Podcasts about Pharisees

Read OnlineMarriage and Divine UnionSome Pharisees approached Jesus, and tested him, saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?” He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, man must not separate.” Matthew 19:3–6In Jesus' time, divorce was a controversial and divisive issue. Two prominent schools of thought offered opposing views: The followers of Rabbi Hillel permitted divorce for trivial reasons, while the followers of Rabbi Shammai allowed it only for serious offenses. In today's Gospel, Jesus does not side with either group. Instead, He elevates the conversation by pointing back to God's original design for marriage, revealed at the beginning of creation.Jesus reminds us that God's intention for marriage is the permanent and sacred union of man and woman—a covenant, not merely a contract. When the two become “one flesh,” it is not only a physical union but also a spiritual and ontological reality: A new creation comes into being through the marital bond.Today, many people misunderstand the sacredness of marriage. Many marriages falter for a variety of reasons. This is partly because the ideal of marriage is demanding and requires deep personal sacrifice. True love—caritas, or charity—goes far beyond emotion and affection. It calls for the complete gift of self, radical selflessness, and unwavering commitment. When lived according to God's design, such love yields rewards that far surpass the trials it entails. But when relationships are clouded by selfishness, resentment, unforgiveness, or sin, they often unravel, leaving behind pain and regret.Saint Paul refers to marriage as “a great mystery,” likening it to the union between “Christ and the Church” (Ephesians 5:32). This is more than a metaphor; it is a theological truth. Every baptized person is called to be part of the Body of Christ and to share in the eternal Wedding Feast of the Lamb. The saints and mystics refer to this as “spiritual marriage”—the soul's union with Christ in Divine Love.The path to such divine union is rigorous. It demands the total gift of oneself to God. Every sin and attachment to sin must be stripped away by grace—and by our cooperation with that grace. This purifying journey prepares the soul for Mystical Marriage, a lasting and unbreakable union with God.Just as the heights of sanctity are reached only through great effort, so too is the perfection of marriage—or any relationship. This can feel daunting, but it should not lead to discouragement. Rather, it should inspire us with hope and resolve. Whether in marriage, friendship, or our relationship with God, we must pursue the ideal with zeal. Sanctity does not happen overnight, and neither do holy relationships. All require perseverance, humility, and grace.Jesus' teaching on marriage challenges us, but it is full of promise. It offers hope because it affirms that the grace needed to live this vocation comes as a gift from God in the Sacrament of Matrimony. For those called to marriage, and who receive and cooperate with this grace, the reward is nothing less than divine communion and eternal joy. To reach this end, we must transcend our natural limitations and rise above self-interest, fear, and the desire for comfort. This vocation requires a lifelong commitment to sacrificial love, fidelity, and perseverance, even amid trials and suffering.Reflect today on your vocation and how well you live the depth of love to which you are called. Whether you are married or celibate, trust in God's providence and resolve to live not by the standards of the world, but by the wisdom of the Kingdom of Heaven. Such a calling can only be fulfilled by grace and by hearts courageous enough to say “Yes” to that grace, day after day. Resolve to say “Yes,” and your reward will be great.My loving Lord, the charity that flows from Your Sacred Heart is pure and holy, radiating throughout Your entire Church. Draw me ever deeper into that love, so that I may receive You into my life and radiate Your love to others. Help me and all Your children to love You with all our hearts and to love one another, so that we may be perfectly united in You. Jesus, I trust in You.  Image: Scribes and Pharisees in the church, Iulian RosuSource: Free RSS feed from catholic-daily-reflections.com — Copyright © 2026 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. This content is provided solely for personal, non-commercial use. Redistribution, republication, or commercial use — including use within apps with advertising — is strictly prohibited without written permission.

Before we can pursue the God of the Bible, we need to examine the Bible itself. How do we know that we can trust what it says? Why should we listen to its truth claims? That's what pastors Bryan, Ross and John cover in this episode. --The PursueGOD Truth podcast is the “easy button” for making disciples – whether you're looking for resources to lead a family devotional, a small group at church, or a one-on-one mentoring relationship. Join us for new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Find resources to talk about these episodes at pursueGOD.org.Help others go "full circle" as a follower of Jesus through our 12-week Pursuit series.Click here to learn more about how to use these resources at home, with a small group, or in a one-on-one discipleship relationship.Got questions or want to leave a note? Email us at podcast@pursueGOD.org.Donate Now--The Bible is the best-selling book of all time, and it's unlike any other book written in history. It has changed individual lives and shaped entire cultures. It's an ancient text that claims to have been written by God himself, and the proof of its reliability is surprisingly strong. Here are three reasons we can trust what it teaches:Historical Evidence Ancient manuscripts and archeological digs have stacked up in favor of biblical reliability. The Bible was written thousands of years ago, long before printing presses and modern technology. Manuscript fragments of the biblical text have endured wars and weather throughout the ages, and the scraps that remain represent just a fraction of the originals. Are those remnants enough to provide a reliable testimony for modern-day readers? And how can we be sure that the message hasn't been corrupted over the millennia? The good news is that the God who inspired the scriptures was also powerful enough to preserve those writings through the ages. Consider the manuscript evidence. Manuscript copies in the ancient world were painstakingly hand-written, and not all of them survived the ravages of time. Reliability of ancient writings is determined by the number of copies (or partial copies) of the work in existence. So how does the Bible stack up? See for yourself:Today we have only 49 copies of Aristotle's writings.Homer's “The Iliad” does a little better, with 643 copies in existence.The New Testament wins by a landslide, with almost 5700 Greek copies and over 19,000 copies in other languages!The New Testament clearly has more manuscript evidence than any other ancient work. But how do we know that those manuscript copies are faithful to the originals? What if human authors changed the message, intentionally or otherwise? Modern archeology helps us answer this question, thanks to the Dead Sea Scrolls. In 1947 a shepherd boy discovered some ancient scrolls hidden away in remote caves in the Middle East. This led to even more discoveries in the area, and in the end almost 1000 manuscripts were recovered. Parts of almost every book of the Old Testament were found, and some of those fragments proved to be almost 1000 years older than the oldest manuscripts known at the time. This offers a perfect test for the reliability of our modern translations. The book of Isaiah provides the most compelling example, since the Dead Sea Scrolls contained a complete copy of the prophet's writings. When compared to the Masoretic Text (the oldest copy previously known, dating back to about 800 AD), the Isaiah manuscript from the Dead Sea Scrolls was 95% identical! And the only differences were minor, often just variations in spelling.So the historical evidence stacks up in favor of the reliability of the Bible. But there's more:Textual Evidence The Bible is the most impressive writing project in the history of the world. It contains 66 books written by 40 different authors over the course of 1500 years, and yet it tells one unified story. Think about it: Moses, a Jewish slave raised in the house of a Pharaoh, wrote the first five books. John, a fisherman-turned-revolutionary, wrote the last four books. In between were books and letters written by shepherds, kings, prophets, tax collectors, doctors, and more. And the most prolific author in the New Testament was Paul – a religious Pharisee who zealously persecuted the Jesus followers before joining them. Most of these authors never met each other, and many of them were unaware of the other books and letters that would eventually be included in the Bible. Their writings spanned different cultures and languages over the course of 15 centuries, and yet the Bible amazingly reads as one story. From beginning to end it's about Jesus, and the fulfilled prophecy is the glue that holds it together. Let's take just a few examples: Of the 12 tribes of Israel, Judah was surprisingly predicted to be the one through which Jesus would come – which is exactly what happened. Genesis 49:10, Matthew 1:1-3It was prophesied that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, and that's how it happened – even though his mother didn't even live there. Micah 5:2, Luke 2:1,4Prophets wrote with shocking accuracy about the torture and death of Jesus hundreds of years before it happened – exactly as predicted. Psalm 22, Isaiah 53It was because of these kinds of prophecies that Jesus spoke these words to the religious leaders of his day:John 5:39 You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!The Bible amazingly tells one story, centered on Jesus, because it was ultimately inspired by the God of human history.Personal Evidence The Bible is ultimately about Jesus, and the changed lives of his followers is the most compelling proof of its message. Let's just take three examples from the New Testament, starting with Peter. When Jesus was on trial before his crucifixion, a servant girl noticed Peter and accused him of being a follower of Jesus. Peter denied it three times, walking away with an incredible sense of guilt and shame (Luke 22:56-59). But that's not the end of his story, because days later the resurrected Jesus sat down to breakfast with Peter and reinstated him – three times (John 21:15-19). Peter went on to be a pillar of the Christian church, eventually giving up his life for Jesus. Or consider “doubting” Thomas. He missed out on meeting the resurrected Jesus with the other disciples and expressed his doubt that they really saw the risen Christ. But soon enough he met Jesus for himself and professed his faith in him (John 20:25-28). Thomas, too, ended up dying for his faith. And then there's Paul, a self-righteous Pharisee (Philippians 3:5) whose life mission was to persecute the followers of Jesus. Then he met Jesus and joined that very group of misfit disciples. Paul made it his life's mission to spread the Good News about Jesus and he, too, died a martyr's death. There's no way to explain away these changed lives except to conclude that the message about Jesus, along with every word in the Bible, truly is inspired by God.But no amount of evidence can overcome an unbelieving attitude. At the end of the day, trusting the reliability of the Bible comes down to your willingness to believe in the God behind the Bible. Jesus made this point one day as he taught in the Temple courts:John 7:16-17 My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me. Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.If you're unwilling to submit to God's will, your pursuit is over before it has even started. But if you are willing to come to God on his terms and take him at his word, then Jesus promises that you'll discover the truth. The teachings of Jesus, and indeed all of the teachings in the Bible, are from God, not man. And so we can trust the Bible in our pursuit of God.

What was Jesus writing in the ground when the Pharisees and scribes tried to accuse the woman caught in adultery? Pastor Adriel Sanchez discusses the passage of Jesus writing on the ground and how the Pharisees rejected him. Instead of their names being written in the Book of Life, they were written in the dust.  PARTNER WITH US Upon becoming a partner you will receive two incredible books: Ordinary and Core Christianity by Dr. Michael Horton. We believe these resources will serve as an aid in helping  you understand the core tenants of the Christian faith and find joy in your every walk with Christ. FOLLOW US YouTube | Instagram | X/Twitter | Facebook | Newsletter WHO WE ARE Sola Media serves today's global church by producing resources for reformation grounded in the historic Christian faith. For over thirty-five years, Sola has walked alongside Christians in their faith, pointing away from novelty and ourselves, and toward Christ and his gospel as proclaimed in the Scriptures, articulated in the ancient Christian Creeds, and summarized in the confessions of the Protestant Reformation. Learn more: https://solamedia.org/

