testing – 300 words a day

Someone is going to go too far

[Matthew 5:38-42] Someone, this week, is going to go too far. Someone is going to ask more than they should ask. Someone is going to insult you. Someone is going to ask for more than they deserve. Someone is going to go too far. You know that it will happen. It happens more to you […]

by Jon Swanson

when help comes.

Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. Matthew 4: 11 How far will a text stretch to absorb the applications we try to make? We often take what people say and we add to it, we misquote it, we leave words out, we add implications. It happens all the time in […]

by Jon Swanson

Testing God

[Matthew 4:5-7] Don’t test God. That’s what Jesus says to the devil. The devil said to jump off the temple wall. He said that God had promised to send angels to catch people who were falling. Jesus says, “It is also written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Want to go […]

by Jon Swanson

Risky business

[Matthew 4:5-6] The devil says to jump. That’s what Matthew tells us in his description of the testing of Jesus. You know the thing mothers are supposed to have said? When you say that everyone is doing something, they are supposed to say, “If everyone was jumping off a cliff would you jump?” We know […]

by Jon Swanson

learned means usable

Many people have memorized the Bible. Most people who watch sporting events have memorized John 3:16, for example. But that doesn’t mean they know what it means. Some people have memorized parts of the Bible. From phrases to sentences to paragraphs to pages to whole books, people have memorized the Bible. But that doesn’t mean […]