The King's instructions Advent 2021 This part of Matthew's Gospel is the last part of a teaching sandwich: Jesus accepted children who were brought to him, but this is between passages about Pharisees who had already rejected Jesus before they came to him and this passage about a rich young man. The three passages ought …
Continue reading Jesus and the rich young man, part 1 — Matthew 19:16-22
The King's Instructions Advent 2021 These are the sort of passages I dread, ones that I have heard over and over. It makes it difficult to come up with anything new, and if I do, will people be upset? Children playing outside.Free image on Wikimedia Commons 13 Then children were brought to him that he might …
Continue reading Let the Children Come to Me — Matthew 19:13–15
The Kings Instructions Advent 2021 When it comes to working out what someone means the first thing to look at the meaning of the words. but logic is not the only concern. Context is everything, words change meaning over time and the context of who is speaking and being spoken to can change the meaning …
Continue reading Jesus, marriage and divorce, part 3 — Matthew 19:10–12
The Kings Instructions Advent 2021 In the previous post I wrote about what Jesus did nor say, the context was if was lawful for a man to divorce his wife. This time I am looking at what he did say about marriage and divorce. I have included the verses from the last blog for context. …
Continue reading Jesus, marriage and divorce, part 2 — Matthew 19:7–9
The Kings Instructions Advent 2021 There are ways that a person's prejudices are exposed, that they twist things around to make them fit their agenda. They even do this with the words of Jesus. The Progress Flag 3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any …
Continue reading Jesus, marriage and divorce, part 1 — Matthew 19:3-6
The Kings Instructions Advent 2021 There is a pattern emerging. Jesus has something to do but the pressure of the crowds and their expectations of who they thought Jesus is is preventing this from happening. Jesus crossed over the River Jordan to escape before, the crowds followed before and Jesus healed their sick before. A …
The teaching of Jesus in Matthew chapters 19 to 22 Advent 2021 I have been looking at Matthew's Gospel since 2015 out of order, which is why I have a link at the bottom of each post, in case anyone wishes to go through it in order. This is the last section which I shall …
I have seen a lot recently about how toxic social media is. The irony is this: They were all posted on social media. I am sure that the intention of Mark Zuckerberg's intention when starting Facebook was not to facilitate hate, and people have been removed from that network for hate crimes as they have …
Continue reading Jesus loves to take what’s ruined and beautify it
The level of the genocide in the book of Joshua is not as bad as you would think. Compare this with book of Ruth: A foreign woman gives up the practices of her country, takes on the culture and religion of another country, Israel, and becomes the great-grandmother of that countries greatest king, David. A …
Continue reading Where was God in this part 7: Joshua and genocide
"Religion promotes faith over science and logic," say the atheists, "it promotes wars, bloodshed and intolerance." Clearly nonsense, I say, and I challenge them with this: If you are going to say that what you believe is based on reason and ours is not you must first come up with something that us reasonable. The idea that Science …
Continue reading Why are you a Christian if society does not reward it?
Making an ass of myself 