Month: September 2023

Matthew 12:38 – One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.”

³⁹ But Jesus replied, “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

⁴¹ “The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent. ⁴² The queen of Sheba will also stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now someone greater than Solomon is here—but you refuse to listen.” (NLT)

What kind of Jesus would you like to have? That’s the question that comes to my mind when I read this passage.  By the time that the teachers and Pharisees came to Jesus asking for a sign, he had already performed many healings and miracles, but they came asking for yet another.  Jesus did heal and perform miracles when he had the opportunity, but his purpose for coming to earth was to live out the greatest of miracles. That greatest of miracles was to die for our sins, and then raise up from the grave for the purpose of securing our place with God for all eternity.

Yet, I still think many people would like Jesus to perform even more signs and wonders.  Jesus asked the religious leaders then, and he asks us today, what more could he do to make us change anything about ourselves?  Many people did not believe that Jesus was who he claimed to be when he walked the earth.  We know that many still do not believe, but again, I am left wondering how many truly believe even now?  If one were to truly believe Jesus at his word, then one would seek to change what they can change about themselves.  This is what Jesus is speaking about when he says: “Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.”

Repenting is not merely saying that you are sorry, repenting is turning around – it is changing things about ourselves. I pray that each of us will seek to change what we can change.  We must love all people.  We must let go of prejudices.  We must forgive.  We must care for the needy, and we must seek peace in all things.  The best way that we can worship God is to change our very lives.  In the Old Testament, the Jews would offer up a sacrifice for their worship.  In the New Testament the Apostle Paul says: “I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” (Romans 12:1)

Today, let us truly worship God! 

Posted by Ramón Torres

1 Corinthians 4:14 – I am not writing these things to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children. ¹⁵ For even if you had ten thousand others to teach you about Christ, you have only one spiritual father. For I became your father in Christ Jesus when I preached the Good News to you. ¹⁶ So I urge you to imitate me.

¹⁷ That’s why I have sent Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of how I follow Christ Jesus, just as I teach in all the churches wherever I go.

¹⁸ Some of you have become arrogant, thinking I will not visit you again. ¹⁹ But I will come—and soon—if the Lord lets me, and then I’ll find out whether these arrogant people just give pretentious speeches or whether they really have God’s power. ²⁰ For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power. (NLT)

If there is one thing we can say about the Apostle Paul, he was bold!  Paul, however, makes no apologies for this, and in 2 Timothy he explains that it is the very spirit of God that makes one bold instead of timid (2 Timothy 1:7).  Paul certainly writes boldly in this passage, and he has good reason!

Some of the Corinthian Christians were acting as if they were spiritually better than other Christians.  To properly understand this passage, let’s consider the verses that come before, and then look at the last verse in this passage. You might note Paul’s use of sarcasm in this passage: 1 Corinthians 4:10 – “Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools, but you claim to be so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are so powerful! You are honored, but we are ridiculed. ¹¹ Even now we go hungry and thirsty, and we don’t have enough clothes to keep warm. We are often beaten and have no home. ¹² We work wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. ¹³ We appeal gently when evil things are said about us. Yet we are treated like the world’s garbage, like everybody’s trash—right up to the present moment.” 

Paul – and the other Apostles – were working hard for the sake of the Gospel.  They were doing without basic necessities, and enduring hardships.  Some of the Corinthians, on the other hand, were boasting about being spiritually mature, yet were doing absolutely nothing to build the kingdom of God. So, Paul does speak boldly.  His purpose is not to shame, but to warn them of their mistakes.  Now, contrasting the differences between how the Apostles and the Corinthians were living, Paul states in verse 20: “For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.”  I believe that I could preach on this one verse for a month of Sunday’s!

Many years ago I had a district superintendent who would say, “I’m not a good judge of pastors, but I am a good fruit inspector!” I think 1 Corinthians 4:20 has a similar thought: “the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.” 

The kingdom of God is not about talk, it’s about living. Whether that life is now, or the hereafter, it’s about living!  Today, let’s truly live.  Today, let’s not be just about talking about our faith – or just about talking about Jesus – today let’s live powerfully with God’s help. 

Posted by Ramón Torres

Genesis 28:10 – Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. ¹¹ At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. ¹² As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.

¹³ At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. ¹⁴ Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. ¹⁵ What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”

¹⁶ Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” ¹⁷ But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”

¹⁸ The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. ¹⁹ He named that place Bethel (which means “house of God”). (NLT)

Today we read about Jacob’s dream at Bethel.  The study of Jacob is a very interesting study.  He is a complicated character, and comes from a family of complicated characters!  In this passage, Jacob is basically ‘getting out of town’ because his brother Esau is thinking of killing him!  Of course, we cannot overlook why Esau felt this way – Jacob had tricked their father Isaac into bestowing upon Jacob a blessing that was legally due his brother Esau.  Yet, even given his life of trickery and deceit, God was still preparing Jacob for a great future.   

If one were to read various verses about Jacob, one could surely wonder why God would want to bless someone so deceitful.  That’s a great question!  Another great question would be to ask ourselves why God would want to bless someone as sinful as we?  The answer we would come up with is this: God is in the business of blessing people!  We don’t deserve God’s blessings, yet they are freely given.  God’s blessings are not earned, and in this passage Jacob is receiving the same promise that was given to Abraham and Isaac before him.  Neither of them deserved God’s blessing.  If it was earned it would not be a blessing, it would be a wage.  Sin deserves a wage, and that wage is death, but God freely blesses instead (Romans 6:23).   

Just as God prepared Jacob for a great future regardless of his past, God this day is preparing us for something great regardless of any sin in our past!  God is preparing us for kingdom life.  We can begin our kingdom life here and now, and God wants us to experience it here and now.  Let us learn from Jacob, our past can be put behind us, at least as far as God is concerned.

So today, let us seek the blessings that God has in store for us.  Let us also praise God for setting aside our past.  That’s Good Stuff!

Posted by Ramón Torres

Psalm 139:1 – O Lord, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.
² You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
³ You see me when I travel
and when I rest at home.
You know everything I do.
⁴ You know what I am going to say
even before I say it, Lord.
⁵ You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too great for me to understand!

⁷ I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
⁸ If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave, you are there.
⁹ If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
¹¹ I could ask the darkness to hide me
and the light around me to become night—
¹² but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you. (NLT)

If there is one thing this psalm makes clear – there is no escaping God!  God knows everything about us (verse 1).  God knows our thoughts (verse 2).  God knows where we are (verse 3).  God knows what we are going to say (verse 4), and in verse five we are told that God is everywhere all at the same time!

Now, this could be good news, or bad news.  I prefer to see it as good news, but sadly some use passages such as this to scare people (particularly children).  The psalmist wasn’t trying to scare anybody, indeed, the psalmist was trying to reassure us that God’s blessings are with us every second: You place your hand of blessing on my head (verse 5).

Whenever we read Scripture, we should always dig a little deeper.  With that in mind, let’s consider how this psalm ends: “²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. ²⁴ Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”  This psalm begins by stating that God has examined our hearts, and it ends with the Psalmist asking God to search him again.  The tense of the verb search in verse twenty-three indicates something deeper than merely taking a look at us.  The psalmist is asking God to dig deeper!  God wants us to dig deeply into God’s Word, but we should, in turn, ask God to dig deeply into our lives.  We should not just acknowledge that God is aware of us, but we should ask God to make us aware of those things that offend God!

Today, let us ask God to dig deeply into our lives, pointing out to us what needs to be corrected.  Then, let us be willing to change! 

Posted by Ramón Torres