Have you ever been around bad company? I don’t mean house guests. I’m referring to those people we choose to hang around—and more importantly why we hang around them. Jesus surprised many in His day by spending time with “bad company.” But His reasons were stellar.
In this episode of Live the Bible, we see how Christ’s example gives us the freedom to engage the world for Him.
Episode Transcript
Picture yourself standing at the Sea of Galilee, with the waves lapping against your feet. Now imagine looking up at the massive Temple Mount in Jerusalem from the very steps Jesus climbed to get there. Or stare wide-eyed at the massive pyramids in Egypt…
(Photo: Three Great Pyramids of Giza. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
Here’s the amazing truth: you don’t have to just imagine it—you can experience it!
I’m sending you this special note about my upcoming tour to the Holy Land in October 2020. This tour to Israel promises to be spectacular and even offers an optional pre-tour to Egypt! Egypt is amazing and gives such insight into the Bible lands and the Word of God.
Take a moment now to check out the details of our upcoming tour in October 2020.
Really there . . . at the places you’ve read about all your life.
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I received an odd prescription from the pharmacy once—really funny, in fact. (I share the story in the opening minutes of this week’s podcast.) Truth be told, God gives what seem like odd prescription sometimes when His words make no sense in the real world.
In this episode of Live the Bible, we’ll discover what happened when Jesus did that one day, and the essential lesson it teaches us about our relationship with Him.
Episode Transcript
Nothing can stop God from fulfilling His promises to those who believe in Him. In the mean time, it takes great vision to see something where there is nothing. Israel’s Negev provides a great example.
(Photo: Sculpture garden at Sde Boker, by שי קסל CC-BY-2.5, via Wikimedia Commons)
Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, saw the vast expanse of Israel’s Negev as something that offered great potential. In 1953, he settled in the kibbutz Sde Boker, urging Israelis to help him tame the Negev into a new society for Israel.
To many, the idea seemed no more than a pipe dream. As a result, the plea fell on deaf ears, for the arid region receives barely eight inches of rain per year.
In the Negev, life has one uncompromising requirement: water. Through this simple need in the same land, God taught His people a life-giving lesson.
We can drink from it as well.
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Who’s on first? The question may make us think of a classic comedy routine. But the question goes deeper when we consider the most important priorities we can chase in life.
In this episode of the Live the Bible Podcast, we’re going to look at “How to Keep First Things First,” and we have Jesus as our model. His example in Mark chapter 1 gives us at least two practical principles for how to choose among the many good options in life and ministry—and how to focus on the few essentials God wants us individually to do.
Some people find it hard to identify with the Jews who rock before Jerusalem’s Western Wall. When I first saw them, the prayers seemed odd. Then I thought about my traditions. Are they any less bizarre?
(Photo: Men praying at the Western Wall. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
Oddness just comes in different flavors. They’re called “traditions.” For example:
It’s easy in the familiarity of our own traditions to shake our fingers at the oddities of others. Jews pray while rocking, Muslims kneel with their bottoms in the air, and Christians bow our heads and close our eyes.
But blend any tradition—bowing, standing, prostrating, rocking, kneeling, or jumping—with no personal relationship with the true God, and it’s pointless.
How can we make sure we don’t confuse truth with tradition?
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I’m excited today to launch my new podcast, “Live the Bible.” Whether you’re dealing with personal discouragement, needing relief from guilt, or looking for encouragement and hope for eternity, you’ll hear words to help you truly live the Bible.
The podcast launches its first episode with good news, and we find it in the first verses of Mark’s gospel on the life of Jesus Christ.
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss an episode.
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God often puts us in impossible situations. We find it frustrating, sure—but it’s never meant to be. In fact, those circumstances are meant to do just the opposite. God means to encourage us.
(Photo: Plain of Bethsaida. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
With the Sea of Galilee in view on the Plain of Bethsaida, Jesus pointed to thousands of people and said to His twelve disciples: “You give them something to eat!” (Mark 6:37).
You can hear the frustration in the disciples’ reply: “Should we spend half a year’s wages to feed them?” Forget for a moment you’ve heard this story before.
Think instead of your current problem.
Whatever it is you’re facing today, you face one of many impossible situations. Now go back to Jesus’ crazy command to His disciples. His solution for them is also His solution for you.
Let me show you why.
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It’s always easier to react to life rather than to shape it. To go with the flow rather than to dig a new trench. But God gives us help to choose the direction of our lives.
(Photo: Capernaum synagogue, where Jesus taught. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
The Lord helps us live intentionally for Him. God has given us the freedom to make significant choices in spite of our circumstances.
Jesus’ example at Capernaum shows us what choices to make to live intentionally for God.
Two questions can help us do that.
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Sometimes waiting on God feels like you’re dying of thirst. That’s what David thought as he wandered in the Judean wilderness, running from a problem he couldn’t solve.
(Photo: The Wilderness of Judea. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
Chased by the jealous King Saul, David took refuge in the Wilderness of Judea and prayed, “My flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).
This barren land is a picture of our own challenge with waiting on God.
It also pictures the place of refuge God provides for us while we wait.
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