Recompense on the Beast and Harlot (1)  (audio) David Eells, 8/12/26 Destruction Comes for Apostate Leadership B. A. - 06/23/2015 (David's notes in red) I dreamed that I found myself in Jerusalem, back in Jesus' day, and I was looking up at the temple (a temple made by man's hands which God does not inhabit). Act.17:24 The God that made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; (Church buildings are not holy, the people must be.) 25 neither is he served by men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26 and he made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation; 27 that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us: 28 for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain even of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 29 Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and device of man. 30 The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now he commanded men that they should all everywhere repent: 31 inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. There were stone steps leading down from the temple, and on the steps stood Pharisees and Sadducees (Representing those of our day.). I was standing with a crowd of people in an open area a little ways from the temple and the stone steps, and just as I was looking around me in this crowd of people, I saw a man come forward out of the crowd who began to sternly address the men who were standing up (or exalting themselves) on the stone steps of the temple. I knew that the man speaking was Jesus. (Representing those in whom He lives by Word and Spirit in our day.) Mat.23:12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled; and whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted.  As Jesus began to speak, I began to recognize the “Word” He was speaking to these men, since I had heard these same words before. Here is what I heard: Mat.23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves. When Jesus spoke the first “Woe”, I heard a loud pop-like sound and what sounded like a crackling sound. I looked down upon the stone steps of the temple where these Pharisees and Sadducees were standing, and I noticed a large, deep crack had run right up through the middle of those stone steps, and they were beginning to crack and crumble. I noticed that the deep crack was between the feet of a rather large and extremely overweight man. (This represents the apostate leadership of our day overcome by their own flesh.) 16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, that say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. Then, when Jesus spoke the second “Woe”, I heard another much louder pop-like sound and more of the crackling sound. I looked around to see where this sound was coming from, and I saw that a large, deep crack had gone all around the temple foundation, and it was cracking up and crumbling as well. (Everything that can be shaken will be.) 17 Ye fools and blind: for which is greater, the gold, or the temple that hath sanctified the gold? 18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gift that is upon it, he is a debtor. 19 Ye blind: for which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? 20 He therefore that sweareth by the altar, (The crucified life.) sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. 21 And he that sweareth by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. 22 And he that sweareth by the heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. 23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law (So tithing is of the law. This is the leaven of the Pharisees Jesus warned about.), justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone. 24 Ye blind guides, that strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel! (Making unimportant things important.) 25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full from extortion and excess. 26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside thereof may become clean also. 27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. 28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and garnish the tombs of the righteous, 30 and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we should not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31 Wherefore ye witness to yourselves, that ye are sons of them that slew the prophets. 32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 33 Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape the judgment of hell? 34 Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: some of them shall ye kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city: 35 that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. 37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem (John said Jerusalem is the Bride but there is a false bride.), that killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. (Devoid of God) 39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Just as Jesus had finished His Words to these men, the stone steps gave way, and all of those men standing on the crumbling stone steps fell down into a deep pit that had opened up under them. And just after that happened, the entire temple came crashing down on top of them and covered them up. I noticed that from Matthew 23:15 through verse 39, there are “six” woes -- “six” being the number of man. Also, I found it interesting that there is a “Woe” in Mathew 23:23, and the date of this revelation is the 23rd, and 23 means “death”. (This is clearly a reprobation of today's apostate leadership and their fake temples, as Jesus pronounced in His day, and is now a repeat of history.)    The Recompense on the Wicked Anna Stewart - 7/24/25  I dreamed that a few others and I were at a safari ranch. There was a ten-foot-high impenetrable wall of dead-looking grass going around the perimeter of where we were. (“All flesh is as grass,” said Peter, representing the flesh of the beast people, the Dragon devouring in Rev 12. Judgments are spreading over the world from these people.) We were told to get back into our vehicle because the grass was full of lionesses (representing the curse and judgment) just waiting to jump out and grab someone. I wasn't afraid, but I did get back into the vehicle. My father (representing THE Father) was driving the vehicle.  I was in the front passenger seat (the bride), but someone behind me had left their door open. Three times, with authority, I commanded them to “SHUT THE DOOR.” I knew they were primarily endangering themselves, but also putting the rest of us at risk, as well. (The vehicle represents sanctification, and we must all keep our own doors shut, for ourselves, but also for the sake of the body.)  We began to slowly drive down a narrow, one-way dirt road lined by that tall grass. A woman I know, who represents the harlot, was walking alongside us on the left of our vehicle. It wasn't safe to be outside, and she began to nervously knock on the door of the vehicle and say, “Let me in, let me in.”  The woman was not afraid, just slightly nervous, not realizing how very real the danger was. Rom.3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. To my surprise, my father continued driving slowly along, completely ignoring her. I said, “We need to let her in,” but still he didn't stop. Luk.13:25 When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us; and he shall answer and say to you, I know you not whence ye are;  Then I saw a huge, fierce-looking male lion (Satan) behind the vehicle on the right side. I said, “In the name of Jesus—” to pray for the woman's safety, but the Lord didn't even allow me to pray. In an instant, without warning, the lion pounced onto the woman, and there was a graphic spray of blood and body parts. It was horrific. I wailed, “Jesus!” Not just for the gore I had just seen, but because I knew that no repentance had happened. Mercy had run out, and there was not so much as a second for her to repent. And now it was too late. Pro.6:15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; On a sudden shall he be broken, and that without remedy. End of dream. I knew the Lord was speaking of this woman as a group of people. What I saw was His recompense that is before Him. Their time had run out. This is a warning, but the apostates this woman represents must confess their sins and run to the Lord now, or they won't escape. Let's continue to pray and believe for them.    Apostates Neglect Their Spiritual Man  Sam Paguaga - 12/10/2012 (David's notes in red) In a dream, I was in a large house with a lot of people around. There seemed to be a lot of rooms and a lot of stuff going on. People were talking and hanging around and doing their own business. I saw my mother (representing the apostate Church we were born from). (In reality, her name is Iris. (Which means “rainbow” in Greek. This could represent grace God wants to give to the Church of all nations.) She had a small child with her who seemed like a kid from a third-world country. He was very dark-skinned (representing her spiritual man in darkness), like from India, wearing worn-out clothes (not putting on the works of Christ). He seemed to be sick, and she didn't seem to be tending to him. (Representing the fruit of the apostate church's spiritual man, which they are not feeding and clothing.) If I had to say, he looked around three years old. (The fruit of their spiritual man is very immature.) My mother then gave him to me. (Those who minister to the mother Church will care for and feed their spiritual man.) I took him to a room, like a toddler room, where I was going to clean him up and put new clothes on him. (Cleanse him from sin and dress him up in the works of Jesus.) When I changed his shirt, I noticed what looked like a tumor on the side of his face by his right ear. (His hearing is under the curse. He hasn't heard truth.) Without a thought, I placed my hand over it and began to pray, “Dear Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, heal him, heal his sickness, in the name of Jesus. Be healed. Be well. Thank You, Lord. God, thank You”. As I began to say, “thank You”, I felt under my hand something like bones cracking. (the bones of the inner ear, representing spiritual hearing) They were going back in place and the tumor was diminishing. (“Faith cometh of hearing and hearing by the Word”.) I continued to thank God. I knew he was being healed, so I left my hand over his face until I was sure he was all healed. (Their face needs healing: 2Co.3:18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.) I noticed one of my sons was there looking. (My firstborn, whose name is Eliasaph (“God has increased or added”). We call him Eli.) I told him, “Look. God healed him”. Then, full of gladness for the boy, I grabbed the little boy's hand and walked him over to where my mother was. She was sitting in some type of large living room, on some couches. She was talking to somebody else and some other people. I was trying to get her attention and said, “Look. He's healed! Look, Mom. He's healed”. (They must believe the Gospel that their spiritual man is healed in Jesus' name.) But she just kept talking to the other person, like I wasn't even there. I tried one more time. “Look, Mom. Look. He's healed”. I'm not sure what happened to the little boy by that point. But my gladness turned to rage because she (as the apostate Church) was ignoring the work God had done. (In the natural, my mom is not at all like that. She is very caring and loving. And I have a good relationship with my mother and father. The mother in the dream is like the apostate church, not looking for God's will and rejecting God's spiritual work, in pursuit of earthly things and the entertainment of followers for money. Why did I want my mother to see? The latter rain will be rejected by the apostate church because it will lack the earthly treasures they value, but true treasure is in Heaven.) I picked up a wooden chair that was close by and threw it on the floor and it smashed. (The harlot church cannot rest from their own works, just as was seen in the example of the Jews in the Gospels and Acts. Heb.4:3 For we who have believed do enter into that rest; even as he hath said, As I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.). Everyone looked. I felt like I was furious. I started walking down the hall. I picked up another chair and threw it toward them. I wasn't trying to hit them, but it landed right in front of them. (So they could see that they had no rest from the curse and sin through unbelief. Jesus crashed the money changers party for the zeal of God's house.) Then I started going up the stairs to the second floor, as I smashed another chair. (They are not graduating from kindergarten to higher levels.) Then I woke up. I wondered to myself why I had gotten so upset. I'm really not the kind to lose control in anger and in a fit of rage. (This was an expression of God's rage that the apostates care only for the world and not for their own souls or those of others. Heb.2:3 how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard. Rev.3:16 So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth.)   Devastation of Charismatic Christianity  P. O. - 08/03/2009 (David's notes in red)  In a dream, a man is walking the earth as if he is checking things. He comes upon a scene of violent disarray. (The best way to describe this scene is that it puts one in mind of how a car accident would look, but there's no car.) It's his bride, his wife. She's dead, but beautiful and at peace. Her luggage, apparel, and various items are in disarray around her. Many of these items are marked “The Enrique Hotel”. Also, she is dressed in a way that is reminiscent of the time the historians called “The Roaring Twenties” (which occurred right before the Great Depression). Then I heard a voice that said, “She's been lied to every day, every step of her life”. (Even though they will enter the Kingdom and be at peace, being lied to by false leaders will cost many Spirit-filled Christians their lives and possessions, at the hands of the violent beast. Hos.4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...) When I woke up, I researched the name “Enrique”. It is derived from Spanish or Portuguese, meaning “Charismatic Ruler”. Another site mentioned that it is similar to the English “Henry”, which means “Home Ruler”. (The hotel represents the Church, which, according to Eph.2:19-22, is many houses built together into one Temple for God. Each individual house represents a person. The Spirit-filled people have the position of bride, even though many will not manifest this. The Charismatic leadership, typed by Judah, has gone far astray and is more guilty than the northern 10 apostate tribes because they have had the presence of God's Spirit in their midst to lead them, but have refused to follow His Word.)  I also asked the Lord for something in His Word that would coordinate or connect what He was giving me. He laid on my heart a page number in my very first study Bible. When I turned to it, I discovered that He had taken me to 1 Thessalonians 2. The verse that seemed emphasized was: “For ye, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus: for ye also suffered the same things of your own countrymen even as they did of the Jews...” End of Dream. (I interpreted the top part of this dream before I saw Judea and the rest of this verse. Truly, the Charismatics have imitated the churches, rather than the Scriptures, and they will suffer the same violent attack of the Beast as the Jews did from their countrymen.) One of the reasons why I knew the dream meant something was that I would never, in the natural, dream about something named “Enrique”. I live in Indiana, and there's very little Spanish influence here. I thought this dream was meant for me personally, for the Lord to show me that I was part of the Bride, that I had died to the flesh and was now at rest in Him. I have suffered some persecution from family over the past year. As a personal dream, I was not going to pass this on to anyone. But this morning, I noticed that there is news now on the Internet, originating three days after my dream, regarding the latest Hurricane or Tropical Storm of the year. It, too, is named Enrique. Living in the Midwest, I do not follow hurricanes or keep track of what storm names are coming, so this was a total surprise. I'm not a mathematician, but for a Hoosier, English-only speaker, to dream a name that three days later hits the national news as the newest coming storm seemed to me to be 'up there' in the range of improbability, so that's why I've sat down and now typed it for you, thinking this may be for the larger body of believers. A violent storm is now coming straight for the Charismatic Church, most of which believe they will fly away and so are not preparing to escape the Beast. What is it that we should know and do to escape this Beast? The president of scripture over traditions of men.    The Harlot's Fire Is Coming Apostate Church Cut Up and Cooked Like a Goose Cal Spinner - 08/07/2007 (David's notes in red)  I dreamed I was in the person of the Son of Man. I was in a giant library or bookstore with many books (I.e., religious teachings) and many, many rooms. I met a beautiful woman who seemed Western. She was dressed quite modernly and was wearing makeup, gold and diamond jewelry. We began to converse, and I invited her to come with me. As we began to go, we met another woman who was dressed more Eastern in a plain white dress, with a head covering over her head. She had no jewelry or makeup, just a thin gold belt that was like a rope. She was wearing plain sandals, whereas the other woman wore stockings and high heels. It seemed we all knew each other, and I invited her to come with me as well. (This seems to contrast women of the world and their fake persona, with humble women of the Word to show who is the qualified Bride. 1Ti.2:9 In like manner, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety; not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment; 10  but (which becometh women professing godliness) through good works.) We then walked out of the library and into what seemed like a honeymoon suite of some hotel. The room had a good view of the ocean and elaborate wicker furniture. It was very beautiful and was all decorated in very pure white. There were two king-size beds side by side. I said to the women, “See, there is plenty of room; you both can stay”. They agreed, and both presented me their feet (representing their walk), which became like reeds. It seemed like reeds for making baskets, although I had an impression of water as well, like certain reeds that grow in the water. I took shears and clipped their feet off. Then the beautiful Western woman became jealous of the other woman when I gave her attention. (As the Lord will) I said to the Western woman, “You can't get away because you cannot stand on your own”.  I then laid the woman with the head covering in the bed. (The sign of submission to the Lord as husband.)  Then the scene suddenly shifted to a kitchen, and I was placing the other woman in the oven. She had the left arm and leg missing, and the right arm and leg were bound with a string. She was on a tray and had an apple in her mouth. She was weeping as I placed her in the oven and shut the door and turned it on to cook her like a goose, but the apple in her mouth reminded me she was a pig. (full of flesh)  Then I woke up very disturbed and asked the Lord for interpretation. I am still, at the time of this writing, quite shaken by the vividness of this dream and the quickness with which the interpretation came to me. This is a terrible warning! This is the interpretation the Spirit revealed to me, although there may be more. The great hall with many rooms and the many books represents all the many doctrines of man and his religions. There were many people there partaking of the various books. The Son of Man is in the store or library with all the other doctrines of the world, but only invites some to go with Him. The two women represent the church -- those invited to wed the Lord. The woman dressed more plainly with the head covering represents the true Bride. The head covering symbolized willingness to submit to authority and headship of the bridegroom. The modern woman who was selfish and jealous and dressed in jewelry and fakeup represents the apostate church. (Who believe they are the bride.)  The clipping of the feet is when we come to the Lord. We agree not to stand on our own but to be carried by the Lord. (Although both groups acknowledge they cannot stand on their own but by grace, the true Bride will be made to stand by grace because of true faith.) The cutting up represents the denominations of the apostate church that are one-sided, missing one arm and one leg. (The left side [goats] being missing will mean that through their own works they will have no power to escape and be saved. The right side [sheep] represents that they are unable to do the works or walk of the Lord, but are only bound by a string, symbolizing that they could be free if they really wanted to.) The Lord will judge them for being worldly and self-absorbed and put them in the oven Himself. They will cry out, but He won't hear them and will send them to be baked. He won't hear them because they are like pigs concerned with only themselves, rejecting His authority and headship. They will not allow Him to carry them to His bedchamber (where His seed is sown in them to bear His fruit), but instead, they will try to do things their own way, being more concerned about what the world thinks of them than the Lord. It will be grievous to them, but those who are truly the Lord's will be saved through the fiery trial that will cause them to give up their self-works of wood, hay, and stubble. 2Ti.2:19 Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his: and, Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness. 20 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some unto honor, and some unto dishonor. 21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good work. 22 after righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Those who truly are the Lord's will lose the wood, hay and stubble of their self-works and any reward they thought they would have from this, but it is here that they will be saved from themselves. 1Co.3:12 But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; 13 each man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man's work of what sort it is. 14 If any man's work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. 15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire.) We should all take heed with great fear and trembling and submit ourselves to the Lord's authority with all haste. The time is at hand to come out of Babylon or be destroyed by the east.   The Righteous Offend the Beast and Harlot  Vincent Xavier 1. I am coming to do great injury and wrong to that which is not of My Father. My nature contends with the nature of the beast. This nature of the beast is in the heart of men who have not been sanctified by My Spirit. That which has not been fully sanctified remains an offense to me and I will be an offense to it! Yes, I will offend the Beast in this hour! I will release a shockwave of glorious power that will cause the Beast to reel to and fro like a drunken man! The nature of the Beast has cleverly entrapped MY people and has caused them to err in their hearts concerning what is acceptable to My Father.  A learned practice of what is acceptable to men has been the standard by which men have been judged, yet that standard shall be fully violated in this DAY. Religious leaders have led My people into complacency and have lulled them to sleep with their fairytales and ideas that originate in their own minds. Their words are not My words for their words carry no sanctifying power. Their words carry no influence in the realms of darkness to the liberating of the captives. The nature of the Beast is empowered by sin and the message of the religious leaders has not emancipated the conscience of those who believe in me. It is the SIN CONSCIENCE that must be dealt with. It is the SIN ISSUE that must be fully realized as the open door to Satanic power in the souls of those who believe. My nature will make war with the Beast within the soul of men and will execute judgment upon the Beast. Be prepared, for many shall be offended in the last days and it will be I Who is causing the offense! Those who are righteous indeed will be an offense to those who are religious indeed. 2. I am going to exceed all bounds of decency and reasonableness. Follow My life! Look at me! Was I approved and acceptable to the approved social order of My day? Was I subject to those who were in control of the day? Was the Roman government My head? Were the religious leaders of Judaism My head? NO!  My only supreme was My Father and I always did what My Father told me to do, even at the risk of upsetting the standard order of the times. Yes, it was I who entered into the temple and turned over the tables of the moneychangers. This was an acceptable practice for those Jews at that time, but their practices were not ordained of My Father.  It was I who caused outrage in the hearts of those who would take me to the cliff to throw me down the mountain! It was I who stirred the crowds into chaos and confusion, causing divisions among men! It was I who upset the religious mindset of the day when healing on the Sabbath and doing good to those who were in need. It was I who caused offense in the hearts of the hypocrites! Yes, it was I, and I say unto you that I am going to upset the world again, and I am going to turn it upside down. I am going to shake the world of all its social graces and practices that are an offense and abomination to My Father. Two thousand years ago, I sent a people into the world and they, according to My will, TURNED THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN! So it is on this, the THIRD DAY, that I am going to release My people once again from the caves of obscurity who have hid from the religious leaders of this Day and bring them out into the open, and oh what an offense they shall be to all the social orders men have labored so hard to erect and put in place. Consider My servant David and the men who went out to meet him in the caves of Adullam. These were not the kind of men who were subjected to the religious order of Saul, and neither will these be those I release in this hour. Surely I say to you that they will enter into your places of worship and contend with all that is not of My Father. They will be an offense to many and will reveal the hate and control in the hearts of the leaders who have refused to LET MY PEOPLE GO! Consider My servant Joseph. He was thrown into prison by his OLDER brothers. Surely he shall arise in the earth having great authority and will rule over those older brothers in the days to come. Yes, those who were an insult to them because of their pride and jealousy will bow their knees to them and will acknowledge their authority and will know of a truth that I have loved them with an everlasting love from before the eons of time, or else they shall perish without a word. Let it be known that I AM an offense to the world, for the world is surely an offense to me!  I have watched the world and have watched My people in the world and those who claim to be Mine. I ask, what have you learned since you believed? Have you not yet departed from that which is an offense to me? Have you not read that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of Mine? You have not yet COME OUT OF HER MY PEOPLE! Therefore, you shall incur judgment against yourselves for I have determined to destroy Babylon! I am not speaking of the Babylon in the Middle East, but the Babylon in the middle of your heart! I am speaking to your Babylonian ways and mindsets! When I walked upon the earth, I did not call attention to the Roman authorities but to the condition of men's hearts! Yes, I am coming to topple that which appears before men as most religious. That which is so acceptable today is an abomination to me! That which has become the social order of the day, the acceptable form of worship, is coming to an end! For I have determined to FINISH the house that has been in building for two thousand years. Yes, out of the ashes will arise a new building, complete and perfect, a people who are in the exact image of My Father! I am not concerned with social graces and what is acceptable to men; I am only concerned with that which belongs to my Father!  How will I come? I will come to you in the form of men and women! I will come to you with great power and anointing when once I release My reserved ones. I come! I come in them to stand before the multitudes in order that I may bring truth to My temple! I come! Surely I come!  3. My presence will be very shocking and offensive in this DAY. A heavy blow will come to the earth! For heaven has witnessed the actions of men in the earth and their actions have been weighed in the balance. I will cause to stagger all nations by the news they shall hear. What men have deemed as “good taste” shall surely become bitter by what I am about to do. Indeed, that which was once approved of men and acceptable in the eyes of the admirers shall become a revolting offense, even disgusting. My people, who are seated with Me in heavenly places, are prepared to appear in the earth before the eyes of men. These shall be the reason for the “shock syndrome” that will come. For that which was once accepted in My house by men shall be seen as a detestable thing in comparison to the holiness that My sanctified ones shall walk in. Their presence shall reveal the disgusting abomination that has been hidden in the hearts of men while doing many outward works of righteousness.  I say that those works of outward righteousness shall be seen for what they truly are, mere religious robes covering the filth of an unsanctified life. My pure presence within My beloved ones shall cause the heart to fail in those who are unrepentant. 4. My appearing shall be violent in action and disposition. When I come, I will come with a violent disposition that will cause men to pale and pine away. For I will take the nations by violence, and I will destroy that which is false with a strong overthrow.  How will I come? I will appear through My servants, the prophets! Their words shall be as a hammer violently breaking in pieces that which is an abomination to My Father. A destroying fire shall come out of their mouths to the burning up of all chaff in the hearts of men! There will be no arrogance when they come. Those who would oppose their words will come under swift judgment. For these are My battle axes, My weapons of war, who have been reserved for a time such as this, yet it is I who am working in them beyond their own understanding! They have yielded to My will and have surrendered their lives so that I may live in and through them. It will be I who am contended with by those who would oppose them.  I have said that violent men take the Kingdom by force, and it will be at this time that the Kingdom shall be taken by those full of divine energy and power. Satan shall be cast out of the heavenlies and thrust down into the pit. I am speaking to the hearts of men. For it is within the heart that all evil comes. Not outwardly in the skies above but within the very soul of man that Satan has taken his seat along with the Beast and the false prophet. These evil spirits have held the dominion, but shall now come under a violent blow that shall shake them from their high places in order to release My Kingdom in the hearts of those who believe.  5. Because I am going to exceed all bounds of right, morality, and decency known to man, I will be INTOLERABLE to the modern religious and social leaders of this day. My people, hear me! What has been erected as decent, moral, and acceptable to men is truly an abomination to me. You live in a time where men call evil good, good evil, bitter sweet and sweet bitter. It is a DAY wherein light is called darkness and darkness is called light.  Because of these conditions, I will come as an INTOLERABLE force of emptying magnitude. I will so completely overturn that which is hypocritical that nothing will remain. Understand that what I have tolerated for so long will no longer be tolerated. In My intolerance, I will lead a militia of chosen warriors through whom I will shake the earth!  Many will find My ways intolerable from behind the pulpit in these moments of time, for many in the congregation shall be offended because of the righteousness that flows from the minister's lips. Yes, I have ministers, Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Teachers and Pastors who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal, who will demonstrate My glorious power in these days. To them shall many flock. For the true shall know My voice in and through them and will know them by their fruits. Man has played with power greater than himself and by so doing has opened the gate to a great flood of evil. But no man has ever witnessed the magnitude of My intolerance as what shall be witnessed in these days. My presence will become unbearable to the wicked. My words will be too severe for the hypocrites! I will appear as a cruel one to those who have been cruel! Many will not be able to bear with me. Yet to My beloved shall I appear with an intolerable love and grace! Yes, many will not be able to bear My love, mercy and grace that I will bestow upon them, and these shall be swept away in rapturous moments in My glory. These shall be overwhelmed with My love and blessings!  Many great and wonderful blessings shall abound to their account, and their inheritance shall be released unto them. These are those who have come to maturity and have grown up beyond the mere religious practices of many. These are My sons and daughters who will set the creation free, even as I did when I walked upon the earth. He came as a Lamb but comes as a Lion!

