BJ McConnell
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Post by BJ McConnell on Nov 2, 2019 15:14:52 GMT -5
Signs and Miracles Discussion is now closed.
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kayellenmcconnell
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Post by kayellenmcconnell on Nov 10, 2019 20:42:29 GMT -5
First post! I will be addressing the chapters for this week's bible study a day at a time, as to keep God's word fresh in my mind each day. For our first day, let us discuss Chapter 14 of Matthew. For context, Chapter 13 of Matthew is all about Jesus speaking to his disciples in parables. Jesus says that this is essentially because we are blind and deaf to the teachings and power of God, so Jesus therefore used parables to allow us (believers) to understand in somewhat simpler terms. One of the more well-known parables, for example, is the parables of the sower. In this parable, Jesus explains that you cannot simply sow the seed of God's word. You must also sow this seed in ground that is good and fertile in order to fully cultivate and understand the Word. These parables and teachings of Jesus were spreading rapidly throughout the land, eventually to the ears of Herod Antipas. (Matthew 14:1) Here, we pick up Chapter 14. We start with Herod Antipas, who is infamously known for the execution of John the Baptist. Matthew 14:2 tells us that Herod firmly believes that Jesus is, in fact, the resurrection of John the Baptist. We can conclude from this that Herod is incredibly fearful of Jesus, as he was of John the Baptist. Now, John was executed because he challenged Herod. This was justified, as Herod was doing some pretty dicey stuff with a woman named Herodias (who was his brother's wife) and her daughter Salome (I'll let you look that stuff up). Essentially, John challenged Herod's sins and was arrested and executed for it. John's followers then took his body and buried it, and hurried off to tell Jesus (Matthew 14:12). Jesus then departed by boat. This, while seemingly insignificant as a part of this chapter, symbolizes that Jesus saw no need to confront Herod at this time. Large groups of people followed Jesus to leave the city to see his miracles. Matthew 14:14 says that Jesus was "moved with compassion" to help this group of people. While researching this chapter of Matthew, I found another verse that addresses this situation. Mark 6:34 explains that Jesus was moved by compassion because he viewed them as sheep without a shepherd. Jesus then told his disciples to feed this massive crowd of people, but they insisted that they only had five loaves and two fishes. Jesus instructed everyone to have a seat, and he prayed over the food and successfully distributed the food to the crowd. Not only is this a great example of God's power but it is also an example of giving your problems up to God. In order to feed the crowd, the disciples had to first give the food to Jesus. This shows to us that in order for anything to be done at all about our struggles and successes in life (no matter what God chooses to do), we must always offer these problems up to him. One of the most essential parts of Christianity is that God is always there for you to pray to, to find truth in, but you must willingly find Him. But, often times, we do not trust God to care for us. Sometimes, we must go through things that are not pleasant, and thus our trust in God is diminished. The next part of this chapter addresses that. The disciples see Jesus walking on water, and Peter walks on water towards him. He begins to sink, and cries out to Jesus (Matthew 14:30). Jesus catches him and then asks him why he doubted him in the first place. I believe that Matthew 14 is a story that can be a lesson to all of us. It is not only an example of miracles, but it is an example of what we as believers need to do in response to our challenges in life. Give your problems up to God, and trust that he knows what is best for us. God bless!
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BJ McConnell
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Post by BJ McConnell on Nov 10, 2019 23:12:39 GMT -5
...Not only is this a great example of God's power but it is also an example of giving your problems up to God. In order to feed the crowd, the disciples had to first give the food to Jesus. This shows to us that in order for anything to be done at all about our struggles and successes in life (no matter what God chooses to do), we must always offer these problems up to him... I really like the lesson you extrapolated here, very insightful! Handing our problems to God and not inserting our own attempts to solve the problem is one of the big challenges believers go through on a daily basis. How many times do we ask God to help us and take care of a problem, only to show we don't trust in Him by taking matters into our own hands when the problem doesn't go away overnight?
