Love Truth Blog

Now it came about at midnight that the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle. Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead. Then he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, “Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go, worship the LORD, as you have said. Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go, and bless me also” (Exod 12:29-32, NASB). Someone once asked me: Are we to consider Yahweh’s killing of the first born in Egypt a just act? When one thinks about that first Passover midnight, there was no other like it, as God’s avenging angel struck down Egypt’s firstborn, save Israelites who placed the blood of a sacrificial lamb painted on their doorposts wit...

John the Baptist preached about the kingdom of God calling people to repentance and baptism. He did not consider himself the Messiah; instead, he was the one to herald the coming of the Lord. He would fulfill the words of the prophet Isaiah, “A voice is calling, ‘Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God’ ” (Isa. 40:3; cf. Matt. 3:3). John thought himself as the lesser and the one coming after him the greater. With all humility, he said, “I am not fit to remove His sandals” (Matt. 3:11). When people started to notice more people were turning to follow after Jesus Christ, the Baptizer said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:28). Concerning Messiah’s ministry John said, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier that I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals, He will baptize you with Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshin...

One day Jesus told a story about the kingdom of heaven. He tells of a farmer who sows some wheat, and finds out later that on one occasion, while everyone lay asleep, his enemy went into the fields and sown some darnels, which look similar to wheat in their early stages of growth, and can only be distinguished after they mature. The farmer’s plan was not to pull out the tares immediately, and risk destroying the wheat, but to wait until the harvest, which at that time they could easily separate the wheat from the tare, storing the former and burning the latter (Matt. 13:24-30). The story informs how life is like in God’s kingdom during this epic of time. Jesus explains, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are ...

One day Jesus told a story about the kingdom of heaven. He tells of a farmer who sows some wheat, and finds out later that on one occasion, while everyone lay asleep, his enemy went into the fields and sown some darnels, which look similar to wheat in their early stages of growth, and can only be distinguished after they mature. The farmer’s plan was not to pull out the tares immediately, and risk destroying the wheat, but to wait until the harvest, which at that time they could easily separate the wheat from the tare, storing the former and burning the latter (Matt. 13:24-30). The story informs how life is like in God’s kingdom during this epic of time. Jesus explains, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are ...

The parable of the sower describes people’s reaction to Jesus Christ’s message of God’s kingdom. It is a simple earthy story of a farmer who sows seeds, which fell in various places, some never taking root, others sprouting but after a while dying off, still others maturing to plants and bearing much fruit (Matt. 13:1-9). Yet, as Jesus would point out, this story illustrates truth about God’s kingdom. In the parable of the sower the seed is the message and it the same for everyone. It is the soil or the condition of one’s heart, which determines whether or not the message bears fruit (Matt. 13:18-23). Seeds sown on the roadside represent those who hear the word of the kingdom but do not understand. The message does not penetrate the hardened heart, but the evil one swoops in like a bird and snatches it away. How many have simply tuned out the evangelist, never realizing the words spoken offered them new life? Perhaps they dismiss the good news and shake their fist at God, blaming Him...

There is nothing better than getting outside and enjoying the sunshine, blue skies, and cool breezes. Inasmuch as nature can be wonderful, she is also capricious. Devastation by earthquakes, lightning, hurricanes, floods, hail, tornados, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions are just some of the more fearful and ominous displays of nature people witness. New technology allows many of us to find out where these things happen virtually in real time. The sting of these natural evils is bitter, but is this the way things were supposed to be? In Romans 8, the apostle Paul writes: “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together unti...