The Holy Spirit who inspired the words of the Bible is the same Holy Spirit in you. He can illuminate the biblical promises for your prayer time, and He can help you apply the biblical principles to your everyday circumstances. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“Carl M. ‘Daddy” Hanson (1865-1954), a spiritual father to many early Pentecostals on the northern Great Plains, earned his Pentecostal stripes on both sides of Azusa Street. He experienced the Pentecostal distinctive of speaking in tongues in the 19th century, and he became an early leader in the Assemblies of God in the first half of the 20th century.” Check out this mini-biography of this Pentecostal pioneer.
Absolutely astounding! The silk of spider webs has unique properties that medical science is beginning to use in humans. What an amazing Creator we serve!
In my sermon about parenting, I quoted from Proverbs 22:6. Commenting on this verse, Dick Brogden, in Proverbs: Amplified and Applied, wrote, “The principle regarding our children is that the things they are taught early on will give them every opportunity for stability later in life. This reality does not guarantee that they will make right choices (including whether or not to follow Jesus); it does guarantee that they have the resource of wisdom to draw on should they choose. … Whatever their choice, we can rest in the peace that we laid up for them every resource for good. Our peace (regarding our children) comes from what we have done with our heart and resources, not what they have done with theirs.”
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Without a doubt, Jesus had the most robust mental health of anyone who has ever walked planet Earth! Dr. Luke, a trained physician, captures this in just one verse (Luke 2:52) where he talks about how Jesus grew in a wholly healthy way, and Luke lists Christ’s mental health as the first priority.
I’m sure there have been plenty of times when someone asks you about something you like or dislike or why you do something the way you do, you probably don’t tell them the facts but you tell them a story. We have a story for everything we like, everything we do, and everything we avoid.
It’s good to rehearse these stories and to really listen to them. If we don’t really listen to them, we cannot learn from them; if we don’t learn from them, we rob ourselves of robust mental health.
From some of our stories, there is a regret that comes from three enemies. These enemies are all tied to our stories about our past and they are would’ve, could’ve, and should’ve—“If only I would’ve…” and “Things would be different today if I could’ve…” and “I should’ve known….”
One of the ways we need to talk back to those thoughts is like this, “I only know the would’ve, could’ve, and should’ve now because I’m older and more experienced. I didn’t know those things in the past so it was impossible for me to have done something differently.” Even the apostle Paul noted, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me” (1 Corinthians 13:11).
If we don’t talk back to those regrets of yesterday, we will have doubts about today: Will I make another mistake today? Do I have what it takes to meet today’s challenges? What will others think of me if I mess up? If we don’t address those doubts we have today, that will cause us worry and stress about tomorrow.
Regret … doubt … worry … stress. Those don’t really sound like words that contribute to positive mental health, do they?
Here’s the thing we need to remember—Learning from our yesterdays is healthy, but trying to relive our yesterdays is both unhealthy and unproductive!
Dr. William Osler said, “If the load of tomorrow is added to that of yesterday and carried today, it will make the strongest falter.”
Four times in just ten verses, Jesus told His followers not to worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:25-34). He ties that worry about tomorrow to having little faith. That lack of faith comes from our doubts, and those doubts come from our past regrets.
T.G.I.F.—thank God it’s Friday!—is an escapism. It’s not wanting to deal with the regrets, doubts, and worry by trying to push them to some distant time. It doesn’t allow us to really concentrate on today. The Bible constantly brings us back to the present.
Today is used 203 times in the NIV Bible
Tomorrow is mentioned 56 times
Yesterday is only used 8 times
Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us today our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11) so that we won’t let past regrets spiral downward into daily doubts and then anxiety about tomorrow. Elizabeth Elliot wisely counseled, “One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today.”
Christians that want to be mentally healthy should continually replace a T.G.I.F. mindset with T.G.I.T.—thank God it’s today!
Taking a line from Joshua who said, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15), here are four things we need to choose to remember each day.