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BJ McConnell
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Sept 28, 2019 2:32:20 GMT -5
Posts: 246 Amens: 13
Favorite Verse: 2 Cor 5:17
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Born Again Christian?: Yes
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Post by BJ McConnell on Nov 14, 2019 15:53:03 GMT -5
Is it really Thursday already? Wow, this week seems to be flying by for some reason. Well, I hope everyone is enjoying the readings this week. For anyone that has been to church more than once, a lot of the readings this week are probably pretty familiar ground. You've got the beheading of John the Baptist, the feeding of the 4 and 5 thousands, lots of healing of the multitudes, Jesus walking on water, and of course those pesky Scribes and Pharisees trying their best to trip up Jesus at every turn. Oh, and let's not forget the turning point for the disciples when Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Son of God and Jesus names him the rock upon which He will build His church, as well as the transfiguration with Moses and Elijah. It's also worth noting that these chapters play a big part in Jesus announcing to the disciples that He will be killed and raised back to life on the third day. So for me there are lots of important moments in these short chapters. Let's see if I can go through some of them without making this into a short story First, in Chapter fourteen I think there is an important lesson to be learned from the story of Jesus walking on water. Again, if you've spent any time in church I'm sure you've already heard this so bear with me. When Jesus tells the disciples it is Him on the water, Peter responds by asking Jesus to tell him to come out to Him, which He does. What amazes me is that Peter actually walks on the water! That is, until the winds pick up to remind him how impossible it is to do what he's doing. Here's what happens... Isn't this exactly what we do ourselves? Lord, I know you can handle all of my problems. Then we step out in faith, but things don't exactly go our way and it's, "Lord, save me!!" So Peter's experience is pretty common for all believers in a sense. But let's look at what happens next... This is the best part of the lesson. Yes, we sometimes fail or have difficulties when we step out in faith, but based on Matthew 14:31 we can know that if we cry out to Jesus, He will stretch out His hand and catch us. Also, did you notice the verse says "immediately"? Jesus doesn't leave us in our storms, He is there the whole time, ready to reach out immediately when we need Him.
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BJ McConnell
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Sept 28, 2019 2:32:20 GMT -5
Posts: 246 Amens: 13
Favorite Verse: 2 Cor 5:17
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Post by BJ McConnell on Nov 14, 2019 16:21:00 GMT -5
Chapter 15 starts out with an encounter between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees ( I love these! ). So the Pharisees are all bent out of shape and they try to get Jesus going by asking Him why He lets the disciples eat without first washing their hands like the elders have always done. Of course Jesus answers them with a question of His own, which in a nutshell is basically, look guys you're focusing on your manmade traditions so much that you don't even see you are ignoring the commandment of God! I never get tired of reading about Jesus turning the tables on these guys! This confrontation leads Jesus to make a statement about the prophecy of Elijah that I personally feel is still happening today. I feel like this prophecy is even stronger the closer we get to the tribulation. What really worries me is that I see a trend within the churches themselves that seem to be leading people away from Christ by saying there are many other ways to heaven. How could anyone call themselves a Christian and say we don't have to believe in Jesus to get to heaven?! You can't even spell Christian without Christ! Seriously though, the important take away comes next as Jesus says that it's not what goes into the mouth that defiles us, but rather what comes out of the mouth. Amen to that!!! Just think of the damage we have all done with our words. Just a little further down the chapter we see the disciples asking Jesus to explain His parable and there are some very serious things to pull from those verses: Now, here Jesus is explaining the parable he told to the Pharisees, but to see just how important this is, let's compare Jesus' list with the list Paul gives us in 1 Corinthians 6:9,10: Those lists look pretty similar to me, and whoa, Paul's not talking about being defiled, he is telling us if we take part in such things we are talking about being kept out of heaven! Now that is dead serious, but luckily, Paul continues: Great news if your a believer in Jesus Christ and the saving power of His blood!
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BJ McConnell
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Sept 28, 2019 2:32:20 GMT -5
Posts: 246 Amens: 13
Favorite Verse: 2 Cor 5:17
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Born Again Christian?: Yes
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Post by BJ McConnell on Nov 14, 2019 17:20:19 GMT -5
Still in Chapter 15 here, but what I see in the next section of these verses is something that is so important that I can't leave it out. Honestly, we could devote a whole month's worth of studies to this one, and maybe some day we will get around to doing just that.
