And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.” Matthew 16:19 NLT Many believe that in Matthew 16, Jesus was setting Peter up as the first pope and giving the church … [Click to read more …]
From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be … [Click to read more …]
Relationships in the Family of God The Bible uses several analogies for the church—a body, a building, a flock, and even a brood of chickens. My personal favorite, being somewhat of a human development and relationship expert, is family. The Lord tells us, “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My … [Click to read more …]
That evening the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said, “That isn’t necessary—you feed them.” Matthew 14:15-16 NLT The disciples realized the crowd needed food, but they … [Click to read more …]
I wish I had understood the Sabbath much earlier in my Christian walk. I’ve been a Sabbath keeper for decades. I was born into a Sabbath-keeping family with many Sabbath-keeping relatives. I’ve calculated that I’ve willingly “kept” the Sabbath over two thousand times. Yet, for most of those past years I can honestly say that … [Click to read more …]
I was listening to a preacher on the radio talking about the Sabbath. He explained that the weekly Sabbath pointed us to the rest we have in Christ, so we no longer need the weekly Sabbath because we now have Jesus. He sounded sincere, and I really appreciated Him pointing people to Jesus and resting their … [Click to read more …]
Not long after starting to write for Sabbath School Net just over four years ago, I was asked to help moderate comments on the blog posts. This has been an eye-opening experience for me. With comments from all parts of the world, I have encountered ideas from Scripture that I never would have thought of myself or heard by just … [Click to read more …]
While Jesus’ popularity was growing, John the Baptist’s friends felt a little slighted for the prophet. John the Baptist however, said about Jesus, “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.” (John 3:30 NLT) John knew that God had appointed him to be the messenger to announce the coming of … [Click to read more …]
We are studying the book of Matthew this quarter. In my Bible, the Gospel of Matthew is twenty-eight pages long and I would like to issue a challenge to our readers to read the Gospel in a week. You could actually read it in a couple of hours on a wet Sabbath afternoon. We often … [Click to read more …]
Raised in the 1960’s and 70’s in a rather typical Seventh-day Adventist home, my five siblings and I were left to picture God as old, cold, and hard. We learned about John 3:16 and that was great, but what always came through to me at the end was that I was bad, I needed to … [Click to read more …]
