilities that no other living creation possesses.   We create.   We think.   We value relationships.   Our existence is a testimony to God’s existence. And as Christians, this identity becomes the heartbeat of our ethics.   We make decisions and behave in manners that recognize the value of human life. We look at our relatives, our friends, our colleagues, and even the stranger on the street and take the time to see the image of God in each of them.   We know that each and every life is precious, including our own. We also recognize the intimacy with God that this identity engenders.   As ones created in God...

"Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old." - Matthew 13:52

I'm actually creating this blog for the purpose of receiving responses .  I want to hear from the people on the world wide web what they have learned about the differences in the lexicon or dictionary of evangelical and mainline Christians.  From my experience dancing between and in both worlds, I have discovered that often these two practices of Christianity will talk past each other even when they are discussing the same thing.  I think there are times when representatives of each perspective will agree with each other even though they don't really agree.  There are other times where representatives will be having heated arguments and they are saying the same thing, but using different terms.  So, I want to hear what you have heard - how do you translate the conversation? For example.  My evangelical friends may ask, "When did you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?"  While my mainline friends would ask, "When did your faith become...

“That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.   Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach.” Matthew 13:1-2 (NRSV) Do you ever just sit and imagine Scripture?   Visualize the words as if they are taking place right before you.   Imagine yourself as a first-hand witness to the events that are taking place? I sat down to read Matthew 13 today and paused and imagined.   I invite you to imagine with me the first two verses of this chapter. “Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.” Hear the ocean waves lap against the shore.   Smell and taste the salt of the sea as it infiltrates the sky, your clothes, your nostrils.   Do you hear the birds?   Then look, observe, Jesus just stepped out of the home where he spent the night. He takes a step out the door, pauses, and breathes deeply. Scanning the horizon, his eyes lift to the sky in ...

No wonder it is so hard for me to slow down! As I've previously mentioned, I am going through the workbook "The Significant Woman" during my daily devotional time.  Today I'm on the part where one discerns her uniqueness.  I like the approach this book takes, as it not only takes into consideration gifts, skills, training, and passions, but also includes relationships, life experiences, and core values. I've just completed the section on life experiences.  I've done a similar exercise before, but what is interesting about this exercise is that it has you break down your life experiences by identifiable age categories.  I feel like I've lived a long and full life already, but when I look at the break-down of ages I see that I fill only four out of the twelve boxes.  I've accomplished a lot in my first 30 years! What is especially interesting about this break-down is that I see that I've been operating at a very fast pace since 7th grade and th...

I just realized that John 3:16 is Jesus' words about himself prior to his crucifixion and resurrection! Crazy, huh!  Jesus, in a private conversation with Nicodemus, a Pharisee who admits that he and his fellow Pharisee's recognize that Jesus is a teacher sent by God, gives this lengthy testimony to his own identity. - Jesus speaks of what he knows and what he has seen. - Jesus has chosen to speak of earthly things, recognizing that if they can't believe the earthly things it will be difficult for them to believe the heavenly things. - he speaks of the future has if it is already past - "No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven" - he basically identifies himself as "the Son of Man." - he claims that as the people were healed by looking at the snake Moses lifted up in the wilderness, so those who look at him when he is lifted up like the snake will be healed/receive eternal life. and it goes on from there.  Just take a ...