God told Joshua that he would be successful in everything he did as long as he was careful to obey all the instructions that Moses gave. Also, he was not to deviate from them. It was a pretty simple formula: study the Book of Instruction continually and meditate on it day and night.
Jesus told Mary Magdaline not to cling to Him. He had to ascend to the Father in order to send the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we want to “cling to Jesus” – that is hold Him with us right where we are. However, Jesus has other plans and He wants to go about His work. When we try to keep Him where we are, we limit Him and prevent Him from working in our lives as He wants to. When we do that, we are in control and not Him and we end up missing out on all sorts of blessings. The reason being that we are not following the leading of the Spirit and fulfilling God’s will.
Jesus predicted when and where He would die, how He would be treated, and by whom. He also predicted that He would rise again and when. And then what He predicted on Palm Sunday came true 40 years later. How could Jesus know all this and do all that He did? He must have been special, even divine.
John the Baptist admitted that he was not the Messiah. He wasn’t known for performing miracles, and his baptism was only a water baptism. So what did Jesus mean when He said, “Of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist?” And, what did Jesus mean when He said, “Yet even the least person in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he (John) is.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
It’s difficult for English readers today to fully grasp the impact that some of Jesus’ words had on His Jewish listeners. The Jews knew that God spoke the world into existence. When Jesus said “Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away,” was He saying that He is more powerful than God?
Both John the Baptist and Jesus preached that people must repent in order to enter into heaven. But what exactly is repentance? Most people think it is a change in behavior. Actually, to repent means to change one’s thinking.
One of the questions that ministers and theologians are often asked is “What is the unforgivable sin?” Many people live in fear that they may have accidentally committed the “unforgivable sin”.
Jesus is the Light, and everyone who lives by the truth comes into the Light. All who are in the Light are called to shine before the world so that God will be praised.
We have a tendency to pick and choose which commandments we will honor and which ones we will ignore. But Jesus was clear, those who accept His commandments and obey them are the ones who truly love Him.
