He told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.

Matthew 13:31-32

Though it starts small, it grows large.  Though it is the greatest thing above all creation, it is fully contained within the single seed.

Consider the mustard seed.  It needs no addition, just to grow.  It is self contained, self replicating, and able to endure.  This is what the Kingdom is like.

Read more…

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

Matthew 15:18-20

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

John 14:12

Paul writes to Timothy, “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”  (1 Timothy 1:5).  This is the end final product of our instruction.

Consider, for a moment, the working of miracles.  Many have had miracle ministries in the church.  Many have finished well, and many have not.  Many have demonstrated the true heart and character of Jesus, while many have brought shame and disrepute, not intentionally but effectively, upon the body.  But, let us remember, the end of our instruction, the goal, was never miracles or the demonstration of power, but was God’s love in our hearts, a good conscience with faith.

Read more…

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:26

There are many ways to approach discipleship in Christ, but one thing is assured.  Unless your obedience is carried to the extreme, it is not Biblical Christianity.

Discipleship begins at the cross.  It begins at the laying down of everything of this life, and that of following the Master.  From start to finish, it must be about absolute trusting and dependence upon the Shepherd for everything. Read more…

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.

Matthew 13:31-32

When faith begins, it begins as a seed.  A seed sown, the name of Jesus, and faith comes into the heart.  A man believes unto salvation, and a new thing is born.

When faith grows, it begins its work, even as a yeast within a dough, or fermentation within a wine.  It does its work secretly, silently, producing changes through the whole.

Read more…

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

Matthew 10:34-36

That sword, that gleaming, shining sword, comes to divide.  Sharper, faster, more active.  When His sword comes, we cannot remain the same.

Until faith comes, a man’s thoughts are only opinion.  Until faith comes, we only have theories, speculations, and hypotheses.  But, when faith comes, it is the proof, it is the substance of the thing hoped for (Hebrews 11:1).

Do not suppose that you can remain neutral, for you must, eventually, love one and hate the other.  Surely, the flesh wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, so that you do not do what you want, but those that are led by the Spirit are not under the law!
Read more…

In one meeting, upon a riverbank, Old met New.  One was fulfilled, and one was just beginning.  He must increase, and I must.  He must become greater, and I must become less.

For, the law and the prophets were until John, and since that time, men were forcefully entering the Kingdom with violence (Luke 16:16).

The old system was to be replaced, and it was the New that mattered now.  The law was given through Moses, Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17).

Jeremiah the prophet wrote this oracle:

 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Read more…

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

Ephesians 2:8

Faith is not a work.

This is one of the places John Calvin, the leader of reformed theology,  in my opinion, missed it.  In depth doctrinal analysis of all of the branch of theology today called Calvinism aside, the essence of his argument for many of his works hinged upon the understanding of total depravity as being excluding using the faith God provided.  According to that branch of thought, any effort on our part was lacking when it comes to pleasing God.

Many people complain about having “faith in faith”, and saying that it is not what saves you.  Unfortunately, this steers very wide of the margin of scripture, and does nothing but raise a smoke-screen against the real issue, that many do not have a real understanding of what faith is.

Read more…

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

Faith is the substance, the spiritual substructure or foundation of a thing, that if you have it, you have it, you have the actual thing in spiritual form.  While hope is relative to the future, faith is always a “Now” thing.  Because to have the substance of the thing is to have it in actuality, while the manifestation of the material or appearance of a thing may be yet forthcoming, the presence of faith, the presence of the thing in the Spirit, is the same as having it in the natural.  True faith, when it is real faith, and it is not ever wrong.  If the thing does not appear, either keep waiting, you got off faith, or it was not faith in the first place.

However, faith is not only the substance of a thing hoped for, it is also the proof of a thing.  This is important also to know.  While the faith is the presence of a thing, simply to have faith is proof that it is so.  You cannot have God’s kind of faith in a lie, and because “faith” and “wrong”  cannot happen in the same place at the same time, you will never have faith in a non-thing.  Faith cannot be attached to a fantasy.  Faith, goes beyond substance to the evidence and proof that something is.

Read more…

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face,  that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself,in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge

Colossians 2:1-3

It is by faith alone that we understand the mystery of God, namely, Christ.  It is by faith alone that we come to see who He really is.  Who He is, in all of His depth, width, breadth, and length, is the mystery, the great secret of God.

Through all of the Mosaic law, through all of the tabernacle, through all of the feasts, it is Jesus that there, right there.  He is the heavenly tabernacle, He is the rock in the wilderness.  He is the scarlet thread hanging in Rahab’s window.  He is the branch cast upon the waters to make the ax-head float.

Read more…

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

Galatians 5:16

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:2

The best, and most perfect way, to live is free from sin.  This is why God gave His law through Moses, so that we might know life, and fellowship with Him.  The Fall is what happened, and corrupted all of the creation.  The Cross is what enabled us to live free from sin, and the desires of the flesh.

We are told, quite simply, to “put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24).  This, to Paul, was his practical instructions on how to live without sin.

Read more…