SCRIPTURE: Luke 9:28-36 “He did not know what he was saying.” (Luke 9:33) Jesus transformed, Moses and Elijah appearing, God’s voice heard in the glory cloud… Why does this line jump out at me today? Peter was thinking about setting up a shrine, for people to come and worship Jesus, Moses and Elijah (that is what people do when…
Author: Norm
A mouth full of praise
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 81 “Sing for joy to God our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob!” (Psalm 81:1) The part that stands out for me is the opening line… sing for joy! The rest of the psalm explains why we can sing for joy, and how instead we neglect God and His grace. Sing for joy,…
The blessing of following Jesus
SCRIPTURE: Proverbs 25-31 “Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint; but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.” (Proverbs 29:18) If only people paid attention to the wisdom of God, things would be so much better, for us and for the world! I admit that the bible can be a difficult, divisive book (even…
Carry the cross with Jesus
SCRIPTURE: Luke 9:21-27 “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) For Jesus, the cross represented the burden He chose to carry to help us in our struggle. Anyone who chooses to help someone in need takes on a burden of some sort. A house…
Liar, Lunatic or Lord?
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said…
Who do you say He is?
SCRIPTURE: Luke 9:18-20 It seems that everyone had something to say about Jesus. All of the suggested identities are positive – a former prophet re-sent from God. There were others who had some negative suggestions: deceiver, traitor, heretic, rebel, madman, fool? People today still have opinions, similar or different to these. And then, like Peter, there…
Looking up to heaven
SCRIPTURE: Luke 9:10-17 Some people doubt this story, it is just made up, no one could multiply food like this. I agree, no human could ever do this, but I do believe that God could. And that’s the thing; those who doubt this story also doubt there is a God. So this is the real issue:…
Now that’s good news!
SCRIPTURE: Luke 9:1-9 The disciples proclaim the kingdom of God (Luke 9:2), which is the good news (Luke 9:6). The good news of the kingdom of God (Matthew 4:23, Mark 1:15, Luke 4:43, Acts 8:12). God created this world very good, and authorized humans to rule it for Him, like Him (Genesis 1:26-28). But because humanity failed (Genesis 3), God had to raise up…
Feeling God’s smile
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 80 “Restore us, Lord God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.” (Psalm 80:19) Asaph quotes the words ‘make your face shine on us’ three times (vv.3,7,19), based on the priestly blessing: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious…
To do or not to do… something
SCRIPTURE: Proverbs 22:17-24:34 “If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength! Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.” (Proverbs 24:10-11) Each one of these sayings could be focused on, I am choosing one. The point is to not stand by and do nothing when someone is…