In the first century, the “heart” was considered to be the center of one’s personality. Consider the following: when obviously referring to the “mind,” the Apostle Paul spoke of “…foolish hearts becoming darkened” (Rom. 1:21); when referring to the “will,” Paul spoke of certain people having “…stubborn and unrepentant hearts”

In the first century, the common response to being wronged was retaliation, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!” But for those who enter the Kingdom where Jesus is King, He expects the response of His followers to be quite different when they face injustice. And

How could anyone find joy in the midst of persecution? It seems like a cruel joke for Jesus to tell not only His disciples, but also the crowd gathered around Him, to rejoice while being persecuted. The answer comes when we consider the fact that persecution for any cause should

In last weeks’ blog we found that there are two Greek words that are important for us to consider if we are going to understand the biblical meaning of “righteousness.” The first word, which we looked at last week, is the verb dikaioo, which means “to be made righteous” or

Jesus admonished the multitudes to seek certain qualities that will, if they possess them, result in a blessed life. Last week, we began to examine His words, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Mt. 5:6). I asked all of us to spend

Jesus wasn’t finished sharing with the crowd about the qualities of a blessed life on the hillside overlooking the sea of Galilee. It was likely on that same hillside some time later in His ministry that Jesus would feed over 5,000 people with just a basket of fish and bread.

Warning! This will be a “tad” longer than most, but I hope it will also be engaging and meaningful for you. So, let’s get down to unpacking the text at hand!!! As Jesus continued to teach the multitudes about the “blessed life,” he moved beyond having a “humble spirit” (Mt.

On that hillside along the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus continued to teach the multitudes about the “blessed life” that each of them could possess. He said that in addition to having a humble spirit as we saw last week (Mt. 5:3), they also needed to “mourn”

As people began to gather on a hillside along the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus began to teach them about many things relating to life in His Kingdom. He wanted to provide them with a blueprint (so to speak), outlining certain ethical standards and personal qualities for

International travel is not new to Peggy and me. Over the past decade, we have traveled to and from China and Thailand several times a year. In addition to “joyfully” enduring the 12-15 hour flights into or out of either Beijing, Hong Kong, or Chiang Mai, we have had to