Holy Rambo

 Luke 1:34-38 (ESV) And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.   Explanation It is easy to become too familiar with certain Bible stories, and the stories around Jesus’ conception and birth certainly rank in that category. In this passage, Mary isn’t just finding she’s going to have a baby under the most unusual circumstances. God is going to fulfill His greatest prophecy. Israel’s messiah is to be born. She, of course, is confused about the mechanics of the promise, as...

Luke 1:14-17 (NIV) He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”  Explanation In Luke 1, we begin with a brief explanation of why Luke is writing this account of Jesus’ life and ministry and for whom he is writing. He then immediately goes to the story of the conception of one baby who was to be named John. The whole story of this baby’s conception is interesting and a little fun, as Zechariah and Elizabeth, John’s parents are older and have had no children Zechariah is performing service in the temp...

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings..." Hebrews 13:78-9a Day 237 In case you are wondering where the first 236 days went, I have been reading through the Bible with a group of people, well, for 237 days. Part of that process has been to complete a daily journal about something in that reading. I’ve been promising myself for some time that I would blog part of that journal each day. Well, the day to keep that promise has come, and there’s no going back 236 days to catch up, so don’t expect to see them. Explain There is no deep context to this passage, or any other part of Hebrews 13. The author is wrapping up his letter with some quick concluding remarks and advice for his audience. This particular passage comes at the end of an exhortation to imitate those who led them to faith. He lays out a pattern of following those who follow Christ, and to be like them. Jesus doesn’t change, and our path in fol...

  On any given day, you will find people on social media who will proudly proclaim “Jesus never said he was God.” You will hear several different kinds of people with different motivations who make the claim. There is the ill-informed atheist who shouldn’t really care what Jesus did or didn’t claim, since he doesn’t believe in God in the first place. The exvangelical who has “deconstructed” his faith to the point that it is difficult to put back together again. Then there is the Muslim who believes Jesus was a prophet and, as such, could not claim deity. While it is true that Jesus didn’t go around proclaiming Himself to be God with skin on, there are numerous places where he made claims where he equated himself with God, whom he often identified as “Father.” Today’s passage includes one of these. Explanation In this short passage, Jesus arrives in Nazareth (his own city) and encounters a paralytic who had been brought to him. He is moved by the faith of this group, but says ...

  HIGHLIGHT “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34 NASB 1995) EXPLAIN At the top of the hierarchy of needs are food, clothing, and water. Threaten any one of these and your whole life becomes focused on that one thing. It is almost like the same way a physical injury will focus your attention on that pain. Before the highlighted verse, Jesus has run through a series of admonitions to not be divided in our attentions. Our focus is to be on God and His Kingdom and not on the accumulation of wealth. He brings the section to a definite point beginning in Matt. 6:25-34. In a series of illustrations, He displays how mindful God is of not just the needs of all His creation, but how He supplies both sufficiency and beauty. Are you worried about food? Consider the birds. They don’t plant, harvest, or store. Yet they are fed. Worried about clothing? Consider how beautiful the lilies are, even though the...

 Philippians 3:1-11 I love dogs. We had some when I was little. I have one now. They were calm, friendly, happy animals. My current dog, Mister Boots, is a mostly-blind Shih Poo who doesn’t have an aggressive bone in his body. For thirteen years, though, I owned a Jack Russel Terrier who, while mostly wonderful, had a habit of turning on me unanticipatedly and biting me. I have the scars to prove it. I find it interesting that Paul begins this section of Philippians with the warning…” Beware of the dogs., beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision…” (Phil 3:2 NASB) The Daily Devotional Guide goes into some detail about Paul’s use of a dog to describe those people who are false and dangerous. They weren’t seen as beloved pets and family members. They were curs who ate garbage and harassed people. And, what made these people that way? They trusted in their own accomplishments. Their confidence before God was in the things they had done and the kind of people they ha...

Monday, June 28, 2021 Philippians 1-2 Okay, neighbors, I know two whole chapters sounds like a lot to read in a day, but I read at a conversational pace, and this took me a little less than seven minutes. There can be a lot to unpack in these two chapters, but it is worth taking the time to do a quick read-through, then go back and meditate on the ideas that the Holy Spirit speaks to you about. For those following the Gospel Project Daily Study, we’re on page 43, and there is a pretty good setup of quick ideas to ponder but let me add a few observations of my own. Some of Christians’ favorite passages come from these two chapters, but we tend to consider them out of a promise box, or a short devotional. Take the time to understand the context. Paul is writing from prison. While his tone seems to indicate hope that he may be released from prison, I don’t think he really expects to. This especially hits me when in 1:18b-20, Paul writes:  “Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that thro...