John 14:5-7

With Jesus, in Him and in the unity of the Holy Spirit we know the Father!

Salvation does not come through the law, sacrifices, religious practices, or the overthrow of foreign oppressors—all of which were beliefs held by Jews in the first century. Instead, Jesus Himself is the channel through which people can have relationship with God the Father and spend eternity with Him. Faithlife Bible.

Jesus came to reveal the Father. To know Jesus is to know the Father.

Through His death and resurrection, Jesus is the way to the Father. He is also the truth and the life. As truth, He is the revelation of God. As life, He is the communication of God to us. NKJ Bible.

John 14:5–7 (NKJV)

⁵ Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”

⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

⁷ “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

John 10:9 (NKJV)

⁹ I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

John 1:14 (NKJV)

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:17 (NKJV)

¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John 8:19 (NKJV)

¹⁹ Then they said to Him, “Where is Your Father?”Jesus answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.”

The Book of Romans

There is no difference: Jew or Greek, Catholic or Protestant, male or female, slave or free we are the same in Christ!!! God wants no one to perish…no not one!

In Christ, in His birth, death and resurrection we are given life…abundant and eternal!

The Book of Romans

Paul wrote Romans toward the end of his third missionary journey (mid-50s ad), probably from Corinth. Though he does not explicitly mention his purpose for writing this letter, he describes his circumstances: He plans to deliver financial relief to the believers in Jerusalem to promote unity among the Jewish and Gentile churches. Unity in Christ is a major theme of Romans. Faithlife Bible.

Romans includes the most systematic presentation of theology found anywhere in Scripture. It explains the meaning of the Cross for the believer’s life. While expounding why Jesus died for all of humanity, Paul clarifies the core concepts of the Christian faith: sin and righteousness, faith and works, justification and election.

All of Paul’s other letters arise from a particular occasion and have a definite purpose. Romans is different; from the content it seems to have a much more general didactic aim. Having said this, it is possible to see at least three purposes Paul had in writing the book.

His first purpose was to prepare the Romans for his planned journey to Rome and later to Spain. His immediate itinerary involved a trip to Jerusalem, but his vision was toward the west. He clearly suggests that he expects assistance from them in his endeavor to carry the gospel to Spain. But if that had been his only purpose, a brief note would have been enough. Obviously Paul had more in mind.

A second purpose involved Paul’s understanding that the believers needed to “be established”. Paul wanted to give them a well-instructed faith. His letter is a kind of syllabus of Paul’s apostolic teaching. Romans is a masterful presentation of God’s plan of salvation for Jews and Gentiles.

The third purpose for the letter was pastoral. Paul wanted to exhort Jewish and Gentile believers to live in harmony. As in most of the early churches, the gospel brought different groups of people together who otherwise would have stayed apart, whether for reasons of nationality, status, or culture. Once they came together under one roof, the challenge was to preserve their oneness in Christ. Thus throughout the letter, Paul deals with problems arising from Jewish and Gentile differences. He emphasizes what everyone shared. Since there is only one God, He is the God of both Jew and Gentile. Both groups are under sin, and both are saved through faith. This theme of Jew and Gentile living together surfaces most clearly in chapters 14 and 15, where Paul deals with the practical aspects of being together in one body. Paul hammers home his central theme: The righteous God justifies and ultimately glorifies both Jew and Gentile by grace through faith.

Romans 7:6 (NKJV)

⁶ But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Romans 8:28 (NKJV)

²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

1 Corinthians 9:22 (NKJV)

²² to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

Titus 1:1-5

Tomorrow is my 68th birthday it is so fitting that You led me to this today. 

Wisdom in this day and age is hard to come by other than in You. We need to be as wise as serpents but as gentle as the Lamb! Our actions speak volumes about our faith in the goodness of God and His relationship with ALL of His creation.

I need all the guidance that I can get…love you dear, wise Holy Spirit!!

In Paul’s first-century ad context, this refers to men and women over age 50.

The Greek word used here, diabolos, describes a person who uses speech that damages the reputation of another, usually through false accusations. Paul instructs the believers about proper conduct so that the word of God will have a good reputation among outsiders. Faithlife Bible.

Paul views sound doctrine as the root that produces the fruit of sound practice (good works), such as faith, love, and patience, as well as sound speech. Right thinking is the raw material for right actions. Our actions will naturally reveal the direction of our thoughts.

The character of those who are mature should serve as a spiritual example to all. Maturity is not determined simply by age or even by how much a person knows; it is determined by how skilled a person is in applying the truth to life and in distinguishing good from evil. Paul wanted the older women to teach the younger women so that their actions would glorify God, build His kingdom, and strengthen the family. Failure to follow Paul’s instructions would result in the word of God being maligned in the pagan community.

Titus 2:1–5 (NKJV)

2 But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: ² that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; ³ the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things—⁴ that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, ⁵ to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

Romans 2:24 (NKJV)

²⁴ For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.