Choose to remember that God uses all things—even our would’ve, could’ve, and should’ves—for our good and for His glory (Romans 8:28).
Choose to forget those old, self-limiting, stress-causing stories (Philippians 3:13).
Choose to believe that God is doing something new—something I never could have planned (Isaiah 43:18-19).
Choose to believe that God can help you tell a new story about your past (Genesis 41:51).
You have to choose each day to say “Thank God it’s today! Thank God that I’m not who I was yesterday! Thank God that He is using my would’ve-could’ve-should’ve moments from yesterday to prepare me for today! Thank God that He is teaching me a new story!”
If you’ve missed any of the previous messages in our series on a Christian’s mental health, you can find them all here.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
When we hear the word “if” we hear something that is uncertain: “If only I get that job” or “If I have enough money at the end of the month” or “If we get there in enough time.”
The dictionary tells us “if” has an element of uncertainty. Like when King George III said of George Washington’s decision to step down as the president, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
Sometimes we think of “if” as a condition to receive some sort of award or recognition. Like Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem If—
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you … [then] Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, and—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
We need to be careful of those paradigms when we come to the next song of ascent in Psalm 124, since the word “if” appears twice in the opening two verses.
David is not saying, “Weren’t we lucky that God was there for us” or “I wonder if He will be for us again in the future.” I like how the New Living Translation renders this verse: “What if the Lord had not been on our side?” In other words, He was on our side, therefore look what we avoided!
Far from being a statement of uncertainty, this is a statement of total assurance: It’s saying, “I’m confident of what would have happened if God wasn’t there, and I’m assured of what will happen in the future.” This is why in the next verses David calls on us to praise God in the present tense.
Every one of these songs of ascent can be sung as stand-alone songs, but the Jewish sages believed that these 15 songs are like the 15 steps that go up to the center of the courtyard. No one climbs the steps from their basement, stops after three or four steps, and says, “I was lucky that the first steps held me! Now I’m wondering if the next step is going to fail me or not.” No, the fact that we have already climbed some steps gives us assurance of the stability of the next step.
Look at a quick review of the previous steps:
in Psalm 120 pilgrims climb away from the pull of the dark valleys
in Psalm 121 we read the phrase, “I lift my eyes up to the One who is watching over me”
in Psalm 122 we climb the steps knowing that we aren’t climbing to a throne of judgment but a throne of shalom because of the peace Jesus purchased for us
in Psalm 123 we are called to only have eyes for our Savior who has lavished His grace on us, and who continues to lavish His grace on us
now in Psalm 124 we continue to climb up in growing assurance
The devil loves to use “if” as a weapon to keep us from this confidence. Perhaps the doubt comes like this, “This song was written by David. If I’m not King David—or even a part of the Jewish nation—can I be assured that God is on my side?”
Or perhaps the devil’s doubt comes like this, “If I sin, will God no longer be on my side?”
No, neither our efforts nor our shortcomings increase nor decrease God’s love for us. He loved us before we even knew we needed Him, and our sin cannot diminish His love one iota (Romans 5:20-21; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 2:4-5).
When the devil confronted Jesus, he used that little weapon “if” with all three of his temptations. Jesus dismantled those temptations to doubt God by quoting Scripture. So too with Joshua. As he contemplated leading the Israelites into the Promised Land, he may have felt a bit insecure. God told Joshua to continue to meditate on His Word and as a result, Joshua would be strong and courageous.
David’s closing words in Psalm 124:8 is the Source of our doubt-destroying confidence: “Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth!”
Whenever the devil plagues you with doubts, keep your eyes on your Maker, keep His Word in your mouth, and then feel His confidence grow in your heart.
I shared several videos this week while I was on vacation. If you missed any, you can check them out on my YouTube channel.
A good definition of apologetics is found in Acts 17:2-3. We need to share (1) reasons from Scripture, (2) logical explanations, and (3) verifiable evidence. I have written quite a bit on my blog on the topic of apologetics, including several book reviews of apologetics books that you may want to check out.