Anyway, look at verses 22-28 of Chapter 15 with me:
The first thing to take notice of is Jesus reaction to this woman's request. He is acting much differently than we are used to seeing Him. Why do you think that is? Verse 22 tells us this woman is a Canaanite, so she is a Gentile. Throughout the gospels we see this reaction from Jesus toward the Gentiles. We even saw Jesus in earlier chapters telling the disciples not to take the news of the kingdom to the Gentiles, but to go to the "lost sheep of Israel" only.
This is a vitally important thing to comprehend when studying the entire Bible, both old and new testaments. You have to understand the Bible in terms of dispensations. Now, getting into dispensationalism is not something I have the time to go into here, but understand it is very important when one is trying to do as Paul commands us by rightly dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15). So important, in fact, that I recommend to anyone reading this, if you are not familiar with dispensations of the Bible, please, PLEASE, research it on your own and make it a part of your approach to reading and study the Bible every time you pick it up.
Okay, off my soapbox and back to Matthew and this Gentile woman with the possessed daughter. So we've seen that Jesus is going to let this woman's child remain possessed, but why? Well, the disciples come to Him and ask Him to make the woman go away. As they are speaking with Him, the woman approaches Jesus and asks him directly to help her. Jesus again tells her I have been sent to Israel, basically again telling her, I'm not here for the Gentiles. Now in verse 27, the woman impresses Jesus with her answer and as we will see a few other times, sometimes the Gentile people were capable of showing such faith that Jesus was moved to help them even though they were not from Israel.
What's important though is to note that such a reaction is not par for the course. Over and over we see Jesus telling everyone he was sent for the lost sheep of Israel. Like I said moments ago, to truly understand this you have to get into a discussion on dispensations, but let's put that on the backburner and just understand here that if we allow scripture to interpret scripture... if we do not allow what we have been taught in the past to color our understanding of these verses today... if we simply read this with a blank slate state of mind and let the Bible speak for itself, you cannot deny that when Jesus came to earth the first time, it was all about the Jews, it was not to offer salvation to the Gentiles. For anyone who may not understand, a Gentile is anyone that is not Jewish.
Trust me when I tell you, this is not a popular thing to point out to people because we have been raised through the Church to believe that the gospels are key to our salvation, and if you are meaning that the gospels introduce us to Jesus and that the gospels are the story of His death, burial and resurrection, then yes. But much of the Gospels are directed only to the Jews and more importantly, they should be seen in terms of dispensations as separate from the church age, or, the age of grace. The age of grace begins on the road to Damascus, not with the birth of Jesus. (ouch, I can feel you staring holes through me!)
Seriously though, you have every right to disagree with me, but if you do I would ask you to do a little research into it. And more importantly, view the scriptures literally and within context. I promise you if you do that with an open mind you will see what I'm claiming is truth. And more importantly, when you can see it, you would not believe the continuity and credibility it gives to the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It all comes together so beautifully and you will be in awe, finding yourself with a new and stronger love of the Word than you've known previously. At least, that has been my experience.
Trust me, there is evidence of this throughout the scriptures so I do not have the space to quote you verse upon verse, but perhaps if there is interest, we can setup a period of time to devote a study to it for more than a normal week.