John 18:3 “Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.” This verse describes some of the events referred to in Acts 4:27. From a God-centered, faith-informed perspective, God was gathering this crowd against His Son. Judas, the Romans soldiers, and Jewish officials were needed for the love of God to be displayed in its glory. We should understand that God put them in Jesus' path so He could express the love of the Father to this world. We may have this same confidence. God is still expressing His love in this world through His Son in us. He puts people in our paths, some friendly and some antagonists. Knowing that the only reason they are in our lives is for God to love them through us, keeps us from stumbling and being discouraged. Jesus' perspective of this event will sound radical to the natural mind, because it is! He received them as from His Father so He could do the will of His Father for His glory. He knew these things were to occur so God's love could be defined, experienced, and expressed, not only in and through Him, but in and through everyone of His disciples throughout the remaining history of mankind. So it is with us today. God is gathering people all over the world to put them in the path of the Son of His love who lives in millions of His own throughout the world. With this understanding, I invite you to pray what I call a Live to Love prayer with me now. “Father in heaven, thank You for another day of life to live to know and love you and live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You and love everyone You put in my path today, for Your glory.” I hope you'll make this prayer a part of your daily devotions with the Lord. If you do, you'll have the same attitude that was in Christ Jesus as He walked into the garden of Gethsemane: humble, trusting, expectant, fearless, purposeful, and loving. That light shines like the sun in the darkness. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

This week, Jesus encounters a persistent Canaanite woman who refuses to take no for an answer. Peter Walsh and Elizabeth Garnsey wrestle with a provocative question: Does this woman learn something from Jesus, or might Jesus and his disciples learn something from her? Along the way, they explore what comes from the heart, the boundaries we draw around God's mercy, and the surprising grace of having our point of view conquered by love.Questions for ReflectionThemes & ApplicationThe Canaanite woman refuses to accept the boundaries that seem to determine who deserves Jesus' attention and mercy. Who are the people today whom religious communities are still tempted to keep outside the boundaries of belonging?Peter and Elizabeth offer different interpretations of Jesus' encounter with the Canaanite woman: is Jesus himself being changed, or is he intentionally creating a moment that will change his disciples? What difference does each interpretation make for how we understand Jesus?The episode contrasts the Pharisees, who are offended by Jesus, with the outsider who persistently seeks him. What might this suggest about the relationship between religious certainty and openness to encountering God in unexpected places? Personal Reflection QuestionsPeter asks, “How many times do we grow because our point of view gets conquered?” When has changing your mind actually been an important part of your spiritual growth? The Canaanite woman persists through silence, rejection, and insult. When have you had to persist in asking for something that mattered deeply to you?Jesus teaches that defilement comes from the heart rather than external observance. What attitudes or reactions within yourself are hardest for you to examine honestly?Broader Spiritual ConsiderationsWhat does it mean for Christian faith if Scripture gives us a Jesus who can appear challenging, harsh, or even capable of learning rather than the “airbrushed Jesus” Peter describes? Jesus repeatedly returns to Hosea's declaration, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” What would change if mercy, rather than correctness, became one of our primary measures of faithfulness?The episode ends with the idea of allowing ourselves to be “conquered by love.” What might that look like not simply as an individual spiritual practice, but as a way for communities and churches to live?References & ResourcesBooks & ThinkersRené Girard, I See Satan Fall Like LightningPlaces & ArtSt. Peter's Church, Jaffa — Peter references the artwork behind the altar depicting Peter's vision of the sheet descending from heaven in Acts 10.VocabularyKynárion (κυνάριον) — The Greek word translated as “dogs” in Matthew 15:26–27. It is a diminutive form of the Greek word for dog and can refer to a small or household dog. Importantly, as Peter and Elizabeth note, the comparison remains belittling regardless of the nuance. Skandalízō (σκανδαλίζω) — The Greek verb behind language of being “offended” or “caused to stumble.” Peter and Elizabeth connect it with Matthew's recurring theme of “scandal” and offense, particularly the disciples' warning that the Pharisees were offended by Jesus' teaching. Mimetic Desire — A concept associated with René Girard describing the way human beings learn what to desire through others, which can produce rivalry and competition. Elizabeth connects Girard's analysis of coveting with Jesus' insistence that destructive behavior ultimately originates in the desires of the heart.ClothingRob's “Be Kind” T-shirt, The Happy GiversLearn more about St. Mark's at https://www.stmarksnewcanaan.org

I WAS BLIND, BUT NOW I SEE John 9 is more than the healing of a man born blind; it is a picture of what happens when Jesus opens the eyes of a sinner. The man was physically blind from birth, but his story also mirrors our spiritual condition. We are born unable to truly see Christ until He gives us sight. Jesus saw the man before the man could see Him, and what looked like a lifelong tragedy became a stage for the works and glory of God to be revealed. As the man's eyes were opened, the Pharisees could not deny that something had happened, so they tried to discredit the One who did it and then discredit the man himself. That is often how the world responds to genuine transformation. If people cannot deny the evidence of what Christ has done, they may attack the person who has been changed. But the man stood on the one thing he knew: "Though I was blind, now I see." He did not know everything about Jesus yet, but he knew enough to trust the One who had opened his eyes. His parents, however, were afraid of being rejected by the religious leaders. They could see that something had happened to their son, but fear kept them from openly standing with Jesus. Their response shows how the pressure of acceptance, reputation, family, or community can keep people from confessing Christ even when His work is plainly visible. The formerly blind man grew bolder as the questioning continued. His understanding of Jesus developed from calling Him "a Man," to "a prophet," to recognizing that He must be from God, and finally to confessing, "Lord, I believe," and worshiping Him. That progression beautifully pictures discipleship: Jesus opens our eyes, and as we follow Him, we increasing

Behind the Scenes: Big Power Lives in Small WordsWhat can our words reveal about the state of our hearts? In this week's Behind the Scenes podcast, host Kevin Van Hall sits down with Pastor Laura Johnson to explore Matthew 15:10-20 and Jesus' challenging teaching about what truly makes us “clean” or “unclean.”Kevin and Laura unpack Jesus' confrontation with the Pharisees, the tension between religious tradition and the heart of God, and why Jesus shifts the focus from outward rules to what is happening within us. They also talk about the surprising power of our words—how something that seems small can have a profound impact on others and reveal what's happening in our own hearts.As part of our Small Things, Big Impact series, this conversation asks an important question: What do the words we speak tell us about the state of our hearts?Listen in as Kevin and Laura dig deeper into the Scripture behind this week's sermon and consider what it means to live a life shaped not by rules and restrictions, but by love, service, kindness, generosity, and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.

Luke 6:9-45 New International Version 9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. 11 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. The Twelve Apostles 12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. Blessings and Woes 17 He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, 18 who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, 19 and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all. 20 Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.22 Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. 23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets. 24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.25 Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry.Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.26 Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets. Love for Enemies 27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. 32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Judging Others 37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” 39 He also told them this parable: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher. 41 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. A Tree and Its Fruit 43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Notes Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28 Genesis 45:1-15 This episode explores the complex and transformative stories of Jesus' interactions with the Canaanite woman and the story of Joseph, highlighting themes of growth, forgiveness, and social justice. (00:00) Episode intro and the lectionary texts for Proper 15A   (01:35) Listener emails, including Mabel Laird's insight on Matthew 21   (05:57) Matthew 15 begins: what contaminates a person and the Canaanite woman   (08:24) Why verses 10 to 20 matter for the meaning of the story   (10:54) Jesus as one who is challenged and changed   (13:54) The theological risk of saying Jesus grew here   (15:49) The feeding of the 4,000 and the meaning of the leftovers   (17:00) The Canaanite woman will not be silenced   (19:09) Why this reading matters politically now   (20:28) Jesus' deeper debate about purity, harm, and righteousness   (22:17) Feasting on the Word quote on radical hospitality   (23:41) Strength in changing after losing the argument   (24:06) Pharisees, Jewish debate, and internal theological conflict   (26:47) Why the feeding of the 5,000 sets up the conflict   (28:16) Face to face encounter versus abstract condemnation   (30:55) Genesis 45: Joseph reveals himself to his brothers   (33:01) Why verse 8 is the hardest line in the Joseph story   (35:11) Forgiveness, race, and the pressure placed on the wounded   (38:30) The danger of romanticizing forgiveness without truth   (40:33) Privilege and the ability to ignore suffering   (42:23) Joseph's forgiveness is his prerogative, not everyone's   (44:19) God working for good without justifying evil   (47:15) Modern parallels, including fear, power, and replacement anxieties   (48:37) Closing announcements and support information

The opposition against Jesus escalates when the Pharisees and scribes criticize Jesus' disciples for not washing their hands. Although the man-made traditions surrounding God's Law may have had good intentions, Jesus rebukes these men who have let their traditions replace God's Word. To the entire crowd, Jesus teaches that true uncleanness comes not from without but from within. Jesus patiently teaches His disciples the same reality concerning the true defilement of man. People are not sinners because they sin. People sin because they are sinners. Therefore, only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring salvation to us.  Rev. Brian Flamme, pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church and School in Roswell, NM, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Matthew 15:1-20.  To learn more about Immanuel in Roswell, visit immanuelroswell.org. “The Reign of Heaven Stands Near” is a series on Sharper Iron that studies the Gospel according to St. Matthew. The first evangelist proclaims that God has fulfilled His Old Testament promises by sending Jesus to bring the reign of the heavens among us. As the Son of David, Jesus is the gracious King we need, and as the Son of Abraham, Jesus is the blessing to all the families of the earth.  Sharper Iron, hosted by Rev. Timothy Appel, looks at the text of Holy Scripture both in its broad context and its narrow detail, all for the sake of proclaiming Christ crucified and risen for sinners. Two pastors engage with God's Word to sharpen not only their own faith and knowledge, but the faith and knowledge of all who listen. Pastor Appel serves at Faith Lutheran Church in Godfrey, IL. Learn more at flcgodfrey.org. Submit comments or questions to: listener@kfuo.org

From “In the Beginning” to Amen // True Religion  Have You Ever Wondered, What Pleases God? Isaiah 58:3-12(ESV)“Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?”  Religious Activity Can Hide a Heart Far from God's Heart.  God's Heart (Light) Is Revealed in How We Treat People.  Fasting Isn't Merely Emptying Yourself of Food.It's Learning to Empty Yourself for Others.  God Turns Surrounded People into Workers of Restoration.  Jeremiah 22:3-5 (NLT)“This is what the Lord says: Be fair-minded and just. Do what is right! Help those who have been robbed; rescue them from their oppressors. Quit your evil deeds! Do not mistreat foreigners, orphans, and widows. Stop murdering the innocent! If you obey me, there will always be a descendant of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem. The king will ride through the palace gates in chariots and on horses, with his parade of attendants and subjects. But if you refuse to pay attention to this warning, I swear by my own name, says the Lord, that this palace will become a pile of rubble.”  James 1:27 (NLT)“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”  Matthew 5:14-16 (NIV)“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”  Romans 8:29 (ESV)“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Romans 8:29-30 (MSG)“God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.”  Mark 2:27 (NLT)“Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.”  Matthew 5:17-22 (NIV)“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  God Cares More About Your Availability, And He Does About Your Capability.

