PHall | January 18, 2012
Each both Luke and Matthew, the temptation involving bread and stones is listed first. However, the second temptation in Matthew is the third in Luke. In Luke’s record, Satan’s temptation to throw Himself down to prove trust in God is listed third. Matthew is better known for grouping biographical points topically, while Luke’s record is […]
Category: Matthew, Luke |
Comments Off on Matthew 4:1-12; Luke 4:1-13 – Order of Christ’s Temptations
Tags: Commentary
PHall | January 13, 2012
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand” (Chinese Proverb) – Christianity is not just hearing sermons and seeing the good examples of others. It is practicing it ourselves. Only then does the humanly insane, counter-culture, Sermon on the Mount enlighten us with true, divine understanding.
Category: Matthew |
Comments Off on Matthew 5-7 – Living the Sermon on the Mount
Tags:
PHall | December 15, 2011
The third temptation here is not worshiping Satan, which is repulsive. The temptation is as subtle as it is blatant – What is Jesus willing to put up with to get what He wants? He did come for a kingdom, right? Applied personally, what are we willing to put up with to get what we […]
Category: Matthew |
Comments Off on Matthew 4:8-9 – The Third Temptation
Tags: Temptation
PHall | December 10, 2011
There is a silence within the details that sounds an alarm. One temptation ends, and another begins, but what about in between? The silence is the amount of time between each encounter in the battle between Jesus and Satan in the wilderness. Unlike the revealing text declaring that afterwards the angels “immediately” came and began […]
Category: Matthew |
Comments Off on Matthew 4:1-11 – The Silence Between Temptations
Tags: Article
PHall | December 8, 2011
Jesus sank below the water as man and walked on the water as God. In baptism He was overcome; and in the storm He overcame. In the Jordan He submitted; and on Galilee He commanded. The force was never the water; the power was the God-Man’s will. The water always served its Maker, its Master, […]
Category: Matthew |
Comments Off on Matthew 3; 14 – Jesus and Water
Tags:
PHall | November 11, 2011
Jesus makes people uncomfortable. Ironically, this is especially true for the religious because Jesus challenges the normal, the expected, and the religious traditions of both the sanctimonious and soft-hearted. Jesus confronts the conscience of others and we must be brave enough to question our own. Learning from Him, who always knew right and wrong regardless […]
Category: Matthew, I Corinthians |
Comments Off on 1 Corinthians 8:2 – Challenging the Conscience
Tags: Article, Fellowship
PHall | June 25, 2011
Think about the following observation: A barrier to true biblical interpretation is blindness to influences by our social, political, spiritual and personal environment. Before seeing God’s truth, we have to see ourselves truly. To shed biases is a lifelong process. Yet to deny truth is obtainable is to deny reality. True reality is that truth […]
Category: Matthew, John, I Corinthians |
Comments Off on 1 Corinthians 1:18-23 – Barriers and Balance
Tags: Article
PHall | April 22, 2011
How do we decide right and wrong? There are precepts and principles, but sometimes a picture is worth a thousand laws. I would like to suggest to you an image, a picture, but one set in time and reality, that can be used to help us see the meaning of ethics and morality – the […]
Category: Matthew, John, Romans, I Corinthians, Philosophy, Theology |
Comments Off on Matthew 1:23 – The Incarnation and Ethics
Tags: Article, Ethics
PHall | February 13, 2011
Fear forgets the promises of God – “let us go to the other side” Fear foisters upon God an unsavory character – “don’t you care?” Fear finds what is not there and overlooks what is there – “what kind of man is this?”
Category: Matthew, Mark, Luke |
Comments Off on Mt.8:23-27 (cf., Mk.4:35-41; Lk.8:22-25) Failures of Fear
Tags:
PHall | February 5, 2011
The story begins with a child being born, by grace escaping the wrath of a king, raised and adopted by one that he was not biologically related to, and then the story continues by skipping to his adulthood. Who is the story about? It is about both Jesus and Moses. Matthew records the story of […]
Category: Matthew, Exodus |
Comments Off on Exodus and Matthew
Tags: Introduction