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BJ McConnell
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Post by BJ McConnell on Nov 14, 2019 18:29:08 GMT -5
After that last post I'm not sure you're ready to see my profile pop up again, yet here I am So, Chapter 16. I want to talk a little bit about the conversation between Peter and Jesus, specifically what Jesus tells Peter after Peter confesses Jesus to be the Son of the living God. Of course all believers are familiar enough with this event that we know Jesus tells Peter that he is blessed and that he will be the rock upon which Jesus builds His church. But I'm not convinced that the church is giving enough time to the remainder of that conversation, at least, not in the right context. So here's the thing, certain denominations will take the end of verse 19 and they will tell you that as a believer we have the power to bind all things on earth that come against us based on what Jesus says here. But I say they are taking this verse out of context. For one, they are referencing only the last half of the verse - never a good idea. So what does Jesus say in the other part that these churches are leaving out? He says, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Well that sounds good, right? Yes, but let's keep this verse in context. First of all, to whom is Jesus speaking? Peter, not the church, not even the rest of the disciples, just Peter. The church doesn't even exist yet, how could this be for us? And it is in response to Peter's enlightenment from the Spirit because He was told by the Father that Jesus is the Son of God (Matthew 16:17). So if Jesus is speaking directly to Peter, then who is He claiming has this power to bind all things on earth? Well, Peter of course. But the churches want to take this and assign this as a gift of the Spirit when it is clearly not being written to us today. If it were, don't you think Paul might have made mention of it as he spoke on the gifts of the Spirit? So we need to leave these verses in context. My friends, we believers today do not have the power to bind Satan. Can we ask God to do this for us? Yes, of course we can, but we cannot do it ourselves, we do not have that power. Need more proof? Okay, let's take a look at another part of scripture aside from this conversation with Peter. Scripture tells us that Jesus was created a little lower than the angels (Psalms 8:5, Hebrews 2:9). In Daniel Chapter 10 we see Daniel waiting for an interpretation to his dreams. When an angel arrives, the angel tells Daniel that he was delayed by the king of Persia 21 days and that it took Michael, one of the chief princes to help him so he could get away and deliver the interpretation from God. This tells us Michael is one of the strongest angels in heaven. So when Satan tried to stop Michael from taking the body of Moses, what does scripture say happened? Okay, let's put all that together. First, scripture twice tells us that Jesus was made a little lower than the angels. It is safe to say that if Jesus was made, in His earthly body, a little lower than the angels, then believers are also made a little lower than the angels, at least until we are raptured and receive our heavenly bodies when we will be like Christ. But for now, that means the angels are more powerful than we are spiritually. Next, we see that in Daniel, one of heaven's angels that was sent to deliver a message was being hindered by this king of Persia, which we can likely assume is some type of evil entity. This angel was not able to get away from the king of Persia and it required Michael to set him on his way. We are even told that Michael is a chief prince, so we know Michael is one of the strongest angels in heaven. Lastly, Jude tells us the story of Michael contending with Satan himself over the body of Moses. According to Jude, Michael did not dare to rebuke Satan himself but rather said the Lord rebuke him. Am I painting a clear enough picture? If we are weaker spiritually than the angels and the strongest angel himself will not rebuke Satan, why does the church teach us that we should be doing just that? Because they have taken Matthew 16:18 out of context. My friends, we should not be trying to bind evil spirits, and we definitely should not be trying to bind Satan himself. We simply do not have the spiritual power to do so. This is why it is so vitally important to rightly divide the Word - to leave scripture in context and let the Bible say what it actually says. I am very passionate about this. I mean, the forums are named after the Bereans, who would not take even Paul at his word, but later went back and searched the scriptures to verify what he was telling them was correct. I urge you to do the same whenever you are taught something at church. Don't just assume a preacher is always correct. If what they are preaching does not line up with the Word of God, then they are wrong. If they do it consistently, you might want to find another church. Let God be true, and every man a liar (Romans 3:4)
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BJ McConnell
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Sept 28, 2019 2:32:20 GMT -5
Posts: 246 Amens: 13
Favorite Verse: 2 Cor 5:17
Bible Study Member?: Yes
Born Again Christian?: Yes
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Post by BJ McConnell on Nov 14, 2019 18:47:16 GMT -5
So one more to wrap things up for me this week. I have one more verse in Chapter 16 I'd like to draw attention to and that is verse 27:
Nothing to deep here, though I do love a good prophetic scripture! All I really want to say in regard to this one is to make sure everyone understands that verse 27 is referring to the Second Coming of Christ, not the rapture. I only bring that up because I made the mistake myself of reading this as the rapture for quite a while, but that is not correct.
And finally, that brings me to Chapter 17. Here we have the transfiguration, which is a great portion of scripture, but I am going to let the Word speak for itself on that subject. What I did want to go over briefly is that a good portion of Chapter 17, as well as other parts of our readings this week Jesus spends telling the disciples over and over that He must go to Jerusalem to be delivered to the authorities, put to death, and that He will rise on the third day.
I guess I just find it interesting that as many times as Jesus tells the disciples what is going to happen, they seem to be in shock when it actually happens. I don't know if they were in denial or if they just thought He was speaking figuratively. In any case, the rest of scripture clearly depicts these events as though they did not understand until Jesus had ascended and they received the Holy Spirit which showed them all things.
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