Are you being deceived without knowing it? In this message, Pastor Andrew traces the temple of God from the Garden of Eden all the way to YOU, and reveals why becoming a person of the Word is the only way to protect yourself from deception and house the presence of God.If the early church needed the Word to prepare for Pentecost, and even the Pharisees sang the prophecy they were fulfilling without realizing it, what makes us think we're immune?This message will challenge you to stop gambling your eternity on someone else's revelation and start building your spiritual house on the rock.

MARK 10:1-12 1 Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them. 2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" 3 "What did Moses command you?" he replied. 4 They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away." 5 "It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. 6 "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 7 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." 10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11 He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery." NIV 84 LESSON NOTES Divorce is what Moses allowed; but not what God designed. Jesus distinguishes between what Moses allowed due to our hard hearts and what God originally designed in the garden. God's pre-fall plan for marriage establishes three distinct truths: it is a relationship between a man and a woman, it functions as the strongest relationship, and it is a sacred union formed by God Himself. We are called to live out God's pre-fall plan for marriage in a post-fall world. The beauty and difficulty of marriage is that "two become one" in a broken world where sinners get married. While Jewish cultural debates focused strictly on the external, legal reasons for writing a certificate of divorce, Jesus exposes the root internal issue: hard hearts. Living out God's original intent for marriage in a post-fall world cannot be achieved through trying harder or loving better; it requires our hard hearts to be broken and compelled by the love of Christ. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1 Of the three characteristics of God's pre-fall plan for marriage - which one challenges you or encourages you the most right now and why? 2 A marriage counselor cited in the sermon advises couples to regularly say, "Remember who brought us together." How does shifting your perspective to view your marriage as a divine union change how you handle daily conflicts? 3 "Two become one" was described as both beautiful and difficult. What has been one of the hardest and one of the most beautiful parts of becoming one with your spouse? 4 Read 2 Corinthians 5:14 ("one died for all"). How does deeply internalizing the reality that Christ died for your spouse's shortcomings—just as He died for yours—transform the way you extend grace during difficult seasons?

Monday, 10 August 2026   And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: Matthew 22:1   “And answering, the ‘Jesus', again, He said in parables to them, saying,” (CG)   The previous verse finished Chapter 21, noting that when the chief priests and Pharisees wanted to lay hands on Jesus, they feared the multitudes because they took Him for a prophet. Chapter 22 begins with the words, “And answering, the ‘Jesus', again.”   It appears that what is being introduced is either chronological or at least occurring at the same general time and location. The word “answer,” as has been seen already, does not necessarily mean a question was asked, and this is in response to it. Rather, Jesus has made an observation based on the final words of Chapter 21 –   “And having heard, the chief priests and the Pharisees, His parables, they knew that concerning them, He speaks. 46And seeking Him to seize, they feared the crowds, since as ‘prophet', Him, they held.”   The coming parable is given in response to Jesus' observation of this situation. In this case, “He said in parables to them, saying...”   The use of the plural, parables, indicates an ongoing set of parables, not that He will speak more than one at this particular time. As for the parable itself, it has some similar points to the parable in Luke 14:15-24. However, they are quite different.   Because of this, scholars ridiculously debate which is the original “correct” one and which is a later amendment. Rather, as has already been seen in Matthew, Jesus uses overlapping information in His teachings, just as pastors do in their sermons. This shows consistency, not irregularity.   Likewise, it appears in Mark 12 that Jesus' conversation with the leaders ends after the parable of the wicked vinedressers. That does not exclude there being another parable first. It is simply a fact that is stated to conclude Mark's particular focus on the events.   Life application: Once we have something in our heads about a matter, we will spend our time focusing on ensuring what we believe will prove to be true.   If we are looking for fault in the person we are with, we may find it easily enough by making comparisons or suppositions that may be entirely unfounded. Instead of looking at the positive qualities of that person and the beauty of his or her being, we will look for reasons why he or she is somehow defective in our sight.   People who are told that a certain version of the Bible is the only true version will spend their time trying to justify that fact, even to the point of being unreasonable in their conclusions. Likewise, they will do everything possible to find errors in all other translations they are presented with when they do not align with the version they are sure must be correct.   Those who are looking for an answer to supposed faults in the Bible will look for an answer that accommodates faults. Those who look for an answer to differences in the Bible, while assuming it reflects God, who is perfect, will attempt to find a resolution to those differences that will not accommodate faults in the text.   However, because of this, it could be argued that those who do the latter are doing the same thing that the others are doing, just from a different perspective. Both are trying to meet an agenda that they have already established in their minds. And that may be true. But the premise of the second approach takes the nature of God into consideration. The first does not.   If there is a God, He will be perfect in Himself and in what He does. Therefore, it is more reasonable to look for the perfections in God's word than any perceived imperfections. Man, of course, has been entrusted with God's word, and so error may naturally be found in whatever man has done.   But the overall thought is that God is in control of His word in a manner that will allow us to weed out any such incorruption. Therefore, we should be reasonably assured that with diligent study, we can come closer and closer to the perfections of His word, thus eliminating the supposed imperfections that others have presented.   For a multitude of reasons, it is unrealistic to assume a single version of the Bible is the one and only “true” version. However, because God is perfect, it is reasonable to assume we can and should strive to understand His word as a book of perfection when rightly considered and researched. This is what we should strive for.   Lord God, grant us the wisdom to carefully and prayerfully consider Your word as we read it. May we look for the perfection in it that we know exists in You. As Your word is a reflection of You, we can be certain such perfection is there. Help us to have this attitude. Amen.

What happens when our confidence in being “right” becomes the very thing keeping us from recognizing our need for grace?In Week 7 of our True Fiction series, Pastor Rob unpacks Jesus' parable of The Pharisee and the Tax Collector found in Luke 18:9-14.Two men enter the Temple to pray. One stands confidently before God, convinced of his own righteousness and comparing himself to everyone around him. The other stands at a distance with nothing to offer but honesty, humility, and a desperate prayer for mercy.Yet Jesus says it was the tax collector who went home right with God.Through this powerful parable, we discover what Kingdom Humility really looks like. It isn't thinking less of ourselves. It's recognizing our need for grace and refusing to use someone else's failures to make ourselves feel righteous.Because in the Kingdom of God, we don't come to Jesus proving how good we are. We come knowing how good He is.Scripture: Luke 18:9-14

Dylan Aebersold Jesus in Samaria: Week 11, The Pharisee and the Tax Collector Luke 18:9-14, Matthew 5:3 website: jacobswellchurch.org facebook: jacobswellkc twitter: @jacobswell

Mark 10:1-12 I Mike Clarensau I A Matter of MotiveI. The Pharisees' Motive: A Test and a Desire to Drive Apart (2)II. Moses' Motive: A Concession and an Indictment of the Human ConditionIII. The Creator's Motive: A Gift and a Purpose for Marriage that hasn't ChangedIV. Jesus' Motive: A Call to Grace and to a Renewed Commitment (10-12)Our Motive: A Choice and a Path for our Future

Do you ever catch yourself thinking that being a "pretty good person" is enough to get a passing grade with God? In this foundational sermon from the "Back to School" series, Pastor Jon confronts modern culture's broken, distorted view of grace to reveal how salvation truly operates. By exploring Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18, we learn that God never compares us to others, nor does He lower His absolute standard of 100% holiness to appease our shortcomings. Real biblical grace isn't about God pretending you passed when you failed; it's about Jesus standing in as your perfect substitute to transform your identity from the inside out.

Scripture: Luke 18:9-14 Focus: Righteousness is a gift from God not something earned through works. Speaker: Matt Thornton, Pastor Date: August 9, 2026

Sunday, 9 August 2026   A summary of Matthew Chapter 21.   Chapter 17 revealed that there is a future for Israel in God's redemptive plans. The main message of Chapter 18 was that childlike faith is required to enter into the kingdom. The final parable, that of the wicked servant, dealt with Israel's rejection of Christ's fulfillment of the law, showing that they would be delivered up until they entered the New Covenant. Chapter 19 took the reader through various topics to reveal what God prioritizes. The contrasts between law and faith were seen throughout the chapter.   Chapter 20 was a chapter filled with hints of the transition from the dispensation of the law to the dispensation of grace. It dealt with order and propriety concerning each step of the redemptive process to ensure that nothing is dealt with until the previous steps are completed.   It also presented the truth that God has made faith in what He has done the necessary condition. Nothing more can be added to it, and without meeting that one condition, there is no chance of obtaining access.   Chapter 21 continues that thought, but it deals specifically with the object of that faith, Jesus Christ. The chapter began with the details concerning Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He came to Bethphage, the House of Unspiced Figs.   The fig pictures a spiritual connection to God. These being unspiced picture those who have not yet received their spiritual reconnection to God. Once spiced, the connection is made.   It was said to be at the Mount of Olives. A mountain typologically refers to a large but centralized group of people. The olive is a symbol of religious privilege. The picture anticipates those who will have the spiritual connection and who will become a part of receiving religious privilege through faith in Christ.   At Bethphage, Jesus directed two disciples to find the donkey with her colt tied at her side. As seen, the female donkey signifies permanence. She represents patient endurance. The colt signifies humanity, but being a colt that was unyoked, it signifies innocence concerning the yoke of sin. It is a picture of Christ, unstained by Adam's sin, despite having come from the line of humanity.   Matthew noted that what occurred was fulfillment of prophecy, demonstrating that Jesus is the anticipated Messiah and that Scripture was being fulfilled in Him. The spreading of the garments was seen to be a recognition by the people of Jesus' kingly status and authority.   But this kingly authority was acknowledged to be the fulfillment of the messianic promises to David. The people's proclamation recognized this in the words “Hosanna! The ‘Son, David'.” It is Jesus who came in the name of Yehovah. Whether the people realized it or not, their words are the Bible's confirmation that He is Yehovah incarnate.   When Jesus entered the temple, He drove out those who defiled it with their selling and exchanging money. After all the time of the law, the corruption of the people was never satisfactorily dealt with. Jesus' cleansing of the temple proved it was so.   How could a corruptly run temple provide cleansing for the corruption of sin in the people? The answer is that it could not. It was only a shadow of what would be fully accomplished in Christ. That was confirmed in Jesus' healing of the people in the temple.   The sin of the people could not be dealt with through the temple's rites and rituals, but Jesus demonstrated that the consequences of sin could be dealt with through Him. And He demonstrated this while right at the temple complex. While He was doing these things, the children cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”   When the leaders at the temple heard it, they were indignant. What did Jesus do? He cited Scripture, clearly implying that He is the fulfillment of what is recorded there. He is the purpose and point of the prophetic word. After that, Jesus went out to Bethany.   Various suggestions for the meaning of the name were given. Based on the surrounding context, it seems that House of Figs answers the imagery. Jesus left a place with an unacceptable spiritual connection to God because of its defilement and went to a place with a typological connection to God apart from that place.   That is then seen in the next verses where Jesus cursed the fig tree, saying that it would never bear fruit again. As seen, that was a picture of the temple, where He was heading, which was to lose its place as the point of mediation between God and man.   After that, the disciples were amazed at what took place concerning the fig. From there, Jesus' words were precise –   “Answering, also, the ‘Jesus', He said to them, ‘Amen, I say to you, if you should have faith, and not you should waver, not only the ‘the fig tree' you will do, but and-if the ‘mountain, this', you should say, ‘You be borne, and you be cast into the sea', it will become. 22And all, as much – if you should ask in the prayer, believing, you will receive.'”   As explained in those commentaries, the mountain is the mountain of the law, Horeb, which Paul says is the temple in Jerusalem. The prayer is the prayer of salvation, receiving Jesus, such as is indicated in Romans 10:9, 10 –   “...that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”   In receiving Jesus, the burden of the mountain of the law is forever removed from that person.   In verses 23-27, there was the question of John's authority, where it came from. The chief priests and elders would not answer. In turn, Jesus did not respond to their question. The law and the prophets, completed in John, fully testify to Christ Jesus. If someone will not acknowledge the source of authority concerning those things, they will never be able to identify where Jesus' authority is derived from.   Because of their lack of willingness to proclaim what should be obvious, Jesus gave the parable of the two sons. The leaders of Israel, who are supposedly the obedient by saying they will do the things the Father directs, do not do them at all.   On the other hand, the tax collectors and harlots who supposedly rejected what the Father told them to do, ultimately do them when they come to Christ. This is because Christ is the fulfillment of all the work necessary to be saved. To say you will do God's will and not accept Jesus means you failed to do God's will.   Next came the parable of the wicked vinedressers, a parable the speaks for itself. This is so much the case that the chief priests and Pharisees knew Jesus was speaking of them. Despite their desire to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitude and did not do so. This final thought is summed up in Jesus' own words –   “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” John 10:17, 18   Jesus' time had not yet come. Therefore, until He was ready to lay down His life, obstacles to others laying their hands on Him would continue to exist.   Life application: The chapter continues the Bible's theme of the law versus grace, which comes through faith. It details the means of re-obtaining the spiritual connection to God, which is only through faith in the sinless Christ. In proclaiming Christ, salvation is realized.   Israel would lose its right to be the vineyard of God. It would be taken from them and transferred to the church, a body comprised of people of faith from around the world. All people, including those of Israel, must be willing to come to Christ to be saved.   The law was and is an ineffectual means of obtaining salvation, except as it is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Believe today and be saved!   Lord God, thank You that the pressure and burden of the law is removed from us. Thank You that we have full, final, and forever access to You through the precious shed blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.   Matthew 21   21 And when they neared unto Jerusalem, and they came unto Bethphage toward the ‘Mount, the Olives', then Jesus, He sent two disciples, 2Saying to them, “You go into the village, the ‘opposite you,' and immediately you will find ‘donkey, having been bound', and ‘colt, with her'. Having loosened, you bring to Me. 3And if anyone, to you, he says anything, you will say that the Lord, these – need, He has. Immediately, also, he will send them.”   4This also, all, it having become that it should be fulfilled, the ‘having been spoken through the prophet,' saying:   5“You say to the ‘daughter, Zion', ‘You behold! The ‘King, yours', He comes to you, Benignant and having been upon-stepped upon a donkey, Even upon ‘colt, son under-yoked'.'”   6Having gone, also, the disciples, and having done just as He directed them, the ‘Jesus', 7they brought the donkey and the colt, and they upon-set atop them the ‘cloaks, theirs', and He upon-sat atop them. 8The ‘also most crowd', they spread their ‘the cloaks' in the road, others, also, they chopped branches from the trees, and they strewed in the road. 9The ‘also crowds', those preceding, and those following, they croaked, saying:   “Hosanna! The ‘Son, David'! Having been blessed, the ‘coming in Name, Lord!' Hosanna in the uppermosts!”   10And having entered, He, into Jerusalem, it was shaken, all the city, saying, “Who is this?”   11The ‘also crowds', they said, “This, He is the Prophet, Jesus, the ‘from Nazareth, the Galilee'.”   12And He entered, the ‘Jesus', into the ‘temple, the God', and He ejected all those selling and buying in the temple. And the ‘tables, the coin-dealers' He overturned, and the ‘benches, those selling' the doves. 13And He says to them, “It has been written: ‘The ‘house, Mine', ‘house, prayer' it will be called.' You also, it, you made ‘cave, robbers'.”   14And they approached Him, blind and lame, in the temple, and He cured them. 15Having seen, also, the chief priests and the scribes, the ‘wonderfuls' that He did, and the boys croaking in the temple, and saying, “Hosanna! The ‘Son, David',” they outraged. 16And they said to Him, “You hear what these, they say?”   The ‘also Jesus', He says to them,   “Yes. Never, you read that, ‘From ‘mouth, infants and sucklings' You prepared praise.'?”   17And having left them, He proceeded out of the city to Bethany, and He overnighted there.   18Daybreak, also, returning to the city, He hungered. 19And having seen ‘fig tree, one' upon the road, He came upon it, and nothing, He found in it, if not leaves only. And He says to it, “Not more from you fruit it should be, to the age.” And it desiccated straightaway, the fig tree.   20And having seen, the disciples, they wondered, saying, “How, straightaway, it desiccated, the fig tree?”   21Answering, also, the ‘Jesus', He said to them, “Amen, I say to you, if you should have faith, and not you should waver, not only the ‘the fig tree' you will do, but and-if the ‘mountain, this', you should say, ‘You be borne, and you be cast into the sea', it will become. 22And all, as much – if you should ask in the prayer, believing, you will receive.”   23And having come, Him, into the temple, they approached Him teaching, the chief priests and the ‘elders, the people', saying, “In where-such authority these, You do? And who to You, He gave the authority, this?”   24Answering, also, the ‘Jesus', He said to them, “I will entreat you, I also, word one, which if you should say to Me, I also to you, I will say in where-such authority these I do. 25The ‘immersion, John', whence it was? From heaven or from men?”   These, also, they deliberated with themselves, saying, “If we should say, ‘From heaven,' He will say to us, ‘Through why, therefore, not you believed him?' 26If, also, we should say, ‘From men,' we fear the crowd, all, for, as a prophet, they have the ‘John'.” 27And answering, the ‘Jesus', they said, “Not we have known.”   He said to them, also He, “Nor I, I tell you in where-such authority these I do.”   28“What, also you, it seems? A man, he had ‘sons, two', and having approached the first, he said, ‘Son, you go this day. You work in the ‘vineyard, mine'.' 29The ‘also answering', he said, ‘Not, I will.' Afterward, also, having regretted, he went. 30Having approached, also, the second, he said as thus. The ‘also having answered', he said, ‘I, lord.' And not he went. 31Which from the two, He did the ‘determination, the father'?”   They say to him, “The first.”   He says to them, the ‘Jesus', “Amen! I say to you that the taxmen and the prostitutes, they precede you into the ‘kingdom, the God'. 32He came, namely, John to you in ‘way, righteousness,' and not you believed him. The ‘also taxmen and the prostitutes', they believed him. You, also, having seen, not you regretted afterward the ‘believe him'.”   33Another parable, you hear, “‘Man, certain', he was ‘housemaster who, he planted –vineyard', and circuited, it, he encircled, and he dug in it – winepress, and he built – tower, and he leased it to land-workers, and he abroaded*. 34When also it neared, the ‘juncture, the fruits', he sent the ‘servants, his' to the agronomists to receive the ‘fruits, his'. 35And having taken, the agronomists, the ‘servants, his', one, indeed, they scourged. One, also, they killed. One, also, they stoned. 36Again, he sent other servants, ‘greater, the first', and they did to them as thus. 37Afterward, also, he sent to them the ‘son, his', saying, ‘They will be in-turned* of the ‘son, mine'.' 38“The ‘also, agronomists', having seen the son, they said in themselves, ‘This, he is, the heir. You come, we should kill him, and we should retain the ‘inheritance, his'.' 39And having taken him, they ejected from the vineyard, and they killed.   40When, therefore, he should come, the ‘lord, the vineyard', what he will do to the agronomists, to those?”   41They say to Him, “Worthless! Badly, he will destroy them, and the vineyard, he will lease to other farmers who, they will give him the fruits in the ‘junctures, theirs'.”   42He says to them, the ‘Jesus',   “Never you read in the Scriptures? ‘Stone – which they rejected, those building – this, It has become to ‘head, corner'. From ‘Lord', it was, this, And it is marvelous in ‘eyes, ours'.'”   43“Through this, I say to you that it will be lifted from you, the ‘kingdom, the God', and it will be given to ethnicity producing the ‘fruits, it'. 44And the ‘having fallen upon the stone, this,' he will be pulverized. Upon whoever, also, if it should fall, it will winnowize* him.”   45And having heard, the chief priests and the Pharisees, His parables, they knew that concerning them, He speaks. 46And seeking Him to seize, they feared the crowds, since as ‘prophet', Him, they held.   *Verse 33 – Greek: apodémeó, to go abroad. Abroaded is a coined word. *Verse 37 – Greek: entrepó, to invert. In a good sense, to respect, in a bad one, to confound, as in put to shame. *Verse 44 – Greek: likmaó, from likmos (a basket used for winnowing). Thus, it signifies to powderize something to a state where the winds will winnow it. Winnowize is a coined word (see NAS – “it will scatter him like dust”).

