March 15 / Luke 12:22-34

Luke 12:22-34 “Notice what you notice.” Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys (v. 33). My Study Bible had a comment on this verse: “The danger of riches …

March 14 / Luke 11:1-4

Luke 11:1-4 “Notice what you notice.” Luke’s “Our Father”… It’s natural to compare Luke’s “Our Father” with Matthew’s. I saw three distinct differences and one other possible item: “Lord, teach us to pray… “…this day…” vs. “…each day…” or “…day by day…” The Matthew ending, “But deliver us from evil…” and following… I’m surprised that …

March 13 / Matt. 6:25-34

Matthew 6:25-34 “Notice what you notice.” Worry. Jesus lays it out and makes it sound quite simple. His words are so simple, in fact, that my Study Bible has only two comments on these ten verses – and even those two comments add almost nothing to our understanding of what Jesus says. Plain and simple …

March 12 / Matt. 6:16-24

Matthew 6:16-24 “Notice what you notice.” Fasting. Wealth. Our eyes. Three topics, a few sentences for each. Only a few words, but a lifetime of lessons! Again, who can disagree with Jesus’ direct words? But as I said yesterday on the topic of “giving”, our Men’s Group has spent hours looking at our responsibilities as …

March 11 / Matt. 6:1-15

Matthew 6:1-15 “Notice what you notice.” Over the past few weeks we have seen Jesus chastising “the scribes and the Pharisees”. In today’s reading He doesn’t mention them (by name); instead His words are directed at hypocrites and Gentiles. My Study Bible says that Matthew mentions hypocrites 13 times, while Mark and Luke use that …

March 9 / Matt. 5:43-48

Matthew 5:43-48 “Notice what you notice.” Another day of “Jesus said it, how can I disagree?”! Today’s first verse says You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. I wondered about the “hate your enemy” part; I couldn’t recall ever seeing that. Then one of my Study Bibles had a note – that phrase …

March 8 / Matt. 5:33-42

Matthew 5:33-42 “Notice what you notice.” I find it harder to find something to say about the readings when it is Jesus’ straightforward teaching. No action, no parables, just speech. And we certainly don’t want to disagree with whatever Jesus says, so mostly we nod and try to get at any deeper meaning. So the …

March 7 / Matt. 5:27-32

Matthew 5:27-32 “Notice what you notice.” I seldom can read today’s adultery passage without recalling Jimmy Carter’s (ill-advised) Playboy magazine interview during the 1976 election when he admitted to “lust in my heart”. He got a lot of grief for that, especially from people within his evangelical Baptist background. But it was also widely suggested …

March 6 / Matt. 5:21-26

Matthew 5:21-26 “Notice what you notice.” After I read two other translations from hard-back Bibles, I use BibleGateway.com online to look up the daily passage in our church’s preferred ESV translation. In that online rendition, today’s reading is entitled “anger”, tomorrow’s is “lust” and Friday’s reading is “divorce”. Some very timely topics…!! Just wondering how …