When things go wrong we have a tendency to blame God. However, how much of our disappointment is a result of us expecting things from God that He either never said or never promised? Check out this new episode four of the Mobile Word Podcast on the Mobile Word Podcast page or on itunes where we discuss Matthew 11:13-14 and how our expectations become a stumbling to our faith in Jesus and walk as Christians. Enjoy!
A personal encounter with Jesus Christ creates unspeakable joy in His presence and unparalleled agony in His absence. To miss something or to long for something, one must first love and desire it. We never despair the loss of something that we take no interest in. However, when our lives are completely invested in something or someone it is unthinkable to imagine living without what we’ve begun to see as a part of us.
Since Jesus Christ came for us and promised to never leave us or forsake us, how or why do we experience His absence? The truth is, we create His absence. By turning away from Him and indulging in our sinful natures we create a chasm between us and Jesus Christ. This chasm is not insurmountable as long as we repent and turn back to our true love, our Savior, allowing His unrelenting love to bridge the gap we’ve created. The wave of darkness that we feel when experiencing suffering, loneliness or pain is not the absence of God but the very real presence of the trials of a broken world. However, amidst the suffering we are offered the presence of our true love and Savior, that is, if we will have him. For a person that has experienced the presence of Jesus Christ, to retain and sustain the presence of Jesus in their life is worth trading this entire world for. For the person that has never truly experienced the presence of Jesus Christ, gaining the whole world is the equivalent of 30 pieces of silver and the denial of Jesus Christ is a reasonable bargain to make. The measure of hate we feel toward sin is equal to the measure of love we feel toward Jesus. The more we love Him, the more we feel in agony when we feel a separation between us and Him. Therefore, in order to avoid this agonizing space between us and Jesus, we actively fight sin so as to protect the relationship most dear to us. If we feel no despair in the fact that our sin separates us from him, and if we never find ourselves missing the presence of Jesus in our lives we must ask ourselves the same question that Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?”
Episode Three of the Mobile Word Podcast is now available. This week we discuss the idea of justice and injustice at pertains to God’s character and our own. We explore this issue through Ezekiel 18:20-32.
The episode can be found by clicking on the Mobile Word Podcast link or by finding the podcast on itunes.
Enjoy and don’t forget to like, share, subscribe on itunes and feel free to send us your questions, comments or scriptures you’d like discussed on the podcast at mobilewordministry@gmail.com.
Enjoy and God bless!
Episode Two of the new Mobile Word Podcast is now available! This week we discuss the issue of “worry” and our discussion and study is grounded in Matthew 6:25-34.
The podcast will have new episodes posted every Wednesday and Friday and can be viewed either on our site by clicking on the Mobile Word Podcast tab or through itunes. We recommend subscribing to the podcast on itunes so that each episode will automatically update in your itunes when they are uploaded.
If you would like a particular scripture or issue discussed on the podcast, please send us your input, questions and comments at mobilewordministry@gmail.com.
We are happy to announce the launch of our Mobile Word Podcast! We are always seeking the Lord and asking Him how we can share our faith and our resources here at Mobile Word with all of you and we are excited to add this medium to our options for all people pursuing God online.
I will be uploading one or two episodes each week with the potential of more depending on the weekly schedule but the prayer is always for more in God’s timing. The format will essentially be the experience of sitting down with me and going through the scriptures much like you would if we were in a Bible study together. There is no over-arching plan or strategy concerning themes or topics when approaching the focus of each podcast. I will sit down, pray and pick a scripture before recording the episode and walk through the scriptures with you.
However, the prayer as it relates to format is to have the podcast be as collaborative and interactive as possible. The scriptures are so much more vivid and powerful when people come together seeking God’s presence as opposed to in seclusion and isolation. We pray that the podcast and other resources here at Mobile Word fulfill a need of yours, whether it be for Bible teaching and exposition or daily reflections and devotionals relating to the scriptures. But, we need you too! Often the scriptures look beautiful through our own eyes but stunning when combined with the perspective and experience of someone else.
With that said, we would love to hear from you! If you have a scripture you love or a scripture that you find difficult and need some help understanding, send us an email at mobilewordministry@gmail.com and your scripture or question will be the launching pad for the next podcast. You can find the podcast on our Mobile Word Podcast
tab or by clicking on the link below.
Once again, we are thrilled to start this new endeavor to better serve you in your pursuit of truth in Jesus Christ and we pray that the podcast alongside the other resources found here at Mobile Word lead you into a stronger faith in Jesus and a more confident understanding of the truth of the Gospel grounded in the Bible. Be well and God bless.