Matthew 28:11-15

The Temple Comes to Samaria Acts 8:4-25 by William Klock Remember back in Chapter 5, when Peter and John were arrested and brought before the priests and elders, and Gamaliel, one of the leading Pharisees, told his fellow council members: “Leave them alone.  If what they're doing is of human origin, it will come to ruin.  But if it's from God, you won't be able to stop them.  You might even be found to be fighting against God.”  They let Peter and John go that day, but since then they haven't been heeding Gamaliel's advice.  They stoned Stephen.  And at the end of last week's text Luke told us that Saul of Tarsus was going house to house, dragging men and women to prison and that, while the apostles remained in Jerusalem, everyone else was scattered through Jerusalem and Samaria.  And it turns out Gamaliel was right.  Neither Saul nor anyone else could stop what God was doing.  This new temple, not made with hands, not made of bricks and mortar, but instead of people, purified by the blood of Jesus and indwelt themselves by God's Spirit, this temple was going to fill the earth.  Persecution won't stop it.  Just the opposite, in fact.  Luke writes in Acts 8:4 [Page 1089 in the pew Bibles]: “Those who were scattered went all over the place announcing the word.”  These were people who knew, first hand, the transforming power of the gospel.  Many of them had been eyewitnesses to the risen Jesus.  They had seen signs and wonders, done by Jesus and then done by the apostles.  They knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that God was at work and Israel's hopes were being fulfilled.  There was no stopping them.  If they had to flee Jerusalem, so much the better.  Now the good news about Jesus would be proclaimed all over the place.  Think back to Stephen's speech before the Sanhedrin and how he'd highlighted how God works through rejection and persecution.  Joseph's brothers had sold him as a slave, but through their evil God delivered his people.  Ditto with Moses.  Pharaoh wanted all the baby boys of the Hebrews drowned, so Moses' mother put him in a basket and Providence floated him down the river right to Pharaoh's daughter.  And Jesus, the supreme example: The forces of evil and death rose up to do their worst in killing Jesus, but in doing so they played right into God's hands.  They concentrated themselves all in one place, in one great act, allowing Jesus to rise from death to conquer them.  So Saul of Tarsus, threatening the church?  God's going to use that to—to get the gospel out of Jerusalem, to all of Judaea—and even to Samaria. So Philip.  You remember Philip?  He was one of the seven in Chapter 6, whom the church chose and laid hands on to do the work that was taking the apostles away from their prayer and preaching.  Stephen was another of them.  When the church calls people and lays hands on them and commissions them to be servants of the gospel, there's no telling where that may lead.  So “Philip,” says Luke in verse 5, “went off to a town in Samaria and announced the Messiah to them.” I suspect no one would have thought—or wanted—to take the gospel to Samaria—at least not for a long time—even though Jesus had said that his church would take the gospel there.  But in the context of Acts, I think Luke wants to stress that even more than taking the gospel to Samaria, what Philip is doing is taking the temple there.  And that's pretty significant.  Samaria was the piece of land between the two Jewish territories, between Judaea in the south and Galilee in the north.  The Samaritans were the people who had lived there while the Jews were off in exile in Babylon.  We don't really know for certain the origins of the Samaritans.  They claimed—and they still claim, as they're still there to this day—that they're the descendants of what was left of the northern Israelite tribes after the nation was destroyed by the Assyrians.  The Jews claimed that the Samaritans were the people resettled in the land by the Babylonians after they'd sent the Jewish people into exile.  There's probably some truth to both.  Whatever the case, the Samaritans followed their own form of Judaism.  They had their own version of the torah, of the first five books of the Old Testament.  They rejected the Prophets and other books.  They looked forward to their own version of the Messiah.  They called him the Ta'eb or “The Returner”—the prophet Moses promised would come.  But maybe what's most important in the context of Acts, was that the Samaritans had their own temple on Mt. Gerizim.  The Jews would never let them anywhere near the temple in Jerusalem—they weren't real Jews and they had corrupted Israelite religion—but even if the Jews allowed them into the temple, the Samaritans would never go there.  As far as they were concerned, theirs was the real temple.  The Samaritans were a people utterly without God's presence. And now Philip finds his way there and carries the for real real temple to a people who didn't even know the old one.  And when God's temple arrives in Samaria, the people can't help but notice.  Verse 6: “The crowds, acting as one, clung to what Philip was saying, as they heard him and saw the signs he performed.  For unclean spirits came out of many of them, and several who were paralyzed or lame were cured.  So there was great joy in that town.” “But there was a man named Simon, who had lived in the town for some while and who practiced magic. He used to astonish the Samaritan people, giving out that he was some great personage.  Everyone, small and great alike, paid attention to him, and said, “This man is the one called ‘God's Great Power'!”  [Luke might be hinting that the people thought of Simon as maybe being the Ta'eb, the Samaritan “Messiah”.] They had been under his spell for some time, since they were amazed at the magic he could perform.  But when they believed Philip as he was announcing to them the message about God's kingdom and the name of Jesus the Messiah, they were baptized, men and women alike.  Simon too believed and was baptized, paying close attention to Philip.  When he saw signs, and great and powerful deeds, it was his turn to be astonished.” The devil was doing one thing in Judaea in a futile attempt to quash the gospel.  He was doing something else to the same end in Samaria.  He'd been doing it for a long time, leading the Samaritans away from God's torah and God's temple.  Now there's this man, Simon, who has enchanted these Samaritans with his magic.  Maybe it was just sleight of hand magic, but the way Luke, throughout Acts, contrasts magic with the power of the Holy Spirit, it seems like Simon actually did have some kind of power and if that power wasn't from God, it was coming from demonic forces of some kind.  That's just the sort of thing the devil would do to lead people astray.  But Philip, empowered by God's Spirit, it's obvious to everyone—even to Simon—his power was different and it was far superior.  Seeing it, these people believed the good news about Jesus that Philip was proclaiming.  And they did what believers do: they were baptised.  Like Israel following God through the Red Sea and into the promised land, in faith these Samaritan followed Jesus through the waters of baptism and into God's new creation. Samaritans embracing and giving their allegiance to Jesus may not seem like a big deal to us, but it was a really big deal to everyone involved.  Again, Samaritans and Jews didn't mix.  Even though Jesus had said that his disciples would take the good news to Samaria, they had no plan to go there—and probably little or no desire to.  But God had a plan to get them there, and when Philip does end up in Samaria, he doesn't let that hold him back.  It's pretty clear that these early believers thought of the gospel as something for Jews, but—hey—if gentiles came to them and wanted in, if Samaritans heard and believed, that was great.  They saw God at work in these people, even if these people weren't their evangelistic priority. And yet, something odd happens.  These Samaritans hear the gospel, see God at work, they believe, they're baptised, but there's something missing.  I suspect Philip noticed it immediately and sent word back to Jerusalem—excited on one hand, but concerned on the other.  Verse 14: “When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received God's word, they sent Peter and John to them.  When they arrived, they prayed for them, asking that they would receive the Holy Spirit, since up to that point the Spirit had come upon none of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.  Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.” Like I said, something was missing.  The Spirit was clearly at work.  Faith in Jesus is a gift of the Spirit and no one comes to Jesus without the Spirit first moving in the heart.  But so far in Acts, when people believed and were baptised, they all had some kind of experience of being transformed by the Spirit  They were obviously different.  The Spirit did a work of new creation in them.  And they typically—and immediately—displayed supernatural gifts.  Some prophesied, some healed, some spoke in other languages, and so on.  Whenever we see God doing something new in the story of redemption, it's usually got miracles clustered all around it and we see this no less in the early days of the church.  Bringing Samaritans to Jesus was very much something new.  But this time the miracles didn't happen.  I expect Philip was surprised.  What was wrong?  So he sent word to Jerusalem and Peter and John decided to go see for themselves.  And, sure enough, something was missing.  These people had believed, but the Spirit—God—hadn't yet come to live in them  They were not yet part of the new temple. I don't know if Peter and John understood everything at this point.  I suspect that they just recognised that these new believers were lacking the indwelling Spirit.  It was weird and inexplicable at the time.  And so Peter and John just did the only thing that made sense: they laid their hands on these people and prayed that God would give them his Spirit.  And God did.  Luke doesn't say how it was obvious, but it was apparently obvious that the Spirit had filled the Samaritans.  And I think as time passed, Peter and John and the others started to figure out what God was doing in withholding the very thing—I should say, the very person—who fulfils God's promises to dwell with his people.  By the time Luke wrote, it all made perfect sense. You see, there was always a danger that the Samaritans would hear the gospel and believe, but that because of the divide between them and the Jews, the Samaritans would end up with a separate church of their own.  A lot of them would have been perfectly happy to have it that way and plenty of Jewish believers would no doubt be happy to have it that way.  But that would undermine the very gospel itself.  God doesn't have multiple people.  He has one.  With all our divisions in the church today, it's easy to forget this, but Jesus was clear: God has one people and one of the essentials of the gospel is that it heals the breaches, heals the divisions, heals the animosity between the people of the world.  We saw the first dramatic sign of this healing at Pentecost as the men there heard the gospel proclaimed in their own languages.  It was a dramatic reversal of the Tower of Babel episode.  And now it happens with the Samaritans.  God withholds his Spirit from them in order to get Peter and John to pray and lay hands on them and in that God makes it clear to everyone that they are all united in Jesus and the Spirit.  The apostles and the Jewish believers can't dismiss the Samaritan believers and neither can the Samaritans—with their long history of doing their own thing and having their own temple—neither can they act as if they have no need of or can be separate from the Jewish believers. We need to be careful we don't mistake Luke's point here.  We often read this passage at confirmations when the bishop lays hands on us and prays for us to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit.  But Luke wasn't thinking about confirmation.  Confirmation is a rite that developed centuries later.  Pentecostals and Charismatics use this passage to explain their experience, arguing that this passage proves that receiving the Holy Spirit is a second work of grace apart from baptism and conversion.  But that's not Luke's point either.  In fact, his point is that what happened with the Samaritans, with God withholding the Spirit, was unique—a one-off thing—that was necessary to ensure everyone knew that there is one church, one body and that our unity in diversity is one of the gospel's most powerful witnesses to God setting the human race to rights.  The whole thing that made this episode stand out was the delay in the Samaritans receiving the Holy Spirit, because the indwelling of the Spirit it not a second blessing or a second work of grace.  It's what happens when we believe and are baptised.  It's what makes us God's temple.  Jesus purifies us so that the Spirit can fill us. And then Simon the Magician. The gospel goes to a new place, but the same old problem comes up again.  In Jerusalem it was Ananias and Sapphira.  The devil crept in.  They let their love of money compromise the purity so essential to being God's temple.  They serve as a warning: Jesus purifies us so that we can be God's temple, but to remain God's temple requires continued purity.  And now the Samaritan believers their own warning about this.  Verse 18: “When Simon saw that the spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money.  “Give me this power too,” he said, “so that anyone I lay my hands on will receive the holy spirit.”  “May your silver die with you!” retorted Peter. “Did you really think that God's gift could be bought with money?  You have no part or share in this word!  Your heart is not straight before God.  So repent from this wickedness, and pray to the Lord.  Perhaps he will forgive the scheme you had in your heart.  I can see that you are still stuck in the bitter poison and chains of unrighteousness.”  “Pray to the Lord for me,” said Simon in reply, “that none of what you've said will happen to me.”  After Peter and John had finished bearing witness and speaking the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, announcing the good news to many Samaritan villages.” Simon liked the status his magic gave him.  And now he sees something really amazing, something that clearly and dramatically upstaged whatever it was that he was doing.  And Simon wanted it.  But it wasn't so much the Holy Spirit that Simon wanted.  Tricks were nice.  He'd been doing them for a long time.  But what Simon wanted was the ability to control people.  He didn't want the Holy Spirit.  He wanted what he thought Peter and John had: he wanted the ability to lay hands on people and to give them the Spirit. And in that, Simon was exposed.  It wasn't about Jesus for Simon.  It wasn't about being God's temple.  It wasn't about being purified by the cross.  It wasn't about being part of God's new creation.  Simon was still firmly part of the old.  He wanted to use and control people for his own personal gain and prestige.  His old magic had been upstaged.  No one would be impressed by it anymore.   But if he could be like Peter and John, if he could lay hands on people himself and impart the Spirit to them, well, then he's be back on top of things.  For those who read The Magician's Nephew this month, he's like Uncle Andrew, seeing a new world being miraculously born around him and new life sprouting from the ground, and all he can think of is bring bits of iron to plant so they can grow into factories and battleships to make him rich. He was blind.  He heard the gospel.  He heard the good news about Jesus.  He saw the life the Spirit in these people and he saw new creation being born.  But he wasn't interested any of it.  He just wanted to be in control.  He saw it as a way to get rich.  So he offers to buy this gift from Peter and John—as if it was theirs to sell.  As if it was their power to impart the Spirit. But Peter and John had no such power.  They didn't go around laying hands on people and giving them the Spirit any more than a modern-day Anglican bishop or Pentecostal evangelist does so.  This was a unique situation.  God gives the Spirit, not men, not preachers, not bishops, not even apostles.  This was simply a case in which it was necessary for both the Jews and the Samaritans to understand that they were one people in Jesus and the Spirit. The crazy thing is that we still see this sort of thing despite all the warnings in scripture.  There are far too many people out there, preachers—people calling themselves “apostles”—offering the Spirit or his gifts for money, as if those gifts are the work of human beings and not God.  I expect that when Simon asked Peter and John to sell him this gift—one they didn't even actually have—Peter immediately remembered Ananias and then Sapphira falling dead at his feet.  Because he knew, this false idea needed to die.  If allowed to fester, it would corrupt the church. And so he rebuked Simon—who, by God's mercy isn't struck dead on the spot.  “You're no believer, Simon.  You're still stuck in the bitter poison and chains of unrighteousness.” Luke tells us that Simon asked them to pray for him so that he wouldn't fall under God's judgement.  I have to wonder if they told him about Ananias and Sapphira and left him quaking in his boots.  Luke doesn't tell us what happened to him, whether he eventually understood and actually believed the gospel or not.  What Luke wants to stress here, what we shouldn't lose of, is that the Spirit is not under human control.  The Holy Spirit isn't magic.  Magic is the human attempt to manipulate God.  Humans have been trying to figure out ways to do that ever since our fall.  Magic treats God like a vending machine.  Push B5 to get this or push D2 to get that.  Say this spell, offer this sacrifice—follow the right formula and you can control the divine.  The so-called “Prosperity Gospel” is a modern version of this.  But you don't have to be into the Prosperity Gospel or the Word-Faith movement to be guilty of thinking you can control God.  When we bargain with God, we're doing the same thing.  We think that if we offer God this or that, we obligate him to give us something in return.  Brothers and Sisters, God's been teaching his people from the beginning that he doesn't work this way.  He's sovereign.  He sends his Spirit as a mighty rushing wind and, as Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Those who are born of that Spirit are blown along with it.”  Those who surrender themselves to Jesus and the Spirit are blown into purity, blown into holiness, blown into godliness, blown into ministry and blown into mission.  That's what Luke shows us in Acts.  Jesus purifies us, the Spirit fills, and in those acts God make us his living temple.  A temple through which he will make himself known and through which he will eventually fill the earth with his presence. In this morning's Collect we asked the Lord to teach to us to ask for the things that please him.  Brothers and Sisters, if we understand ourselves to be his temple, his working model of new creation in the midst of the old, I can hardly think of a better prayer.  It's a prayer very much like “on earth as in heaven”.  A prayer that sets aside our own agendas and ask for God to bring us into his.  I'd like to close praying that Collect again. Let your merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of your humble servants; and, that we may obtain what we ask of you, teach us to ask for those things that please you, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