“The life we speak over others they will pass on. While it is true that hurting people hurt others, it is just as true that healed people heal others, blessed people bless others, loved people love others, and ‘mercied’ people mercy others—if, that is, they have any sense of gratefulness.” —Dick Brogden, in Proverbs: Amplified and Applied
“The Kingdom of God will be present within us to the extent that we maintain a clean and good conscience. The conscience is the valuing center of the soul. It holds the priorities which serve to clarify and direct both the mind and the heart for Kingdom presence. As thoughts or affections stir in the soul, the conscience reads the Law of God, which is written on the heart and settled in the mind (Romans 2:14-15), and engages the will to act in line with the vision of Christ and the counsel of His Word.” —T.M. Moore
“Value those people who tell you the truth, not just those people who tell you what you want to hear.” —Pat Summitt
Some people claim those with a biblical worldview and lifestyle are “extremists.” I think this chart (I cannot find the author to give credit on this one) explains it well.
“Life without love isn’t worth anything. Justice without love makes you hard. Intelligence without love makes you cruel. Kindness without love makes you a hypocrite. And faith without love makes you a fanatic.” —Mother Teresa
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
The Bible is not only the inspired Word of God but it is rooted in history too. Every prayer was prayed by a real person in distress, and every song of praise was lifted up by someone who personally experienced God’s deliverance.
The reason why this is so important is that it makes God’s Word relatable and applicable to us. If the Bible merely contained moral stories set in some make-believe world, we may have a hard time seeing how to apply the principles to our daily lives. But, thankfully, this isn’t the case. We can read the real-life experiences of real historical people and then we can allow the Holy Spirit to help us apply this inspired Word to our lives.
There is a collection of 15 songs in the Book of Psalms called “The Songs of Ascent.” Even these songs have an important historical background.
Second Chronicles ends with this proclamation from King Cyrus: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build a temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of His people among you—may the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up” (2 Chronicles 26:23).
The phrase “let him go up” is both literal (since Jerusalem is 2500 feet above sea level) and spiritual. Listen to these words from King Solomon, “The way of life winds upward for the wise, that he may turn away from hell below” (Proverbs 15:24 NKJV).
The Songs of Ascent were a rallying cry—an encouragement to all pilgrims to keep climbing up.
In Hebrew literature, the main point is usually found in the middle of the poem or story, unlike our Western literature which puts the payoff at the end. In the first Song of Ascent, the middle is verse 4. But the second half of Psalm 120 seems out of place for people ascending up to Jerusalem to worship God. Verse 5 begins with the words, “Woe to me.”
The psalmist is expressing his pain in living among the people of Meshech and Kedar. The people of Meshech were vicious people who traded human lives for money and who conducted themselves as terrorists (Ezekiel 27:13; 32:26). Their name literally means “drawing away.” The people of Kedar were nomadic sons of Ishmael. Being nomadic means they were never at rest. Their name literally means “dark place.” Very noteworthy is that there is no mention of God in verses 5-7.
The middle verse of this song (v. 4) turns the people of Meshech and Kedar over to God. It is a reminder that we are not the ones to dispense justice. If God knew how to overthrow the powerful kingdoms of Judah, Babylon, and the Medes, if He knew to call Cyrus by name at just the right moment, He also knows how to deal with these sinners.
This Song of Ascent shows the stark contrast between keeping our eyes on the dark culture around us versus keeping our eyes on the God who is never weighed down by the darkness. As we go higher up, we focus more on God; as His saints focus on Him, His light shines on them; as His light shines on them, they point sinners living in dark valleys to the God of light and love.
Staying down is easy. Getting up requires intentional effort. Going up requires us to overcome the pull of sin and the frustration of watching for judgment to fall on sinners.
Continually going up glorifies God, has eternal rewards for saints, and creates a compelling testimony for sinners.
