Author: Norm

This week (Jun 2-Jun 8, 2025) I am listening with Jesus through Matthew 24. Unfortunately He will continue to give words of warning and challenge. Here he speaks about what is to come. Its direct reference is to the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in 70 AD. But that event also serves as a symbolic pattern…

PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Matthew 23:37-39 What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage? “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” (Matthew 23:37)Jesus has been strongly challenging and warning the religious leaders.Here we see the heart…

PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Matthew 23:33-36 What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage? “You snakes… how will you escape being condemned to gehenna?” (Matthew 23:33)Referring to snakes and vipers, he compares them to the serpent in the garden.They are deceivers, they mislead and ruin God’s world and family.They rob people of life,…

PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Matthew 23:29-32 What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage? “You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.” (Matthew 23:29)Who are the heroes of the faith that I admire?I recently read about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and I was inspired.I also felt the same way about…

PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Matthew 23:27-28 What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage? “You are like whitewashed tombs…” (Matthew 23:27)The religious leaders were devoted to purity, to being ‘clean’ before God.All of their rules and rituals were directed toward this.Their response to sinners was a direct result of their zeal for being…

PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Matthew 23:25-26 What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage? “First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.” (Matthew 23:26)Jesus stresses that inward integrity is what matters most.Would you want to drive on a bridge that only looked solid?Too often…

PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Matthew 23:23-24 What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage? “The more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.” (Matthew 23:23)Are some parts of the law more important than others?There is confusion because we conflate God’s Law with the Law of Moses.God’s Law is the eternal Law of…

This week (May 26-Jun 1, 2025) I am continuing to focus on Matthew 23. Jesus is really coming down hard on the religious leaders… hypocritical, loveless shepherds who ought to be caring for the sheep. What stands out to me is that it is the religious people – those who should know better – who are…

PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Matthew 23:16-22 What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage? “Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?” (Matthew 23:17)Jesus challenges the religious leaders for misplaced values.They are focused on the things themselves, and not on their meaning.It’s not the gold of the temple,…

PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Matthew 23:13-15 What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage? “You make them twice as much a child of Gehenna as you are.” (v.15)God comes through Jesus to make us children of ‘heaven’.That is, to once again live WITH, LIKE and FOR God as image-bearers.This has always been…