Thinking Aloud

Matthew carried the style of his former profession as a bookkeeper over into the way he wrote his Gospel. The material is arranged as figures on a balance sheet and the columns are grouped together according to the topic. The parables are grouped together in one chapter--the 13th.   Nelson’s Bible Dictionary states: “Matthew offers the most systematic arrangement of Jesus’ teaching in the New Testament. The Sermon on the Mount, for instance, is probably a compilation of sermons spoken at different places and at different times. Most of the healings are recorded.   Matthew, obviously, had Jewish readers in mind. He presents Jesus as the Messiah, the King of the Jews, and a direct descendant from David”! Matthew’s Gospel is called the ‘Royal Gospel’. Its main theme is ‘Christ, the   King’. The New Testament opens with the verse “This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David …”( Matthew 1:1).   The phrase ‘the Kingdom of Heaven ” occurs ...

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER in Christian life can never be overestimated. Jesus instructed His followers to pray incessantly. All the faith giants of the Bible were also prayer warriors. There are about 800 of their prayers recorded in the Bible! This includes Abraham’s intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah, Solomon’s magnificent prayer offered at the dedication of the Temple, Jehoshaphat’s model prayer, the canticles of Hanna, Mary and Zachariah, the Psalm of Jonah offered from the fish’s belly, Nehemiah’s numerous prayers recorded in the book that bears his name, and the mother of all prayers offered by Jesus in John 17.   T he list is long. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail ( James 5:16). All good prayers originate in God and return to Him. Prayer is not only communication but also communion with God. When we pray we declare our total dependence on God and admit to the poverty of our spirit. Prayer strengthens our faith and lets us fellowship with G...

There is no evidence Jesus Christ was born on 25 December, but there is evidence to the contrary. In fact, we don’t even know the exact year of His birth, forget the date and month. It is not impossible to go back 2000 years and pinpoint the exact date of the Lord Jesus’ birth, given the tools available to us today, but they don’t want to do it. They are afraid if they do, their findings will blow up to smithereens the myth of Christmas and Jesus’ “birthday’’ and blow up the  Multi-billion dollar business the festival supports. Whatever might be the truth, there can’t be two opinions that the Almighty God actually became a man and lived among us and this historical truth is unparalleled   In history. The angel who appeared to the shepherds announced   he was   bringing them the  good news of great joy for all the people in Luke 2:10-11 . The theme of joy is found in more than 500 places in history. Paul wrote his letters to the Philippians...

John 17: 22 “I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one’’. The Holy Bible contains not only the stories of hundreds of prayer warriors but their prayers also--about 800 of them. Among them, the most magnificent, the mother of all prayers is Jesus’ prayer found in John 17.   Striking among Jesus’ many utterances made in it, the most outstanding in it is the fact that Jesus had shared God’s glory with the believers. See verse 10 (“All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine, and in them, I have been glorified “) and verse 22 (“ I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one”). God's glory is the result of His nature and acts. He is glorious in His character, for there is such a store of everything that is holy, and good, and lovely in God, that he must be glorious. The actions which flow from His character are also glorious; but while He intends that they should manifest to His creatures His goodness, a...

MOST PEOPLE GO through a number of job changes in their lives, and sometimes even several different careers. Each transition tends to be filled with tension, uncertainty, and sometimes doubt. In fact, many Christians facing a career change hope that God will somehow give them an indication of what He wants, effectively making the decision for them. That happened to Isaiah. He was given a vision of the throne room of heaven when God called him to become His prophet (Isaiah 6:1–9). Thus there was no doubt as to what the Lord wanted of him. This same kind of dramatic encounter with God, leading to a major career decision, was experienced by a number of other people in the Bible: •          Joseph was his father Jacob’s favorite son. This irked his older brothers, and when they got the opportunity they sold him to the Islamite merchants who sold him in turn to an Egyptian official, Potiphar. Extremely handsome, sincere and obedie...

Joshua 2:1 Then Joshua secretly sent out 2 spies from the Israelite camp at Acacia Grove. He instructed them "Scout out the land on the other side of the Jordan River, especially around Jericho. Joshua had sent two men to spy on the city of Jericho and report back to him. He had had a mandate from the Lord in the course of his military advancement, to capture the city and “devote” it for him. ‘Devote’ in KJV actually means the opposite of what it means today! What it meant was to ravage or annihilate. Today it means to care or preserve! (This is a case for reading the modern translations). Here we are introduced to a woman, a very shady character. She was a sex worker, and her name Rahab. The remarkable fact is that in the New Testament she is listed with those who are commonly called the heroes of faith! “ It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the...