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"Be mature as your Heavenly Father is perfectly mature." It doesn't have the same ring as "Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect," but it may be closer to the reality of what Jesus is saying in Matthew 5:48. On Sunday we finished the last of six expositions of the law that Jesus gives in Matthew 5:4348. And as Jesus addresses the topic of love and hate, we learn h...

Imprecatory psalms (e.g., Pss 5, 10, 17, 35, 58, 59, 69, 70, 79, 83, 109, 129, 137, 140) are those psalms which call upon God to destroy the enemies of God. They come from the anguished hearts of persecuted Israelites, and they include some of the most shocking words in the Bible. Take just a few examples. Psalm 35 provides one of the most acceptable imprecatory Psalms. V...

The Extra Mile In a world of retaliation and self-protection, what does it look like to follow Jesus when one's security is threatened? How ought Jesus' disciples to turn the other cheek, and go the extra mile? Listen to this last Sunday's sermon, and go deeper with the discussion questions below: Matthew 5:38-42 38You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an ey...

In Matthew 5:9Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." A few verses later, Jesus instructs worshipers to leave their gifts at the altar in order to make peace with those who have something against them (5:21-26) and just a few verses later he tells us we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, that we might b...

What does it mean to live as people of truth in a culture that's so often less than truthful? As we continue in our series on the Sermon on the Mount, this last Sunday we looked at Matthew 5:33-37, where Jesus teaches about oaths, vows, yeses and nos. As disciples of Jesus, we must understand what it means for us that every word we say is captive to God's truth. Listen ...

Yesterday, I wrote on the importance of feeding on the Word. Today, let me add another reflection on that themenamely, what it looks like to actually feed on the Word of God. Certainly, if God calls us to live upon every Word that proceeds from his mouth (Matthew 4:4), it should not surprise us that he is not silent on what it looks like to feed on his word. Just as the h...

Sexual sin. It is a destructive issue we face more often than we like to admit. Whether it is lust, pornography, adultery, same-sex attraction, or any number of other desires that deviate from God's good design, we are inclined to bury these parts of our lives in the dark. Yet, in Sermon on the Mount, Jesus wisely and lovingly shines a light on our hearts. Getting to the ...

"Disciples make disciples" It's an axiom that is thrown around by Christians who rightly make "making disciples" a priority for genuine discipleship. But is it really true? Do disciples make disciples? Or is there more to the story? Based on the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19, we might think that Jesus words give definitive answer: Yes, disciples make disciples. Yet,...

This Sunday we looked at Matthew 5:2126, where we saw the first of six lessons Jesus gives us about the law of Moses applied to his new covenant disciples. Interpreting the sixth commandment, "Do not murder" (Exod 20:13; Deut 5:17), Jesus stressed the importance of making peace with those whom we have sinned against. In Sunday's sermon, we looked briefly at how Jesus appl...

For the last century, entertainment has becoming increasingly individualized. From the inception of record players, to drive-in theaters with individual speakers, to the release of headphones, and now the ever-common individualized playlist, we are a people trained to consume the world as individuals. And when we bring that approach to God, we can easily think of our spir...