see link below: https://pastorsteverhodes.com/2026/08/09/come-humbly-before-god-he-accepts-us-based-on-jesuss-death-and-resurrection-luke-189-14/

“They weave the spider's web.” — Isaiah 59:5 See the spider's web, and behold in it a most suggestive picture of the hypocrite's religion. It is meant to catch his prey: the spider fattens himself on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward. Foolish persons are easily entrapped by the loud professions of pretenders, and […]

Saturday, 8 August 2026   But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet. Matthew 21:46   “And seeking Him to seize, they feared the crowds, since as ‘prophet', Him, they held.” (CG)   In the previous verse, it said that having heard Jesus' parables, the chief priests and Pharisees perceived that He was speaking of them. Next, it says, “And seeking Him to seize, they feared the crowds.”   It is the same trepidation they had in verse 26. Jesus asked them a question about the source of John's authority. They refused to answer, one reason for which was that they feared the crowds. And it is for that same reason that they again feared the crowds, “since as ‘prophet', Him, they held.”   Verse 26 said, “If, also, we should say, ‘From men,' we fear the crowd, all, for, as a prophet, they have the ‘John'.”   The leaders, demonstrating their unfitness to lead the people, had to work behind the scenes rather than openly. Therefore, they held off, waiting for the time when they could be rid of Him. The stage is being set for the fulfillment of God's plan. Christ, the true Passover, was being readied to complete His earthly mission.   Life application: In the days of Jeremiah, a weak and ineffective king, Zedekiah, ruled in Jerusalem. Like the leaders of Jesus' time, he was afraid of the people more than acknowledging the ways of the Lord. In Jeremiah 38, it says –   And Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have defected to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they abuse me.” 20 But Jeremiah said, “They shall not deliver you. Please, obey the voice of the Lord which I speak to you. So it shall be well with you, and your soul shall live. 21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is the word that the Lord has shown me: 22 ‘Now behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah's house shall be surrendered to the king of Babylon's princes, and those women shall say: “Your close friends have set upon you And prevailed against you; Your feet have sunk in the mire, And they have turned away again.”' 23 ‘So they shall surrender all your wives and children to the Chaldeans. You shall not escape from their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon. And you shall cause this city to be burned with fire.'” Jeremiah 38:19-23   Instead of listening to the word of the Lord given through the prophet, Zedekiah feared what man could do to him. In the end, it cost him greatly. Those around him were either killed or taken into captivity. His sons were killed before his eyes, and then his eyes were put out. He was taken to Babylon in bronze fetters, and he stayed in prison there for the rest of his life.   We who have called on Jesus have been given the word of the Lord to read and accept. The Lord tells us that no matter what happens to us in this life, we are safe in His hands. And yet, we cling to this life as if it is all we will ever experience.   In health, we try to get every moment of pleasure we can out of it. Vacations, new cars, a better refrigerator, only the best sheets and towels, etc. We become so consumed with this life that we forget to focus our attention on God, His word, and His sure promises that what lies ahead will be so much better than whatever we have here.   In sickness, we fear death, as if it were the great enemy that will prevail over us forever. We shake at the thought of that moment coming. And yet, it is a transitory step to the greatest experience we will ever know.   Tomorrow may never come. Instead of the cancer we have, we may die in a car accident on the way to the next treatment. So why do we become so fearful? We don't have a single bit of authority over the time of our demise. God knew before the world was created when that day would come.   Let us live our lives with joy in thinking of God's goodness. Let us bask in the wonder of God's love. Let us live confidently in the promises He has made, never waffling or fearful of what we cannot control.   Don't be like the weak-kneed leaders of Israel who constantly failed to be reassured in God's ways. Be like the heroes of the faith, like David, who trusted in God's provision with his very life. This is what will be pleasing to the Lord. Stand firm that God has it all taken care of for you, because He does.   Lord God, the Bible is like a mirror, reflecting on our lives as we live in Your presence. Seeing how things occur in the word can then mold us into better people, filled with confidence, as we convert our ways to be in accord with Your will. May it be so for each of us. Amen.

The Pharisee in Me — Exposing and Destroying the Spirit of Hypokritēs This teaching uncovers the hidden “actor spirit” Yeshua confronted in Matthew 23 — the mask of external righteousness that hides an untransformed heart. We trace the Hebraic roots of the Pharisees, reveal the seven hypocrisies Yeshua condemned, and call God's people out of performance and into purity, truth, and authentic covenant living. #SpeakISay #PhariseeInMe #Hypokrites #PropheticTeaching #UnmaskTheHeart #JesusisLord #KingdomExtreme

Today David offers a second way in which he believes a number of Christians have lost touch with Christ when it comes to politics, law, and public policy. It shocked the Pharisees of old, and it will probably shock the political pharisees among today's Christians. Find out what it is.

Today David offers a second way in which a number of Christians seem to have lost touch with Christ when it comes to politics, law, and public policy. It shocked the Pharisees of old, and it will probably shock today's political pharisees. Find out what it is.Support the show: https://www.factennessee.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Friday, 7 August 2026   Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. Matthew 21:45   “And having heard, the chief priests and the Pharisees, His parables, they knew that concerning them, He speaks.” (CG)   In the previous verse, Jesus told the leaders He was speaking about the results of falling on the stone or having the stone fall on someone. With that, it next says, “And having heard, the chief priests and the Pharisees, His parables, they knew that concerning them, He speaks.”   The light finally dawned on them. Jesus has been telling them these parables, but their minds were completely dulled to the fact that He was speaking His words about them. Jesus spoke of two sons being asked to go into the vineyard. The first said that he wouldn't, but later did. The second said he would, but later didn't.   After that, Jesus explained to them what He was speaking about. The next parable was about the wicked vinedressers who killed the servants sent to them and then killed the son. Once Jesus cited the psalm and then told them that the kingdom would be taken from them and given to another nation, they realized the parable itself was about them. They are the wicked vinedressers.   That would have been a bitter pill for them to swallow, and it would have enraged them. That reaction will be seen in the verse to come.   Life application: How often do we not see what is evident to others? We let our own sense of pride or self-worth shut out our own failings. Instead, we look at the failings of others while overlooking the same type of things in ourselves. James speaks of this -   “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you do well; 9 but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,' also said, ‘Do not murder.' Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” James 2:8-13   We may not commit the same offenses as others, but our offenses are no less wrong. A single sin eternally separates us from God. Jesus is the answer to this problem. When we come to Christ, all sin is forgiven. As this is true, when someone with his own sinful life comes to Christ, he will receive the same forgiveness.   Extending that thought to others, we can see that no matter how bad someone is, he can be redeemed. Our job is to compassionately tell all people about Jesus. If they reject Him, that is their decision. But we shouldn't look down on others because of the sin they are stuck in until they have made that decision.   If they reject Jesus, we should pity them. Eternity is a long time, and we are all going to spend it somewhere. Jesus spoke to the leaders of Israel, warning them of what was ahead. They chose to reject Him. But even after crucifying Him, they could have come to Him and been saved.   Let us continue to be positive examples of Jesus for others to see. It isn't easy when someone is so violently opposed to the message of Christ, but it is right that we try to always uphold our witness before others.   Lord God, help us to remember that others who have not called on You have no hope of eternity with You. May we be willing to extend ourselves to the greatest extent possible to bring a chance of salvation through sharing the gospel. To Your glory, we pray. Amen.

Today David offers a second way in which he believes a number of Christians have lost touch with Christ when it comes to politics, law, and public policy. It shocked the Pharisees of old, and it will probably shock the political pharisees among today's Christians. Find out what it is.

Jesus now speaks and warns His disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy. The word hypocrisy means to act under a guise, like an actor playing a part while wearing a costume to give the appearance of reality.These religious rulers were doing this, playing the part of having a relationship with God, which they did not have. They proved this by rejecting Jesus, God's Son. There was no reality or truth in them.Jesus warns us His disciples of these kind of religious leaders. Keep your eyes and ears on Jesus who is the truth.Next, Jesus gives us His encouragement about the detail of God's care for each one of us. Dr. Mitchell relates that even our times are in His hands. During which time, we can confess Jesus as our savior and Lord.Here is Dr. Mitchell, Luke 12:1. this is the Unchanging Word Bible Broadcast.

John 3:1-8 (from the Archive)New Living Translation3 There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. 2 After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?”5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don't be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit.”Music: "Rest in the Shadow" by Julian & Melissa Wiggins,Used with permission.