Going up is a lot of effort, but the rewards are so worth it! As the apostle Paul reminded his friends in Rome, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). Let’s keep climbing up and let’s keep lifting our eyes to the only One who has the eternal light.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Douglas Carmel from Rock Of Israel ministries shared an amazing overview of the seven Jewish feasts that are listed in the Book of Leviticus, and how Jesus is the fulfillment of all of these feasts. Doug was born into a Jewish family and became a Christian in his late teens, so he has firsthand knowledge of both the traditional celebrations and the Christian understanding of these feasts.
One of the things I appreciated was Doug’s explanation that the feasts were merely a shadow of the reality—Jesus is the Reality!
Passover—celebrated on the 14th day of the first month
Leviticus 23:4-5
Matthew 26:17-29; Mark 14:12-26; Luke 22:7-20
Jesus was crucified on the same day that the Passover lamb was being sacrificed
Unleavened Bread—celebrated on the 15th day of the first month
Leviticus 23:6
1 Corinthians 5:6-9
Firstfruits—celebrated on the 16th day of the first month (or the day after the Sabbath)
Leviticus 23:9-14
1 Corinthians 15:12-26
Seven Weeks—celebrated 50 days after Firstfruits
Leviticus 23:15-21
Also known as Pentecost
Acts 2:1-41
Doug called our attention to the calendar on which these feasts appeared. Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Seven Weeks all happen in the spring. All four of these feasts have already been fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
There are no feasts in the summer months, as these are the months of field work (Leviticus 23:22). This is where we are now, which is why Jesus told us, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field” (Matthew 9:38). This is the time for us to tell others about Jesus the Messiah!
The final three feasts appear in the autumn—Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles. These are feasts that are still to be fulfilled at Christ’s Second Advent.
Trumpets—celebrated on the 1st day of the seventh month
Leviticus 23:23-25
This is also known as Rosh Hashanah when the shofar is blown
1 Corinthians 15:51-53; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
Atonement—celebrated on the 10th day of the seventh month
Leviticus 23:26-32
This is also known as Yom Kippur—the one day of the year the high priest goes into the Holy of Holies
Romans 11:25-32; Matthew 23:39
Tabernacles—celebrated on the 15th through the 21st days of the seventh month
Jesus said of Himself, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). Jesus is THE Reality and THE Fulfillment of all of these celebrations!
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Last week we mentioned that one of the things the Holy Spirit did after the Day of Pentecost was to unite individual Christians into the Church. In a world divided by religious and political factions, the unity of the Christians set them apart. Is our culture any different? Of course not! So the unity that the Holy Spirit brings is just as vital today.
In Psalm 133, David longs for this unity among believers. This psalm is in the collection of “Songs of Ascent.” That means that pilgrims to Jerusalem sang these songs as they literally went up the hill to Jerusalem. Psalm 133 opens with David singing, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity” (v. 1).
Maybe David thought back to the time when people were joining him to give him support as king—David went out to meet them and said to them, “If you have come peaceably to me to help me, my heart shall be knit to you…” (1 Chronicles 12:17 AMP). In the next two verses of Psalm 133, David explains how this unity from being knit together is seen as a blessing.
Last week, we talked about the blessing of peace the priests pronounced on the people. That word for “peace” is shalom which could be defined as “nothing missing.” But couldn’t we also say that shalom is “no one missing”? Yes, because each and every part of the Body of Christ is vital and indispensable!
We see this same unity when the followers of Jesus were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Acts 2:1 says these Christians were “all together” (or some translations say “one accord”). This is one word in Greek (homothumadon)which describes the beauty of unity. One Greek dictionary defines this word,“The image is almost musical; a number of notes are sounded which, while different, harmonize in pitch and tone. As the instruments of a great concert under the direction of a concert master, so the Holy Spirit blends together the lives of members of Christ’s church.”
