“If you search for good, you will find it; but if you search for evil, it will find you!” Proverbs 11:27 We always find what we’re looking for. If we’re looking for someone to offend us, we’ll find it. If we’re looking for someone to fail us, we won’t have to wait long. If we’re […]
Category Archives: God’s Grace
Words are doubled in scripture to stress importance. When Jesus said “truly, truly” before a statement, He was stressing it. He was saying, “pay close attention this is important” When Pilate appeals to the bloodthirsty mob to release Jesus, Luke records “they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” “The double cry reflected intensity,” (1). Jesus emphasized […]
At Cana the water became wine. At the Last Supper the wine became blood. At Calvary the blood became redemption. At the tomb the redemption became re-creation. At the second coming the re-creation will become restoration.
Jesus spent 3.5 years doing things for others. He healed, preached, taught, even fed people. The crowds were always great because the need was great. But at Gethsemane everything changed. Overnight Jesus went from doing things for others, to having things done to Him. Betrayed, kissed, arrested, passed around, beaten, humiliated, and finally killed. And […]
John 13:8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” We have this fallen inclination, like Peter, to try and clean ourselves up before coming to Jesus to clean us. We think: “I better stop doing that, and start doing this.” Which […]
Luke 15:13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.” It is easy for some to disassociate themselves from the prodigal story. And yet if we looked just a little below the surface we would find we […]
We were made to love. Love God, our spouses, our children, our community—everyone. But sin changed everything. What God created to be a blissful experience of mutual trust became a lifetime of suspicion and jealousy. Adam and Eve’s lack of trust is inherited by their children. Culminating in Cain’s jealousy, and eventual murder, of his […]
Luke 23:46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. Jesus did not say this because his spirit was about to become some disembodied vapor leaving His body on it’s way to heaven. Ecclesiastes 9:5 is clear, “for […]
Ezekiel 43:4–5 As the glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple. When Ezekiel was given a vision of a new temple. His heart must’ve skipped a beat. […]
Amos 8:11 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. Whether we want to admit it or not preaching is a vital element to the life, and […]
Richie Halversen 