Many wonder if they've committed the unpardonable sin. When Jesus warned against it, He was talking with the Pharisees who wanted to destroy Him. In this message from Matthew 12, Pastor Lutzer shares two defining lessons about the unpardonable sin. Let's discover the freedom of belonging fully to the One who has already triumphed over Satan. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/172/29?v=20251111

Many wonder if they've committed the unpardonable sin. When Jesus warned against it, He was talking with the Pharisees who wanted to destroy Him. In this message from Matthew 12, Pastor Lutzer shares two defining lessons about the unpardonable sin. Let's discover the freedom of belonging fully to the One who has already triumphed over Satan. This month's special offer is available for a donation of any amount. Get yours at https://rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Moody Church Media [https://www.moodymedia.org/], home of "Running To Win," exists to bring glory to God through the transformation of lives. Erwin W. Lutzer is Pastor Emeritus of The Moody Church in Chicago, where he served as Senior Pastor for 36 years. He is a prolific author of over seventy books. A clear expositor of the Bible, he is the featured speaker on "Running To Win" and "Songs In The Night," with programs broadcasting on over a thousand outlets in the U.S. and across more than fifty countries in seven languages. He and his wife, Rebecca, live in the Chicago area. They have three grown children and eight grandchildren.   SUPPORT: Tax Deductible Support: https://www.moodymedia.org/donate/ Become an Endurance Partner: https://endurancepartners.org/   SUBSCRIBE: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MoodyChurchMedia Daily Devotional and Weekly Digest: https://www.moodymedia.org/newsletters/subscription/

The parable of the Publican and Pharisee presents an opportunity to reflect on our own hypocrisy when we exalt ourselves at the expense of others. It is altogether easy to point to the faults of others without reflecting prayerfully on our own. We must humble ourselves before God. In every endeavor in our lives, there is a the reality that we have sinned. For that, we need to seek Our Lord's forgiveness. We must also remain vigilant to refrain from judging others who are seeking the same grace.

Dave's summer vacation got cut from three months down to two, and Adam has a theory. New baby, plus he hasn't been working near as hard. Dave tried to get a second opinion from Anthony Fauci, who invoked the Fifth on advice of counsel, so we're left with the ruling as it stands. Either way, the new van is getting loaded and the Niles family is headed to a cabin in Michigan for two weeks. Fifties at night, fires in the morning and the evening, which means chopping enough firewood to replace what you burn. Golf, swimming, and a little aluminum fishing boat that Davey gets to ride in. Joseph and Joshua stay on shore. Joseph has a big knot on his head at the moment anyway.Sponsor: Amen app (from the Augustine Institute) Sunday morning in a Catholic family is not easy like Sunday morning. It's kids in the van, beat Father down the aisle, get to the pew. The Amen app is how the guys prepare their kids to receive the Gospel before Mass even starts, plus free access to Divine Mercy in My Soul and True Devotion to Mary. Since 2021 it's hit 950,000 downloads. Let's get them to a million. No paywall, no subscription, no upfront cost. Download the Amen app right now.Sponsor: Select International Tours When Adam and Dave went looking for help leading their first pilgrimage, every single person pointed them to Select International Tours. Having used them, the guys can vouch. Wherever in the world you want to go, head to selectinternationaltours.com and see what they have ready.On the drive back from Lady Pamela's family reunion in Arkansas, Dave counted three mopeds inside 45 minutes, which would be unremarkable in Portland and is deeply strange here. A moped gang remains unconfirmed but would be extremely cool. His reading time is going to Plato's Republic with the group at Deacon Harrison's house, book 10 now, while Adam has missed it all year and is on record that he'll haunt them if they kick him out.Dave also saw the new Odyssey movie, alongside Dr. Frank Grabowski, Juan in a dog onesie as Argos, and Deacon Harrison Garlick, who announced in the group text beforehand: "I have filled my heart with hate." Verdict, 7.5 for entertainment. They shouldn't have tried to cram the whole epic into one film, they changed the ending, which you can't do, and they folded the lotus eaters into Calypso's island. That last one guts the most important choice in the story. Odysseus rejects immortality for his family. That's the whole thing.The pour is Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey, the flagship, from a bottle the distiller sent the guys when the show started and that has sat on the shelf about ten years since. The label reads: Warning, contains high levels of manliness. No age statement, and no, ten years in your house doesn't count. Whiskey only ages in the barrel. Small batch, four barleys, virgin charred American white oak. Not bourbon, not 51% corn. Made in the style of Scotch, right here in America.Then the topic: the five precepts of the Church, Catechism 2041, page 548 if you've got the classic 90s edition. This is the Church flexing authority, which she rarely does. Most of what she does is defensive. Papal infallibility is a negative power, not a positive one. The precepts are different. They bind, and they're the floor, not the ceiling.Attend Mass on Sundays and holy days, and rest from servile labor. Everybody knows the first half. The second half is the one that stings, because going out to eat after Mass means you're compelling somebody else to work. Nurses show up, gas stations stay open, and nobody needs to be demolished by guilt over a trip to the store. Don't be a Pharisee about it. Do take it seriously.Confess your sins at least once a year, meaning your mortal sins. Go monthly anyway, and do a daily examination of conscience, because you can't remember what you ate two days ago, much less where you lost your temper 28 days ago. Dave prays to Our Lady on the way in: help me make this confession as if it were my last. Adam leaves his phone outside, because it's listening, and that's not a conspiracy. And if you deliberately hold a mortal sin back, the confession is invalid and you've just added to the pile. Compound interest is powerful. Compound sin is worse.Receive the Eucharist at least during the Easter season. Observe the days of fasting and abstinence, which used to be far heavier, and nothing is stopping you from going heavier now. Adam has never once enjoyed fasting. Dave eats nothing until dinner and swears he thinks more clearly for it. Both of them fast every Wednesday with a group of men and offer it up for their wives and their families. That's the domestic priesthood doing what it's for.And help provide for the needs of the Church. Notice it doesn't say if you can afford it. Money is the easy part. Time is the sacrifice, especially in the seasons of fatherhood when there isn't any. Fr. Brian O'Brien's answer when somebody says the church really ought to do this: "I totally agree. You should do it." Your kids need to see you make some of your time sacred, not because nothing else was asking for it, but because you told everything else no.It all lands on stewardship. You don't owe God 10%. You owe Him 100%. The house, the money, the hours, and most of all the kids were never yours, and He's going to want all of it back. Adam is honest about where that gets hard: leaving work drained, walking in the door, wanting to shut down instead of engage. The fix isn't willpower. It's routine. A liturgy of the home. Because those minutes belong to Him too, and at judgment there won't be a single moment that goes unjudged.One housekeeping note. The Camp Out is always the last weekend of September, so put it on the calendar now. Sign-ups open at the end of August, late on purpose, because opening early means people sign up and don't come, and space is limited. Patrons still come free. This year the guys will be asking for donations on site, because Patreon numbers are down and 100% of what comes in goes straight back into the show. Neither of them takes an income from it.Protect what you were given. Provide more than the minimum. Establish a house that looks like the King is coming back for it. Raise your glass.TOPICS COVEREDDave's summer vacation demoted from three months to two, with Fauci pleading the Fifth on the scienceTwo weeks at a Michigan cabin, chopping firewood to replace what you burn, and a little aluminum fishing boat15,000 miles on a brand new van because Oklahoma City is a multiple-times-a-week tripThree mopeds in 45 minutes in Arkansas, and the unconfirmed existence of a moped gangReading Plato's Republic with the group at Deacon Harrison's, book 10, and Adam's threat to haunt them if he gets kicked outThe new Odyssey movie reviewed: Juan in a dog onesie as Argos and Harrison Garlick arriving with his heart pre-filled with hateWhy folding the lotus eaters into Calypso's island wrecks the most important choice in the storyWhiskey of the week: Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey, on the shelf ten years, "warning, contains high levels of manliness"Why an age statement stops the day it's bottled, because whiskey only ages in the barrelWhat makes Stranahan's American whiskey and not bourbon: four barleys, virgin charred American white oak, made in the style of ScotchBringing back the old show warning, sporadically and without noticeThe five precepts of the Church, Catechism 2041, and why they're the floor and not the ceilingPapal infallibility as a negative, defensive power versus the precepts as the Church flexing positive authorityWhy the Church legislates as little as possible and prefers freedom from the law over obedience to itResting from servile labor: the case against going out to eat after Mass, and why nurses and gas stations are fineSt. John Chrysostom on why you cannot pray at home the way you pray in churchConfessing mortal sins at least once a year, and why monthly confession is the better habitThe daily examination of conscience as the thing that makes confession possible at allDave's prayer to Our Lady walking into the confessional: make this confession as if it were my lastWhy Adam leaves his phone outside the confessionalSt. Alphonsus Liguori on concealing sin, and why an intentionally incomplete confession is invalid and grave matterThe Easter duty and St. Thomas Aquinas on why the Eucharist completes what baptism beginsAquinas's threefold purpose of fasting, and why the second reason is the most interesting oneSt. Basil the Great: fasting as a weapon for the valiant and a gymnasium for athletesFasting every Wednesday with a group of men and offering it up for your wife and familyProviding for the needs of the Church with time, not just money, and Fr. Brian O'Brien's "you should do it"Why churches were built with a piazza out front, and what that says about communityStewardship: you don't owe God 10%, you owe Him 100%, and He wants your kids back"It's the King's house" as a reason to actually take care of what you haveComing home mentally exhausted and shutting down instead of engaging, and why routine beats willpowerThe liturgy of the home: building routines so a weak will has somewhere to fallCatholic Man Show Camp Out: always the last weekend of September, sign-ups open at the end of AugustREFERENCED IN THIS EPISODEBooks &...

“Who do you say that Jesus is?” When Jesus healed a demon-oppressed man, the Pharisees claimed His power came from Satan rather than God. In this message from Matthew 12, Pastor Lutzer shares three reasons Jesus proved His divine authority. Our answer to one question determines our eternity. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/172/29?v=20251111

"Who do you say that Jesus is?" When Jesus healed a demon-oppressed man, the Pharisees claimed His power came from Satan rather than God. In this message from Matthew 12, Pastor Lutzer shares three reasons Jesus proved His divine authority. Our answer to one question determines our eternity. This month's special offer is available for a donation of any amount. Get yours at https://rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Moody Church Media [https://www.moodymedia.org/], home of "Running To Win," exists to bring glory to God through the transformation of lives. Erwin W. Lutzer is Pastor Emeritus of The Moody Church in Chicago, where he served as Senior Pastor for 36 years. He is a prolific author of over seventy books. A clear expositor of the Bible, he is the featured speaker on "Running To Win" and "Songs In The Night," with programs broadcasting on over a thousand outlets in the U.S. and across more than fifty countries in seven languages. He and his wife, Rebecca, live in the Chicago area. They have three grown children and eight grandchildren.   SUPPORT: Tax Deductible Support: https://www.moodymedia.org/donate/ Become an Endurance Partner: https://endurancepartners.org/   SUBSCRIBE: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MoodyChurchMedia Daily Devotional and Weekly Digest: https://www.moodymedia.org/newsletters/subscription/

Wednesday, 5 August 2026   “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. Matthew 21:43   “Through this, I say to you that it will be lifted from you, the ‘kingdom, the God,' and it will be given to ethnicity producing the ‘fruits, it'.” (CG)   In the previous verse, Jesus cited Scripture to the chief priests and Pharisees, concerning the stone which the builders rejected being the chief cornerstone. Based on that, He next says, “Through this, I say to you that it will be lifted from you, the ‘kingdom, the God'.”   Israel was selected among the nations of the world to bear the message of the One true God, keeping a remembrance of Him and representing Him before the nations. The Law of Moses was given to the people to guide their conduct and to regulate their society.   The tabernacle (and later temple) with its sacrificial system, as prescribed in the law, was how the nation maintained a right relationship with God. These things were given to them as types and pictures of the coming Messiah.   Within the law itself, as spoken through the prophets, a New Covenant was promised (as indicated in Jeremiah 31). A New Covenant implies the ending of the Old Covenant. With that occurring, there would be a new order of things within God's economy, as metaphorically seen in the vineyard parable.   Those who once were the stewards of the covenant would be removed, allowing for new stewards to come in and tend to the vineyard. Because the leaders of Israel rejected Christ, as indicated in His citing of the psalm, something known by God in advance and as prophesied there, the kingdom of God would be lifted from them, “and it will be given to ethnicity producing the ‘fruits, it'.”   The word ethnicity is described by Strong as, “race (as of the same habit), i.e. A tribe; specially, a foreign (non-Jewish) one (usually, by implication, pagan) -- Gentile, heathen, nation, people.”   Here, it is singular. This does not mean a single nation of people would be given the kingdom. Rather, it is a singular group comprised of all nations, including those Jews who would believe the message. As such, and as the nation of Israel comprises only a teeny percent of the people of the world, this would be a prominently Gentile led group. That is explicitly stated by Paul as Acts was ending -   “So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word: ‘The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, 26 saying, “Go to this people and say: ‘Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; And seeing you will see, and not perceive; 27 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.'” 28 Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!' 29 And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves.”  Acts 28:25-29   Paul speaks of this further in his epistles. In Christ, there is one group formed out of many. It is inclusive of Jews and Gentiles, with none being considered any more special than any other.   Life application: Jesus never addresses the millennial kingdom here. He simply states a fact concerning Israel as a nation and what would happen in regard to the New Covenant. What He said is just what came about. God did take the vineyard from Israel, and He did give it to another nation.   To assume that this is the end of the story for Israel is to assume too much. If the church will end at the rapture, as is clearly described in Paul's writings, it would be ludicrous to think that the people on earth would be left without a working economy where God continues to deal with man.   Where will such a system come from? It is explained in Scripture. The nations of the world will be led by Israel. Israel will be led by their worship of Christ Jesus, the One they had long-rejected as their Messiah.   To say that Israel is out (which is currently true) and that they have no useful purpose as a nation in the future is to disregard a large portion of Scripture from both testaments. It is a very poor handling of what God has laid out in His word. Be assured that His rejection of them during this dispensation will have an end after the church is taken to glory.   Lord God, give us wisdom in understanding Your word. Help us to consider what it says is reliable and will come to pass if promises have been made that are as yet unfulfilled. Nothing in Your word will be left undone. Grant us this understanding so that we will always keep things in their proper context. Amen.

