The hard parables hang together in one important way. You don’t get to be the Eden you anymore. You don’t get to be in Christ and then go on being self-serving. But that’s the stuff we like and it’s hard to give up. If a sermon, bible study, etc makes you uncomfortable, it’s God shining light on the self-serving Eden you.
The hard parable asks, if that’s what people are willing to do to secure their future in this life, what are you willing to do to secure your eternal future?
Christ’s flesh and blood in communion is the real food and real drink of real life, connecting us to – and filling us with God’s Spirit.
“Render Unto Caesar what is his and to God’s what is God’s” seems like a simple separation of church and state. But Jesus aims to overturn our way of life.
This is a literal camel and a literal needle. It’s something impossible. It’s the largest animal in Palestine going through the smallest opening in Palestine. It’s impossible.
The first and last – we know the saying, “the last shall be first and the first shall be last,” but how many times have we expressed that very thing, and then turned around and thought, said, or done the opposite?
For those of you who don’t know, our church was vandalized last week. Your enemy is real. You don’t get to claim childhood of God if you are not loving them the way He does.
Freedom – free from the power of another, national, individual freedom. As Christians – are those definitions of freedom our definitions?
The cross is a hard part of following Jesus. Having salvation means denying of your own heart in favor of God’s heart.