Daniel 9:16-19

There is no man righteous no not one. 

So God sent Jesus, all God and all man, the perfect  representation of the Father. Through Him He showed us how to live in His righteousness. God help us to be Your messengers of love and forgiveness that You offer to all mankind through Your only begotten Son. That in Him, in His birth, death and resurrection, we live and breathe. 

This calls to mind the tragedy that the Catholic Church is going through right now. God help the Body of Christ in their time of need.

To God alone all glory belongs!!

Daniel entreats Yahweh to subdue His wrath and forgive on the basis of His righteous acts—His legacy of saving works. If the temple associated with the God of Israel has been disgraced, so too has God and the nation to whom it belonged. Faithlife Bible.

It is important to note that the only basis for Daniel’s appeal was the grace of God.  

These words must be understood in light of Daniel’s reference to the 70 years. Daniel knew full well that all of God’s promises had not come to pass, nor had the blessings been conferred on the regathered and restored people. NKJ Bible.

Daniel 9:16–19 (NKJV)

¹⁶ “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. ¹⁷ Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. ¹⁸ O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. ¹⁹ O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”

Numbers 6:24 (NKJV)

²⁴ “The Lord bless you and keep you;

²⁵ The Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

John 14:22-28

Jesus promised that He would never leave us. The father sends the Holy Spirit to abide within believers to teach and guide us into His perfect will. He will take the things of the Father made evident in Jesus and explain them to us.

The way to the knowledge of the Father is through the Holy Spirit and we receive it with our acceptance of Jesus, the Father’s gift to His creation, mankind.

The Greek term used here, paraklētos, refers to a legal assistant in a court who pleads someone’s case before the judge. The judge is God, and people are judged based on whether they follow Jesus’ command to believe that eternal life comes through His death and resurrection. When on earth, Jesus was the means for believers to interact with God the Father since their sin prevented them from doing so directly. The Spirit is sent to do the same work. This is one of His many tasks.

The Spirit, as God’s means of communication on earth, instructs believers and leads them to follow God’s will. The Spirit gives them access to God, His plans, and His wisdom. He can do so because of Jesus’ sacrifice for sins. They now have a way (the Spirit) to reach God—unencumbered by rituals, sacrifices, or laws—and atonement for their sins (Jesus’ death and resurrection), so that they are free to communicate with God and be in His presence.

Jesus wants His disciples to know that His coming suffering and death is not the end of His ministry; it is the beginning of His ministry’s final purpose and the completion of God’s will for Jesus’ life. Faithlife Bible.

John 14:22–28 (NKJV)

²² Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”

²³ Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. ²⁴ He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.

²⁵ “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. ²⁶ But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. ²⁷ Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. ²⁸ You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.

Luke 1:79 (NKJV)

⁷⁹ To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,

To guide our feet into the way of peace.”

John 2:22 (NKJV)

²² Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

Ephesians 1:7-14

In the measure that you place your trust in Him is the measure that you can receive from Him.

The dear Holy Spirit will teach you all things pertaining to Christ and place you where you need to be in His Body. We were created to be doers and not just hearers of the Word of God. We who were once slaves to sin are made free and washed clean by the precious blood of the Lamb of God.

It is all about Jesus and the salvation that only He can provide!

The Greek word redemption used here, apolytrōsis, refers to the act of paying to free a slave. In Paul’s writings, the Greek word used here, mystērion, refers to God’s plan of salvation, which was formerly kept secret but is now revealed in Christ. This plan includes the unification of Jews and Gentiles into one new people of God. God’s work in Christ extends over all creation, including the heavens.

The gift of the Holy Spirit not only empowers believers to live holy lives, but also serves as a guarantee and reminder that God will one day fully complete His work in believers. Faithlife Bible.

In ancient times, one could buy back a person who was sold into slavery. In the same way, Christ through His death bought us from our slavery to sin. The blood of Christ is the means by which our redemption comes. The Old Testament  and the New both clearly teach that there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. Blood here is a vivid symbolic equivalent of death. It recalls the sacrificial system of the old covenant, which looked forward to the self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ that took away the sin of the world.

The seal or mark of ownership in believers’ lives is the Holy Spirit.

Interestingly, the Greek word for guarantee can also be used to indicate an engagement ring. As Christ is the Bridegroom and the church is the bride, so the Holy Spirit is the down payment, the earnest money, in the long-awaited marriage of the two. NKJ Bible.

Ephesians 1:7–14 (NKJV)

⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace ⁸ which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, ⁹ having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, ¹⁰ that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. ¹¹ In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, ¹² that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

¹³ In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

John 1:17 (NKJV)

¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:24 (NKJV)

²⁴ being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Acts 20:28 (NKJV)

²⁸ Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

Romans 3:25 (NKJV)

²⁵ whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,

Luke 9:18-22

Faith alone pleases the Father…faith in the birth, death and resurrection of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Mary overshadowed by the Holy Spirit gave birth to Jesus. All God, all man and the only One who could save us, the gift of God, so that no one could boast.