Today’s Topics: 1) Gospel – Matthew 15:1-2, 10-14 – Some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they eat a meal.” He summoned the crowd and said to them, “Hear and understand. It is not what enters one's mouth that defiles the man; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one.” Then His disciples approached and said to Him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what You said?” He said in reply, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” Memorial of Saint John Vianney, Priest Saint John, pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3, 4) Drew Mason joins Terry

"How does Jesus outwit the Pharisees and reveal the heart of the law? Tune in to witness a powerful lesson in love and truth.In this episode, Jesus engages in a profound encounter with the Pharisees, challenging their understanding of the greatest commandment and leaving them speechless with His wisdom. The disciples, reflecting on His teachings and actions, are filled with awe and gratitude for the love and guidance Jesus provides.Today's Bible verse is Matthew 22:37, from the King James Version.Download the ⁠Pray.com⁠ app for more Christian content including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories.Pray.com is the digital destination for faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Friends of the Rosary,In today's Gospel (Matthew 15:1-2, 10-14), Jesus warns that religious habits are not enough if the heart is far from God. The Pharisees focus on external tradition, but Jesus points deeper: what comes out of a person reveals what is inside.Also, today, August 4, we honor Saint John Vianney (1786-1859), also known as the Curé of Ars. Born in France in 1786, during the French Revolution, he was sent as a parish priest to Ars, a small village that was spiritually lukewarm. Here he spent forty-two years of his life, devoting himself to prayer, mortification, and pastoral works.His success in directing souls made him known throughout the Christian world. Men of all ranks and conditions of life sought his guidance and advice.He would spend many hours each day in the confessional, sometimes 12 to 16 hours, helping people return to God.His holiness was pastoral and merciful. His message was simple: go to confession, pray seriously, love the Eucharist, and do not be afraid to let God heal what is broken.St. John Baptist Mary Vianney was beatified by Pope St. Pius X, himself once a parish priest, and canonized by Pope Pius XI.Ave Maria!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.Please give us the grace to respond with joy!+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New YorkEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play• ⁠August 4, 2026, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET

In the final message of the It's Time to Come Home series, we discover that the story of the prodigal son has always been about more than one lost son—it reveals the heart of the Father and the joy of heaven over every person who comes home. Jesus told this parable in response to the Pharisees' criticism of Him welcoming sinners, revealing that while religion often resists grace, the Father always celebrates repentance.This message explores the Father's response to restoration and the invitation for every believer to join the celebration. Heaven rejoices when the lost are found, the Father throws the party, the restored son celebrates his new beginning, and the family is called to rejoice together. But Jesus also exposes the danger of a judgmental heart through the older brother, who refused to celebrate what the Father was celebrating. His response mirrored the Pharisees, reminding us that legalism can rob us of the joy of God's grace.As followers of Christ, we're called to reflect the Father's heart, not the older brother's attitude. Every salvation, every restored life, and every prodigal who returns is a reason to celebrate. When someone comes home to God, it's not just good news—it's party time.

What does true north look like when it comes to money and possessions? In this message from Luke 16, Pastor Bob dives into Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus — a story that's often avoided because it hits close to home. Teaching the Pharisees who "loved money," Jesus paints a vivid picture of a wealthy man who ignores the beggar at his gate, and the eternal reversal that follows.

Read OnlineReviving Religious HabitsHe summoned the crowd and said to them, “Hear and understand. It is not what enters one's mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one.” Then his disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” Matthew 15:10–12Jesus' words would have stunned His Jewish listeners because He challenged deeply rooted religious beliefs about purity and impurity. He was not denying the value of external practices when they are rightly understood and ordered. Rather, He was reorienting the discussion toward the interior life—toward the heart, the true source of either moral purity or corruption.This teaching came in response to a question posed by the Pharisees and scribes: “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they eat a meal” (Matthew 15:2). The “tradition of the elders” referred to a body of oral interpretations and applications of the Mosaic Law, developed over generations. Though intended to safeguard the Law, these traditions had, over time, begun to obscure the heart of God's commandments by placing excessive emphasis on external observances.Jesus responds by shifting the focus to the interior life. What defiles a person, He says, is not the ritual neglect of external customs but the disordered desires, thoughts, and words that proceed from a corrupted heart. Sin is rooted in erroneous thinking and interior disorder, not in ritual nonconformity.Notably, though the disciples expressed concern that Jesus had offended the Pharisees, He remained unmoved. He says of them, “They are blind guides” (Matthew 15:14). Their leadership was detached from the heart of divine truth and the Father's will. Anything not planted by His heavenly Father will be uprooted. Traditions and practices that are not grounded in God's will cannot endure.In this case, the tradition in question—ritually washing hands before meals—was neither good nor evil in itself. Cleanliness, of course, can be a good habit. However, when a symbolic act is treated as if it possesses power to bestow grace or confer purity, apart from one's interior disposition, it becomes a stumbling block. The external act, separated from inner faith and intention, undermines its original purpose.Though the specific customs of first-century Judaism may no longer be practiced, the same principle applies today. Consider, for example, the practice of saying grace before meals. This is a beautiful and commendable habit—but only when it is truly a prayer. Reciting words without thought, attention, or gratitude does not glorify God. Nor does it bring about the blessing we seek. Prayer must always come from a sincere and devout heart.What do you cling to the most—customs, traditions, and habits, or the very heart of God's will? Often, faithfully following God requires that we evaluate, reorder, and strengthen certain habitual practices—even good ones.This especially applies to religious habits: making the Sign of the Cross, praying the Hail Mary or the Our Father, donating to charity, or even attending Sunday Mass. These actions have great spiritual value, but only when united with intentional faith and love. The Mass is indeed the source and summit of our faith, but if we are only externally present while interiorly disengaged from the sacred Mystery before us, we will not receive the fruits of grace that God desires to bestow.Reflect today on the religious habits you practice. Are they merely external customs, or do they express a living faith? Seek to reintegrate heart and habit, so that every prayer, every gesture, every act of charity, and every act of worship flows from a soul sincerely united to the will of God.Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, everything You did flowed from the perfection of love that flooded Your Heart. You did not act out of mere custom or habit, but intentionally and sincerely, doing each act with love that glorified Your Heavenly Father. Please make my heart like Yours, so that all that I do bears fruit and gives You eternal glory. Jesus, I trust in You.  Image via Adobe StockSource: Free RSS feed from catholic-daily-reflections.com — Copyright © 2026 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. This content is provided solely for personal, non-commercial use. Redistribution, republication, or commercial use — including use within apps with advertising — is strictly prohibited without written permission.

Jesus boldly exposes hypocrisy, declaring, 'Before Abraham was born, I AM'—a statement that shook the very foundation of religious leaders.In this episode, Jesus confronts the hypocrisy of the Pharisees during the Feast of Tabernacles, challenging their understanding of faith and lineage. Through intense dialogue, Jesus emphasizes the need to truly know and follow God's word, declaring His divine identity with the powerful statement, "Before Abraham was born, I AM."Today's Bible verse is Galatians 6:3, from the King James Version.Download the ⁠Pray.com⁠ app for more Christian content including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories.Pray.com is the digital destination for faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

882 He Told Me Everything I Did, A Guided Christian Meditation on John 4:27-30 with the Recenter With Christ app The purpose of this podcast is to help you find more peace in  and connect with the true source of peace, Jesus Christ.  Outline: Relaxation, Reading, Meditation, Prayer, Contemplation and Visualization.  You can sit comfortably and uninterrupted for about 20 minutes.You should hopefully not be driving or anything tense or unrelaxing.  If you feel comfortable doing so, I invite you to close your eyes.   Guided Relaxation / Guided Meditation:   Breathe and direct your thoughts to connecting with God. Let your stomach be a balloon inflate,  deflate. Scripture for Meditation John 4 NIV 27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?" 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?" 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. NLT 27 Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, "What do you want with her?" or "Why are you talking to her?" 28 The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, 29 "Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?" 30 So the people came streaming from the village to see him. Reflection on Scripture: This woman did not know about the cross or resurrection. She had an almost nonexistent Christology. She did not know exactly what the Messiah would do. It is pretty clear she didn't know Jesus was even the Savior, as that wasn't a common Jewish understanding of Messiah. The thing that makes this story so meaningful to me is what she does with the information she has. In John 9 Jesus tells the Pharisees would not be guilty if they were truly blind but they claimed to see. This woman was still blind in very important ways of understanding what Jesus would do for her, yet her approach to the truth, to Jesus as the way, was phenomenal. She believed and trusted Jesus. It can be valuable to look for the lessons in the scriptures that are for us also. Each one of us has more information than this woman. We have the advantage of having the full account of Jesus and his saving effort. We get to see stories of him in so many situations teaching. We hear his full message of love to many different situations. We have the stories of His miracles. We see the impact of the cross and the resurrection. And what do we do with that information? This woman had such limited information about Jesus, yet she invested herself in that message. The believed Jesus and attempted to share that. How blessed we are that we get to live in a time where Jesus is known across the globe. Certainly not be every person, but to billions of people. Sometimes I have thought that it would be amazing to live in the time of Jesus to get to see him, yet I think we are so blessed now to have a much deeper understanding of Jesus. The question that remains, what do we do with that knowledge? The most important knowledge of all? Many times we see  Meditation of Prayer: Pray as directed by the Spirit. Dedicate these moments to the patient waiting, when you feel ready ask God for understanding you desire from Him. Meditation of God and His Glory / Hesychasm: I invite you to sit in silence feeling patient for your own faults and trials. Summarize what insights you have gained during this meditation and meditate and visualize positive change in your life: This is a listener funded podcast at patreon.com/christianmeditationpodcast Final Question: If you consider the invitation and command to persevere in the faith, what change in your life does that bring to your mind?  FIND ME ON: Download my free app: Recenter with Christ Website - ChristianMeditationPodcast.com Voicemail - (602) 888-3795 Email: jared@christianmeditationpodcast.com Apple Podcasts - Christian Meditation Podcast Facebook.com/christianmeditationpodcast Youtube.com/christianmeditaitonpodcast Twitter - @ChristianMedPod

Is there something from your past holding you back? It could be 50 years ago, or 5 days ago. Regardless, past regrets, guilt, and shame have a way of holding on to us. We replay the stories we have no way of changing because what is done is done. You can’t go back. You can’t undo it. So, what do you do? Too many of us are serving life sentences for sins Jesus already died for. We keep dragging yesterday into today and wondering why it’s so hard to move forward. We allow our worst moments to become our identity. We introduce ourselves to God with our failures, while He calls us by our name. Maybe you wish you had made different choices. Maybe you stayed too long, left too soon, trusted the wrong person, or became someone you’re not proud of. Maybe you did things that still haunt you. Or maybe things were done to you that have created a deep shame. Maybe you’ve asked God to forgive you a thousand times, but you’ve never forgiven yourself. You’ve accepted His grace for everyone else while withholding it from yourself. Regret has a way of convincing us that our past gets the final word. Shame whispers, “This changes everything.” But grace declares, “No, Jesus does.” Once, there was a woman caught in a shameful act of sin and brought before a crowd for Jesus to judge. Now imagine that for a moment. You know what you did, but imagine standing before a crowd with your sin announced and Jesus looking right at you. You have no excuse. No justification. It’s just the truth of what you’ve done as your full identity. What would Jesus say to you? You don’t have to guess. What He said to one daughter about her guilt and shame is what He says to every daughter about her guilt and shame. Hear Jesus today. John 8: 2-11, “At dawn Jesus appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, which with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir’,’ she said. ‘THEN NEITHER DO I CONDEMN YOU.’ Jesus declared. ‘GO NOW AND LEAVE YOUR LIFE OF SIN.’ How incredibly remarkable. Jesus didn’t turn away. He didn’t shame her. There was no condemnation in the presence of Jesus—not by Him or anyone else. And don’t miss this. Jesus knew everything. He knew the details no one else knew. He knew every choice that led her there. He knew the things she was ashamed to say out loud. There were no secrets remaining before Him. Yet Jesus did not condemn her. Instead, He invited her to leave it all right there and walk away without that burden. Without that secret. Without that regret. Without that shame. A woman set free from the very mess she had created. A woman given a new life as fully forgiven. And that is you. How do I know that’s you? Because not a single one of us is without sin. No one has gotten this all right. We’ve all failed and fallen short. Every single one of us deserves condemnation, but praise God, we don’t receive what we deserve. We receive what Jesus purchased for us instead. There are two things Jesus says to this woman, and I believe we often embrace one while completely missing the other. First, He says, “Neither do I condemn you.” We love that part. We underline it in our Bibles. We thank Him for it. But then we spend the rest of our lives condemning ourselves. Isn’t that strange? Jesus releases us while we keep ourselves imprisoned. Jesus says, “I don’t condemn you.” And we reply, “Thank you, Jesus, but I do.” He says, “You’re forgiven.” We say, “Yes, but I’m ashamed.” He says, “I’ve removed your sin.” We say, “Yes, but I still carry it.” Can I lovingly tell you something? It is not humility to carry what Jesus died to remove. Some of us have made self-punishment our penance. We secretly believe if we carry our shame long enough, somehow we’ll finally pay for what we’ve done. But my sister, that’s not repentance—that’s pride dressed up as punishment. You cannot pay for a debt Jesus already paid in full – stop trying. If Jesus doesn’t condemn you, then who gave you permission to condemn yourself? The second thing Jesus says is, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Notice He didn’t say, “Neither do I condemn you, now stay here and live defined by what you’ve done.” No. Grace never leaves us where it finds us. Jesus didn’t simply free her from condemnation, He freed her for transformation. He drew a line in the sand that day. Everything before this moment was her past. Everything after this moment would become her future. And do you know what Jesus refused to allow? He refused to allow her past to cross over that line. I wonder if that’s what Jesus is doing for you today. Perhaps He’s drawing another line in the sand – not because He has grown weary of forgiving you, but because He is weary of watching you carry what He has already removed. How many times has He offered you this forgiveness? Every single day of your life. And every day you’ve picked it back up again. You’ve brought Him the same regret. The same shame. The same failure. Not because His forgiveness isn’t enough, but because you’ve struggled to believe it really applies to you. Today can be different. Today can be the day you finally realize that you cannot change what you did, but it has never changed the way Jesus sees you. You think what you did changed everything, but you’re wrong. WHAT JESUS DID CHANGED EVERYTHING. Your choices are not more powerful than His cross. Your failures are not more powerful than His forgiveness. Your past is not more powerful than His grace. He hung on that cross to forgive you. Not partially. Not temporarily. Completely. And now He asks you not to carry this beyond the line He has drawn. He already died for this, and He doesn’t want a part of you dying too. Jesus said in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” That includes you. Not someday. Not after you’ve punished yourself long enough. Not after you’ve finally become who you think you should be. Today. And my sister, that doesn’t merely include you – it is about you. If you were the only person in the world, Jesus would have died for you. He would have stretched out His arms on that cross simply so you could hear Him say, “Neither do I condemn you.” He drew the line to create a boundary for your past. Don’t drag your past across the line He has drawn. He meant it when He said, “I do not condemn you.” And He meant it when He said, “Go now and leave this.” The enemy wants you looking over your shoulder, grieving what cannot be changed. God invites you to lift your eyes and look ahead at what can still be redeemed. You may not be able to rewrite the story, but God is able to redeem it. He has never once looked at a broken life and said, “There’s nothing I can do with that.” In fact, broken pieces are often His favorite place to begin. At some point, you have to stop visiting the graveyard of your past and start walking into the purpose of your present. What happened matters, but it doesn’t get to matter most. God’s grace is greater than your greatest regret. You cannot change yesterday, but you don’t have to keep carrying it into tomorrow. So today, I want you to picture Jesus bending down and drawing a line in the sand for you. On one side is everything you’ve done. Every regret. Every failure. Every shame-filled memory. And on the other side is the abundant life He died to give you. Hear Him say it one more time: “Neither do I condemn you.” And then hear the rest of His invitation: “Go now.” Leave it here. Leave it forgiven. Leave it buried. And walk away free. And you know what free women do … they help set others free. There are others just like you. Others dragging around that same guilt and shame. Others who have suffered too. And now you, with the power of the Holy Spirit within you, and the personal experience of forgiveness and freedom, you can lead those women to the same encounter with Jesus and the line he has drawn for them. LET HIM USE YOU NOW! Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com