If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in …
Christ the Great Reverser
C. S. Lewis’s story The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, imagines a fictional country under the curse of an evil witch. It’s “always winter and never Christmas.” Everything is hopeless until Aslan the noble lion comes to make crooked things straight and rough ways smooth. Aslan represents Jesus, the Son of God, who came to destroy the devil’s works.1 …
Christ’s Way of Mercy
Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. (Proverbs 28:13) From my sermon preached at Iglesia Presbiteriana Oaklawn and other places. This Sermon Outline (handed out in English and Spanish): Christ Delights to Show Mercy Jesus Attaches Conditions to His Mercy We Must Not Conceal Our Sins We Must Confess Our …
Jesus’ Blessing (Part 3)
In Numbers 6:24-26, Jesus commands the priest to pronounce these benefits on His people: Verse 24 The LORD bless you and keep you. Verse 25 The LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. Verse 26 The LORD turn His face toward you and give you peace. When I was younger, I would get homesick for …
Jesus’ Blessing (Part 2)
In Numbers 6:24-26, Jesus commands the priest to pronounce these benefits on His people: Verse 24 The LORD bless you and keep you. Verse 25 The LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. Verse 26 The LORD turn His face toward you and give you peace. I am interpreting these Scriptures in a Christ-centered way, …
Jesus’ Blessing (Part 1)
The Old Testament (”OT”) Book of Numbers is about God (Father, Son, and Spirit) showing His faithfulness to faithless Israel during forty years in the wilderness. Numbers was breathed out by the Spirit through Moses about 1400 BC, but Moses was really writing about Christ in advance of Jesus’ incarnation.1 The New Testament Book of Hebrews describes how Jesus’ high …
The Lord is Kind (Part 3)
You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness. Therefore you did not desert your people, even when they made an image of a calf….Show me the wonders of your great loving-kindness you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes. (Nehemiah 9:17-18; Psalm 17:7) God (Father, …
The Lord is Kind (Part 2)
How priceless is your loving-kindness, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings….Answer me, O LORD, for Your loving-kindness is good; According to the greatness of Your compassion, turn to me. (Psalm 36:7; 69:16) Let’s never forget that God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is love, kindness, and goodness in Himself and in His dealings with human …
The Lord is Kind (Part 1)
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His loving-kindness endures forever. (Psalm 136:1) God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is love, kindness, and goodness in Himself and in His dealings with human beings. Evangelist John Blanchard remind us: The Lord loved us when there was nothing good to be seen in us and nothing good to be said …
Why Is Love the Greatest?
Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13) One of you asked: Why does Paul say that Christian love is the greatest? Here’s my partial answer: 1. Christ-like love is greatest because it gives evidence of our salvation. 1 John 4:7-12 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love …