To God be all the glory!

Following His resurrection, Jesus’ disciples would be commissioned to make known explicitly what His signs and wonders revealed—Jesus’ identity as God’s Son and anointed one. Faithlife Bible.

The emphasis here is on the messianic role of Jesus. He is the Promised One who was ushering in a new era. However, Jesus would soon reveal to the disciples that His messiahship would have elements of suffering that the disciples did not expect. The element of suffering that the Messiah would endure was not a part of popular expectation. Thus Jesus’ messiahship could not be openly proclaimed before the true nature of the Messiah was revealed.

The disciples struggled to understand what Jesus was saying. They could not comprehend how Jesus’ predictions fit into God’s plan. Only after Jesus’ resurrection and His explanation of the Scriptures to them did they begin to understand. NKJ Bible.

Luke 9:18–22 (NKJV)

¹⁸ And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”

¹⁹ So they answered and said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again.”

²⁰ He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.”

²¹ And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, ²² saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.”

Matthew 16:16 (NKJV)

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Zephaniah 1:2-3

There will come a time when God will judge, not man. Those who turn to Him will live! God wants no man to perish but all to share eternal life with the Trinity. 

It is up to us to choose life or to choose death…

There will be a complete destruction of all who do not worship Yahweh. Faithlife Bible.

The message of Zephaniah begins with a pronouncement of universal judgment. These words not only introduce the particular judgment that would be pronounced upon Judah, but they also speak of the final judgment that will usher in the kingdom of God on earth. 

Stumbling blocks refers to idolatry, or substitutes for God in the life and affections of a person. Because there is nothing in the universe that really may be compared to the Creator, God abhors all forms of idolatry.

Zephaniah’s message had both halves of the bad-news-good-news equation. His first words were bad news indeed: The day of the Lord was coming and that meant terrible judgment. The Israelites had acted like their pagan neighbors—they had scorned God’s law, worshiped false gods, and sinned without remorse long enough. Now it was time to repent: They had to turn back to their God or face the consequences. 

It was the “turn back to God” part of Zephaniah’s message that offered a ray of hope. And to those who listened and responded to his call, the good news wiped out every line of bad. God would restore those who sought Him. NKJ Bible.

Zephaniah 1:2–3 (NKJV)

² “I will utterly consume everything

From the face of the land,”

Says the Lord;

³ “I will consume man and beast;

I will consume the birds of the heavens,

The fish of the sea,

And the stumbling blocks along with the wicked.

I will cut off man from the face of the land,”

Says the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:3-8

The Gospel of Jesus Christ…is the only way to the Father!

Just B.E.L.I.E.V.E.

Paul did not originate the proclamation of Jesus that he delivered to the Corinthians; he simply gave the Corinthians what he himself had received. He viewed himself as a link in a long chain of witnesses to the truth of the death and resurrection of Christ. Christ’s death dealt decisively with our sins. He suffered in our place to endure the just wrath of God against us. Christ lived and died in accordance with the prophecies about Him in the Old Testament.

The Resurrection verifies the fact that Christ’s death paid the full price for sin. The Greek term translated rose here is in the perfect tense, emphasizing the ongoing effects of this historical event. Christ is a risen Savior today. NKJ Bible.

1 Corinthians 15:3–8 (NKJV)

³ For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. ⁶ After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. ⁷ After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. ⁸ Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

Isaiah 53:10 (NKJV)

¹⁰ Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;

He has put Him to grief.

When You make His soul an offering for sin,

He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,

And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.

Hosea 6:2 (NKJV)

² After two days He will revive us;

On the third day He will raise us up,

That we may live in His sight.

Matthew 12:40 (NKJV)

⁴⁰ For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

John 2:18-24

Faith alone pleases the Father. 

Faith in His only begotten Son whom He sent to save the world and all who would accept His birth, death and resurrection, His life in exchange for theirs.

Just B.E.L.I.E.V.E.

As they had with John the Baptist, the religious leaders want Jesus to justify His actions. Jesus is divinely appointed, so the glory of other people is not His concern—He receives His glory from God the Father. Faithlife Bible.

The sign Jesus gave the Jews was the sign of His death and resurrection. John’s purpose in recording Jesus’ miracles was for people to believe and have eternal life.

These individuals trusted Jesus, but Jesus did not entrust Himself to them. Jesus fully understood the depth of trust of those who were following Him; some would stay, but many would fall away. NKJ Bible.

John 2:18–24 (NKJV)

¹⁸ So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?”

¹⁹ Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

²⁰ Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”

²¹ But He was speaking of the temple of His body. ²² Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

²³ Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. ²⁴ But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men,

Mark 14:58 (NKJV)

⁵⁸ “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.’ ”