In Christ,
Nathan
Does it really matter if a person believes in Jesus? Can’t someone simply do good, live in peace with others and have a good life? The answer to the second question is, absolutely yes. There are many people who do not profess faith in Jesus Christ that are nice people, helpful people, loving people. If only the self-professing Christians did good deeds, we would have an even darker world on our hands than we do now.
However, the initial question of Jesus does in fact matter. Professing the name of Christ does not guarantee decent and loving character. As there are many loving non-Christians, there are also many inconsiderate and selfish Christians. Sincere and authentic faith in Jesus Christ matters in this world to all people because of security. Regardless of where a person comes from, everyone in this world attempts to find security in something. We all do. We all seek something that allows us to find rest at night. We all seek something that gives us the permission to find confidence in a world that so often leaves us feeling helpless.
All people have the ability to do good and love others because we were designed for righteousness and love. On the contrary, all people seek to find something to hold onto in the storm because all people were created to exist in the presence and care of an almighty God but now find themselves alienated and trying to get back what was lost. The manner in which we pursue security in worldly things gives us a clue about our origins and our Creator. A person who believes and professes faith in Jesus Christ no longer scrambles to find security in this world. A person who takes Jesus Christ at His words no longer fears death and what comes next. Christianity obliterates the fear of death, the fear of failure and the fear of loss. In the loving arms of Jesus Christ we can finally find the peace we’ve longed for. We no longer have to live a life of self-preservation and self-vindication. In Christ we are given the gift that we all seek. We are given the gift of perfect and everlasting love. Does it really matter if a person believes in Jesus? To be a nice person? The answer is, no. To find peace and enjoy in what we have without fear and trembling of eventually losing it? The answer is forever yes.
12 When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, 13 he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. (Esther 4:12-14)
It is a tragic reality that being blessed by the Lord often leads to a disobedience towards God and vulnerability towards sin. We pray and fast fervently in times of need because we know that we are without and we are unable. We seek God and cry out to Him when challenges surround us because we know that in the absence of a savior we cannot go on. It is in the valleys and deserts of our walk with God where we see the most of Him, simply because we become aware that He MUST become the focus of our life. These periods are wonderfully fruitful in that we begin to restructure and reorganize the priority of God in our life. However, seeking to get out of the valley versus seeking to find God IN the valley can create two very different outcomes. Seeking God in order to get out of the valley can lead someone to become bitter and resentful when the valley becomes home. On the other hand, seeking to find God in the valley reveals God and becomes a home worthy of staying in as long as necessary.
We must prepare ourselves for the valley. We have been on the mountaintop for a while now, and many of us don’t have any recollections of what life in the valley was like. We have been blessed, and although we must rejoice in our blessings, we must proactively prepare ourselves for a life without, with no majority benefits, the life of discipleship that Jesus Christ has offered us from the beginning. To be a disciple is to count the cost and accept it willingly and joyfully. A Christian WILL experience persecution. A Christian WILL experience rejection. A Christian follows in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and therefore WILL suffer. This is not an exception or a possibility. As much as the fruit of His Spirit is our inheritance and our new life by the resurrection, so is His death on the cross by crucifixion.
The nature of our persecution and suffering may vary but to be persecuted and suffer for the name of Jesus is the cornerstone that unites all believers in name of Jesus around the world. Rejoice in what the Lord has provided for you and accomplished in your life. As Paul said, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say Rejoice!” Heed the life and words of Jesus Christ in regards to the persecution and suffering that awaits and, “WATCH.” Be alert and do not be caught unprepared. Have no fear, because the perfect love of Jesus casts out fear. We must not be foolish and we must not carelessly approach the cross. To be a Christian is to be united with the cross of Christ as much as we are united with the hope and glory of the empty tomb.
For the next few weeks we will be discussing Communion. Four aspects of Communion are central, necessary for us to understand if we profess faith in Jesus Christ. We will find that a study of Communion reveals:
1) The Command of Jesus Christ
2) The Provision of Jesus Christ
3) The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ
4) The Legacy of His Church
Last week we discussed the sacrifice of Jesus about Communion. This week’s reflection discusses the legacy of the Church, the body of Christ, as it relates to Communion.
