Month: February 2017

  Matthew 20:26-28 Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Since we were children, most of us have had…
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Matthew 20:1 For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard… I am unsure of the origin of it, but we have a saying at our house that expresses an exaggerated sense of unfairness:  I always, you never…  When…
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Matthew 19:29,30 Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. Yesterday, I referenced those who claim that they would do anything…
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Matthew 19:16 A man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” … Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor…” I used to dislike this passage as I thought it meant that I must take a…
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Matthew 19:5,8 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh…  Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. When reading Jesus discussion on divorce, it is easy…
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I am pleased to announce that I am selling tickets for The Fortress Spring Banquet where I will be speaking on March 10th.  For those of you who do not know The Fortress, it is a Christian men’s residential facility here in Willmar, offering transformative programming for those struggling with addiction. Most residents have come out…
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Matthew 18:23 Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants… It is so easy to see when another is living in ridiculous hypocrisy.  I may be blind to my own inconsistencies, but when I see them in others, I am hypersensitive.  Jesus’ parable here…
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Matthew 18:21,22 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Jesus’ teaching was painful.  No one likes forgiving someone over and over…
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Matthew 18:15,16 If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or…
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Matthew 18:12-14 If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray …So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should…
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