Category Archives: Devotions from the Gospels

Perplexing Questions

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“What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” Matthew 22:42a ESV1

Read Matthew 22:41-46, Mark 12:35-37 & Luke 20:41-44

One Monday morning, in Geography class, we were given a pop quiz. Each of us students was presented with a blank map of the United States and was asked to fill in the names of the states in the correct position. Some students panicked because they were unable to perform the task. But relief spread over these students when they were told that the activity had been only a pretest. The actual test would come on Friday. We were given the week to study with the warning to make the week count because anyone who did not receive a perfect grade on the final test would have to study and retake the test while everyone else was attending the Friday afternoon special assembly.

Since I could quickly identify all of the states on the pretest, I didn’t bother studying. I wasn’t worried about the consequence because I was confident I could easily ace the test. But, to my dismay, when the test day came, I could not for the life of me remember the name of the tiny triangular-shaped state just east of Maryland. Humiliated, I was forced to stay back from the anticipated gathering and retake the test.

My pride in thinking I knew all the answers for this particular test is what got me into trouble. I really did not know what I thought I knew. The Pharisees, a prominent religious group during Jesus’ time on Earth, thought they knew more about the coming Messiah than they really did. It was their pride in their knowledge of Scripture that caused them to have issues with Jesus, the very One they thought they were ready to welcome.

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Two, Yet One

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“On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:40 ESV1

Read Matthew 22:34-40 & Mark 12:28-34

Sometimes two or more items are grouped to make one new entity. A mixture combines different elements, kinds, or quantities to form a unique blend. A merger joins two or more businesses into a single enterprise. An alloy is a composition of two or more metals, or a metal with a nonmetal, making a new substance. This incorporation of two into one is not only found in the physical realm but in the relational and spiritual realms as well. One of the interactions between Jesus and the Pharisees is evidence of this.

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Say It Isn’t So!

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Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?” Mark 12:24 ESV1

Read Matthew 22:23-33, Mark 12:18-27 & Luke 20:27-40

It might be possible for any person to use the Bible to defend any position he/she may hold. For many points of view, one would have to ignore much of the Scriptures to accomplish such a task. But it is a very real possibility as well as a significant danger for any of us, even those who are devoted Christians, to take Scriptures out of context and attempt to bend them to our purposes.

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Faithful Rendering

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Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God, the things that are God’s.” Mark 12:17 ESV1

Read Matthew 22:15-22, Mark 12:13-17 & Luke 20:20-26

To faithfully render something is to accurately represent it. But one can faithfully render something without rendering faithfully at all. To explain this phenomenon, let’s turn to an account recorded in the synoptic Gospels.

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The Answer is Always “Yes!”

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“Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Mark 11:24 ESV1

Read Matthew 21:18-22 & Mark 11:12-14, 20-24

I have been praying since I was a wee, little girl. My relationship with God began with prayer. And over the years, my relationship with God has been sustained by prayer. In my five decades of almost constant prayer, I have had thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of prayers answered. But that doesn’t mean I have never been disappointed in my prayer life. What often baffles me is God’s almost immediate answers to many of my little, insignificant prayers, like helping me find my lost car keys, but in other bigger, more important pleas, like healing my loved one from cancer, He doesn’t seem to hear. This is frustrating especially when God promises over and over in His word that if we will but ask, His answer will be, “Yes.”2 Following is a passage where Jesus made such a claim.

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Holy House Cleaning

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 “Is it not written, ‘My House shall be called a House of Prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” Mark 11:17 ESV1

Read Matthew 21:12-16, Mark 11:15-19 & Luke 19:45-48

Ah! Spring! The birds are chirping. The sun is shining. The days are getting longer. After a long, cold winter, it is time for Spring Cleaning. Now is my chance to open up the windows and air out the house allowing the warm breeze with its earthy smell to penetrate every room. Now, I have the opportunity to move every piece of furniture and clean from behind and under all that has been hiding during the previously dark and dreary season. Now, I can finally wash the windows inside and out removing all the grime that has collected upon them over the last few months. I love that fresh, inviting feeling my home emanates after a thorough cleaning. I’m not the only one who realizes the need for this type of deep cleaning. Jesus was known to do a little Spring Cleaning Himself. One Spring day, just before Passover, …

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The Key to Unlocking the Mystery

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His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about Him and had been done to Him. John 12:16 ESV1

Read Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-40 & John 12:12-19

Have you heard of Escape Rooms? Escape Rooms work like this: people allow themselves to be locked into a room to play a game of solving a series of puzzles within a certain amount of time to accomplish the goal of finding the key that will unlock the door and release them from their self-imposed captivity. The first Escape Room was created in 2007 in Japan out of the desire to participate in a real-life adventure like that found in point-and-click video games. The idea quickly caught on; within the next ten years, Escape Rooms began popping up all over the world. Because of the widespread interest, entrepreneurs have made businesses out of providing Escape Room experiences. Escape Rooms may be a relatively new phenomenon but the desire to solve mysteries and discover solutions to seemingly impossible predicaments is an innate human longing. Indeed, I would say it was placed in us by God Himself.

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What Are You Doing?

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Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas and said to them, “Engage in business until I come.” Luke 19:13 ESV1

Read Luke 19:11-27

What would you do if your employer called you to his/her office and handed you a check equal to about four months of your current salary? What if your boss then explained that he/she was entrusting you with this money for the purpose of conducting business and making a profit while he/she was called away for an undetermined length of time to acquire another business asset? What would you contemplate doing with the money if you knew you would be held accountable for how you put it to use in your boss’s absence? Late in His earthly ministry, this is the exact scenario Jesus presented, in parable form, to His disciples.

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So Right Yet So Wrong

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He said …, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” Luke 16:31 ESV1

Read Luke 16:14-31

Contrary to popular opinion, God doesn’t grade on a scale. If He did, none of us would get a passing grade. Think about it. How many lies must one tell to be a liar? Only one. How many times must one cheat to be a fraud? Just one time. How many times must one steal before becoming a thief? Only once. Likewise, how often must one tell the truth to be completely trustworthy? Every single time. How often does one need to be faithful to be honest? Always. How many times does one have to refrain from taking without permission to be law-abiding? Every possible time. “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it” (James 2:10).

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Shrewd in This Generation

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“For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”  Luke 16:8b ESV1

Read Luke 16:1-13

I was about ready to give up. Though I was sure I was responding to God’s leading when I first ventured out in this direction, now I was not so sure. But hadn’t I prayed about it? Hadn’t it been confirmed by others who were characterized by giving godly advice? Wasn’t my desire to glorify God? Yet, I had been writing my Christian blog for nearly five years and if I looked at the number of followers of my site, I could easily assume that I had the least popular website on the entire internet. Was writing about what God was teaching me as I studied the Bible worth it? Considering the amount of time I spent researching, praying, choosing the most applicable words, and proofreading what I had written, it certainly didn’t seem like it! Especially when I had dozens of essays that hadn’t been read by a single soul. So, I started removing my articles and I was planning on shutting down my site. That was until I read the following parable of Jesus.

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