BONDAGE— FREEDOM! Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. —Mark 1:23-26 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind…

FISH! “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” —Mark 1:17 There is no way around this. What Jesus said to those early disciples He also has said to us— “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” Some will say I don’t have that gift, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). It is not a matter of giftedness; it is a matter of obedience. I recently…

OBEDIENCE & BLESSING Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. —Leviticus 20:22 If there is one key word in the life of the believer it is obedience. This was true under the Old Covenant and it is true under the New Covenant. It was true for the Jewish believer and it is true for the Gentile believer. Without obedience to the Lord God Almighty we are living for ourselves and our desires, not His. In the verse above the warning for disobedience was they would be “vomited” out of the land. Because…

TELL SOMEONE OF THE RESURRECTED SAVIOR! The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” —Matthew 27:62-64 The religious leaders remembered that Jesus said He would rise from the dead after three days. They did not…

THE JUDGMENT TO COME And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth… Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels….’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. —Matthew 25:30, 41, 46 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. —Matthew 10:28 You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being…

BE A SERVANT! It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. —Matthew 24:46 We know that works or deeds do not save anyone. There is absolutely nothing that a dead man can do to give himself life. It is God that makes a person alive in Christ Jesus. But, we “are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:1-10). We are to be “a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:14). Fellow follower of Jesus, we are called to be servants. Jesus…

WE WILL SEE JESUS! As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Matthew 24:3 The disciples asked Jesus two questions. 1- When will this happen? 2- What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? 1-When will this happen? We know that this happened in 70AD by Titus the Roman Commander when he destroyed Jerusalem. 2- What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? There is…

THE INVITATION Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, 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 The Lord God Almighty desires people, whether Jew or Gentile, to be gathered to Himself today. He had sent messengers again and again to Israel, but the majority of them would not listen. Not only did they not want to listen to them, but many times they killed those who brought the heavenly message to them. Not much has changed today. The Lord God Almighty is “not wanting anyone…

DON’T BE A HYPOCRITE In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. —Matthew 23:28 Who are you? Not what you are on the outside— the things you do and say, but who…are…you? How do you think? What do you think about? What are you wrestling with? How do you think about yourself? About others? About God? Who you really are is on the inside, the place that only you know about, the place that God sees and knows better than you know yourself. The verse above in context is when Jesus challenged the scribes…