Jesus told a story of a man who found a treasure hidden in a field.  He realized the great value of what he had found, so he quickly gathered as much money as he could by selling his possessions, and he bought the land where the treasure was hidden.  And then Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is similar to this.  In other words, the Kingdom of God is of ... [Continue Reading]

I'll never forget a backpacking trip I took with my brother last year.  We were hiking the Foothills Trail, and it was nothing short of exhausting.  On Day 2 we hiked close to 15 miles, and we were both struggling to make it to the camp site.  When we finally arrived, we collapsed on the ground and laid there for about 30 minutes.  I think ... [Continue Reading]

Several years back we were in Mexico building houses, and the very first thing we did was to create a solid foundation.  In fact, we spent a really long time on the foundation because we knew how pivotal it was to the house as a whole.  Jesus used that concept to describe how our lives should be built on a solid foundation of applying His teaching.  Like ... [Continue Reading]

When I read the story of Jesus meeting the paralyzed man by the pool in John 5, Jesus comes across as being incredibly insensitive.  His question, "Do you want to be healed," is the equivalent of asking a blind person if he wants to see, a mute person if she wants to hear, or any other insensitive question to somebody who can't change his or her life situation.  And yet, ... [Continue Reading]

I grew up with pictures like this of Jesus.  Our old sanctuary had stained glass images of him with sheep or on the cross.  Pictures in the hallway had children sitting on his lap.  I don't remember dogs in the pictures as depicted above, but they probably existed, too.  There's not anything wrong, per se, with such images except that they ... [Continue Reading]