Love Truth Blog

“O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” (Matt. 5:28, NASB) One day Jesus was out in “the district of Tyre and Sidon” (v. 21), which was an area heavily populated by gentiles, and there came a gentile woman crying out to Him to heal her daughter who had suffered from demon-possessed (v. 22). Mark identifies as coming from Syrophoenicia (Mk. 7:26); however, Matthew attributes to her the name “Canaanite.” The sinful and detestable people God had driven out of the promise land (Exod. 34:11-17; cf. Deut. 18:9-14). No one could expect such a woman to have any faith in God. The woman was an outside; yet, she appealed to Jesus using titles of utmost respect. She cried, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David” (v. 22).” Did she understand the significance of the title “Son of David?” Jesus was indeed the long awaited Messiah spoken of by the Old Testament prophets; yet, could a Gentile grasp the significance? Jesus, however, did not respond (v. 23a). The disc...

“Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man” (Matt. 15:17-20). “Blind guides of the blind” (Matt. 15:14) Jesus Christ spoke these words of the Pharisees to Peter. Whereas the disciple had concerns that the Lord had offended those religious leaders in speak out against their elevation of religious tradition over God’s Word, Jesus understood that they were heaping upon themselves judgment. “Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted” (Matt. 15:13), said Jesus. All this came about when Pharisees complained to Jesus that that His disciples did not wash before eating (Matt. 15:1-2). The issue was not keep...

And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me (Mark 8:34 NASB) The Son of Man came to earth with the mission of going to the cross. He would suffer. He would be rejected. He would die. But…after three days, He would rise again. A simple message, but some had a hard time coming to grips with it. Peter objected. He even dared to rebuke Jesus for the very notion. He did not want to Messiah’s life to end in suffering, rejection, and death. But this was not God’s plan. “Get behind Me, Satan,” said Jesus, “for you are not setting your mind on God’s interest, but man’s.” The way of Christ was not about satisfying one’s own self-interest. Christ demands something far different. Deny self. Take Up the Cross. Follow Me. Christ’s followers must put away their own interest and by faith follow Him. It not simply joining a church, it also meant being conformed to the ...

Someone wondered if Jesus Christ’s resurrection is patterned after our own resurrection, would we retain our scares just as the Lord did? Appearing to the apostle Thomas, the resurrected Lord said, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing” (John 20:27). The Lord revealed His scares to demonstrate that He did die upon the cross, was buried, and rose again on the third day. This was a divine manifestation to help build faith in His disciple. Whether or not the scares disappeared at Christ’s ascension is not mentioned in the Bible. To the question of what the resurrected body would be like, Paul wrote, “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there ...

Well, 2011 has come and gone, and I’d say it was one wild roller coaster ride of a year. Around the Middle East, starting in Egypt, people took to the streets in protests, seeking social reforms in their own homeland. Even in the United States the Occupy movement with its “We are the 99%” slogan had significant world impact. Whether or not one agrees with the ideologies set forth by the protestors, all must concede they got the world’s attention this year. The Tohoku earthquake that gave rise to a tsunami that devastated the coastal towns of Japan, which also caused a number of nuclear accident and a meltdown at the Fukushima Power Plant can be counted among those world events that leaves one speechless and perplexed of the unspeakable horror that just took place. Such events remind us of our own mortality and just how fragile life can be. Is not the very creation groaning in its bondage to sin and yearning for the day it shall be set free (Rm. 8:18-25; Rev. 21:1-9). Hmm…I wonder? ...