The Church today, in addition to the foundational words and commands of Jesus Christ, looks to the forefathers of our faith, the early Church, for how we should carry ourselves as Christians. A brief review of the practices of the early Church makes it clear that there are certain traditions and practices that the early Church prioritized in their worship. Along with caring for the poor, the widow, and the needy, healing the sick, preaching the gospel, sharing what they had and baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the early disciples met together in their homes regularly and “broke bread.”
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)
This breaking of bread can only mean that they stayed true to the command of Jesus Christ by continuing to practice the communion modeled by Jesus during the Last Supper.
More than a symbol of the obedience of the early Church to follow Christ’s commands, this is a holy reminder for us today that the members of the early Church strove to never lose the true message of their faith. They knew that they were alive because of Jesus Christ; to forget that or to overlook Christ’s central role in their lives was not an option. For them, seeing at the broken bread and wine reminded them that they were alive because Jesus Christ chose to be broken and bleed for them. However, when they ate the bread and drank the wine, the Christians were reminded of how much God had given them and how united they were with the Son and the Father.
The Church in its current form often fails to effectively embody the spiritual fruit of the early Church. Why? Among many contributing factors, the casual approach of the Christian Church to communion, and in some instances the absence of it altogether, has served to distance the Church from Jesus himself, making room for a more Church-centered model, as opposed to the Christ-centered Church that Jesus was broken and bled for.
For the next few weeks we will be discussing Communion. Four aspects of Communion are central, necessary for us to understand if we profess faith in Jesus Christ. We will find that a study of Communion reveals:
1) The Command of Jesus Christ
2) The Provision of Jesus Christ
3) The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ
4) The Legacy of His Church
Last week we discussed the command of Jesus about Communion. This week’s reflection discusses the provision of Jesus Christ as it relates to Communion.
2) The Provision of Jesus Christ
The practice of communion was not simply a command to be followed “just because.” As was the case in everything that Jesus chose to do concerning his earthly ministry, there was a deeper purpose intended for the eyes to truly see and the ears to truly hear. While the primary focus of the communion meal was to direct the Apostles’ hearts toward the upcoming sacrifice on the cross, Jesus, through the communion meal, also intended for the Apostles to reflect back upon the provision of the past three years with him. At the feeding of the 5,000, before Jesus performed the miraculous multiplication of loaves and fish, Jesus took the bread, looked up to heaven, asked God to bless the bread and then broke it so as to feed the hungry crowd.
Mark 6:39-44
Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
At that point in Jesus’ ministry, only Jesus could have known how poignant the breaking of bread to feed the hungry was in the light of his upcoming breaking of the bread at the Last Supper the night before he was ultimately broken on the cross as a result of his sacrifice. At that point in his ministry, the focus was on the miraculous provision of Jesus, not on his sacrifice. Thus, the practice of communion, while a somber reflection of the sacrifice of Jesus at the hands of a sinful and broken world, it functions also as a reminder that God has always given us what we needed precisely when we needed it.
John 6:35
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
The practice of communion is a call to reflect on the death of Jesus Christ, on the new life and victory given to us as a result of his death, and on the reality of daily and eternal provision in the person of Jesus.
For the next few weeks we will be discussing Communion. Four aspects of Communion are central, necessary for us to understand if we profess faith in Jesus Christ. We will find that a study of Communion reveals:
1) The Command of Jesus Christ
2) The Provision of Jesus Christ
3) The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ
4) The Legacy of His Church
This week’s reflection discusses the command of Jesus Christ as it relates to Communion.
1) The Command of Jesus Christ
Communion has its roots with Jesus Christ on the night before his execution. Jesus Christ and his Apostles sat together, shared fellowship and “broke bread.” As the final hours of his earthly ministry were coming to a close, Jesus took the opportunity to clarify what was going to happen to him and what his Apostles in turn were going to be called to do. Aside from instructing them in continuing to spread the Gospel and loving one another, Jesus illustrated his upcoming sacrifice on the cross by using bread and wine found on the table.
Jesus proceeded to show that the bread that was broken was a symbol of his body that would soon be broken for them and for the world in his crucifixion. He then took the cup of wine prophesied that soon his blood would be spilled as he was sacrificed as a sin offering for the transgression of sin brought into the world since “the fall.”
Matthew 26:17-30
On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
He replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’” So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.”
They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, “Surely you don’t mean me, Lord?” Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?” Jesus answered, “You have said so.” While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”
Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
After using the bread and the wine in the same way that the Jews commemorated their rescue from the slavery from Egypt, Jesus commanded the Apostles to remember his upcoming sacrifice with the bread and wine to commemorate how he rescued them from the enslavement of sin.
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