This picture of a majestic musical is further amplified in the next verses of Acts 2 where people from all over the world heard these Christians praising God in their own native tongues. Luke goes on to use homothumadon again and again throughout Acts to show what a powerful testimony their unity was to the watching world.
Paul emphasized the need for unity in the Church when he wrote—
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:1-6)
How does the Holy Spirit help us handle our differences and keep this unity? We first need the Spirit’s help to distinguish whether it’s a biblical, unbiblical, or non-biblical issue.
Biblical issues must send us back to the Bible to find the truth (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Unbiblical issues—where a brother or sister is living in a way contrary to Scripture—call on us to speak the truth in love and correct in love only after allowing the Holy Spirit to examine our own lives (Ephesians 4:15; Matthew 7:1-5; James 5:19-20). Notice that we are to do this with fellow brothers and sisters, not with those outside the Church.
Non-biblical issues are the trickiest. These are issues over which we should immediately stop fighting as we defer to the weakest brother or sister (Romans 12:10, 14:19-21).
The Church needs this unity today. We need to be in “one accord.” In a world divided by religious and political factions, our unity enhances our witness.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Caiaphas’ bold claim couldn’t be backed up, but every bold claim Jesus made was backed up. In the process of looking at those claims, we’ve actually already read another bold claim—one that was repeated three times. It is a bold claim made by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate.
When Jesus was first brought to Pilate, he attempted to “pass the buck” by sending Jesus to King Herod Antipas. Since Herod sent Jesus right back to Pilate, the governor took that as support for his bold claim. Check out what Pilate said:
I have found no basis for your charges against Jesus
neither has Herod
Jesus has done nothing to deserve death
I have found in Him no grounds for the death penalty (Luke 23:13-22)
Even Pilate’s wife supported him by saying, “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent Man” (Matthew 27:19).
Pilate’s role in this case was as a modern-day judge. A judge weighs the evidence from the prosecution, compares that with the laws on the books, weighs the evidence from the defendant, and then makes his ruling. Pilate rules multiple times: Not guilty. But the accusers keep coming back with their loud voices but no more evidence. Even though “[Pilate] knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him” (Matthew 27:18), the shouts of the religious leaders finally prevailed (Luke 23:23-25).
Why was Pilate’s claim of the innocence of Jesus so bold? Because the Bible tells us, “ALLhave sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
These religious elites had been trying to find an accusation against Jesus almost since the beginning of His public ministry. Many of these same accusers were present on the day they hauled a woman caught in the act of adultery before Jesus (John 8:2-11). They claimed she deserved to be stoned to death, but Jesus simply said, “Let those without any sin throw the first stone at her.” Jesus once again allowed His eloquent silence to work on their hearts, as they knew that not one of them was without sin, so they all dropped their stones and left.
Jesus freed this woman from her sin when He refused to condemn her. After all, He was the only sinless One who could have been justified in throwing the first stone, but He knew that “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:17).
Jesus doesn’t condemn us, but He doesn’t want us to stay in our sin either, which is why He then told this woman, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Jesus called all of us to live a perfect life: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Yet like those men in John 8, we all would have to drop our stones and leave.
And satan loves to remind God’s saints of this. John shares with us that “the accuser of our brothers and sisters…accuses them before our God day and night” (Revelation 12:10). The accuser wants to keep us trapped in the guilt of our sin—wants to see us condemned to an eternity separated from God’s presence.
But when someone has placed their faith in the sacrifice Jesus made for us with His death on the Cross, Jesus takes us into Himself and there is now no condemnation for those IN Jesus because there is nothing in Jesus to be condemned! Because of what Jesus did, it’s not us who is condemned, but sin is condemned! As a result, we no longer have to live according to the sinful nature and suffer the condemnation of sin, but instead when we are in Jesus, “the righteous requirements of the law” are fully met in us (see Romans 8:1-4).
We cannot do this on our own, but only through the power of the blood of Jesus. Look at the rest of this passage from Revelation: “For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 12:10-11).
