My Online Faith Journal

     One thing that I have noticed over the last 14 years of ministry and counseling work is that some people will use very rosy and intimate language about their relationship with God.  This language sometimes centers on verses and ideas about what God can give to us and his promises.  Not all of that is bad.  We do need to remember his promises and cling to them.  What concerns me is when these verses are mentioned, but the ones that mentions our response to Him, how we are to pick up our cross and follow Him, are neglected.        What this seems to come down to is that some people feel as though they can ask God anything, at any time and He is obligated to give to them.  Almost like a divine waiter who comes when the bell is rung or when you clap your hands.  It is a roll reversal that is really astonishing in its arrogance.  That isn't the way the writers of the Bible saw themselves.  You notice when Peter and Paul write of themselves, yes, they call themselves apostles, but

     In church today, the pastor mentioned Gabriel's visit to Mary when he told her that she would bear a child and that would be Jesus.  One of the first things that Mary says is "How will this be" and then she goes on to say "since I am a virgin." Luke 1:34.   We usually only think of this question from Mary in terms of the physical possibility of her being pregnant, but the pastor mentioned that he thinks that she meant more than that.       Mary is another example of how God's choices are not like ours.  Mary was not in a palace or famous.  She was not wealthy or in a position of influence.  She didn't have servants under her or a name that people would recognize.  She was a teenager, who was to be married to Joseph.  Not just a teenager, but a poor teenager, from a family from a back water town in Galilee, known by nobody, having no real influence with anyone of importance.  I doubt that most of us would have given a thought to giving Mary this re

 Jesus tells 8 parables in Matthew 13 about the Kingdom of God.  This one is the parable of the Mustard seed.   He tells us that the kingdom is like a man who takes this small seed and plants it and it becomes a large tree.  The Mustard Scrub would become about 10 feet tall in the land of Israel.  All sorts of birds would be able to enjoy its shade.  The birds are symbolic of different people groups.  This is simliar to what it says in Ezekiel 17:23 where the birds of the air (symbolic of the Gentiles) join and enjoy the kingdom.     Jesus is emphasizing that the kingdom started small.  It started with Jesus coming and his calling the 12 apostles to him.  Often, the apostles faith was weak Matthew 26:41. Often they were not able to perform miracles and doubted him to the point that even Peter rebukes Jesus for speaking about the cross.  Even on the night that he is betrayed by Judas Peter is denying he even knows him.  It did not appear to have very promising beginnings with many in J