What amazing news! The writer of Hebrews gives us more details in this passage:
For by one sacrifice [Jesus] has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First He says: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Then He adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:14-17)
When we are in Jesus—when we have accepted by faith His work on the Cross—God can make the same bold claim to the devil that Pilate made to the religious leaders: “I find no basis for a charge!” This is how we can then fulfill the righteous requirement Jesus gives us to “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
We’ve all heard people make some audacious claims. But the real power is in being able to back up those claims. Without any proof, it’s all talk! As things were coming to a conclusion for Christ’s ministry—at least in the world’s eyes—there were some bold claims being made. Some were made by Jesus Himself, some by His rivals, and some by His supporters.
The first bold claim we’re going to consider was made by the high priest: a man named Joseph Caiaphas.
The Sanhedrin was the highest court in the land and was made up of 70 + 1 men. This comes from Numbers 11:16-17 (seventy leaders) plus Moses. After Moses, another person was always appointed to serve as the leader, which was usually the high priest.
By the time of Jesus, this ruling body had become more political than religious. Very frequently, leadership would change because of the whims of the Romans or their puppet leaders (someone like a King Herod). The high priest in Christ’s early years was a man named Annas, who served from AD 6-15. During all of the public ministry of Jesus, the high priesthood had transferred to Caiaphas (AD 18-36), who was Annas’ son-in-law. Yet both of them still shared considerable influence (see Luke 3:2; John 18:13, 24; Acts 4:6).
Caiaphas and his family were Sadducees. They didn’t hold to any beliefs of the supernatural—no angels or demons, no resurrection, no afterlife. Partly because of these unscriptural beliefs, the Jewish Qumran, who safeguarded the careful copying of the Scriptures, called Caiaphas “the wicked priest.”
Annas, Caiaphas, and their family member were the ruling party that wanted to stay in power. So their activities were always a balancing act: Trying to keep the Jewish community happy on one hand, while not offending the Romans or other political leaders on the other hand.
It’s with this backdrop that we read the story of Lazarus’ resurrection in John 11. Jesus knew this miracle would validate His ministry, and sure enough, after the resurrection of Lazarus, more and more people put their faith in Jesus. So much so that the religious leaders wanted to kill both Jesus and Lazarus (11:53; 12:9-11).
Ironically, these same religious leaders had previously asked Jesus for a sign to prove He was who He made the bold claim to be. To this demand, Jesus said that He would give them “the sign of Jonah” who was considered dead in the belly of the fish before he was “resurrected” to complete his mission (Matthew 12:38-40, 16:1-4).
Since the religious leaders viewed everything through a political lens, they thought Jesus was also going to instigate a political or military uprising. The following that Jesus would gather would challenge the Sanhedrin’s hold on power, so Caiaphas proposed a political solution disguised as a prophecy (John 11:49-53).
Caiaphas meant it like this: “We’re trying to keep the balance between the Jewish people and the powerful Romans. If we kill one Man (Jesus) in time, we may be a little out of favor with the Jews but we will save our position with the Romans. Later on, we’ll make things right with the common people.”
Even to this day, people are trying to balance, juggle, control, appease, and bargain their way to get or keep the life they want to live. They will use religious dressing to do political things, thinking they will “make it right” later on.
Caiaphas made this bold claim: “If Jesus dies, our position will be saved for us and our children.” But he had no power to back up his bold claim, so it was just talk.
But Jesus made this bold claim: “I will die so that your souls can be saved for eternity.” He, on the other hand, had the power to back up His bold claim (John 10:17-18).
Caiaphas’ plan sounded like it would be the end of Jesus and His mission, but “the end” was really just another step in fulfilling what God had already planned!
Let me say it again: God’s plan always prevails. The bold claims of powerful evil people may make it seem like the end is near, but don’t fret because their “end” is only fulfilling God’s plan!
Craig T. Owens 