Salem's New Testament Challenge

Jesus would have grown up with his Bible being the Old Testament scriptures. The first parable he shared refers back to the many prophets God sent to call His people (the Israelites) into repentance and true worship of God. The people rejected those prophets and many of the people were going to reject God's son as well. Interestingly enough the religious leaders realized the parable was about them. Jesus shares several amazing truths for us that we can follow today: 1. It is important for us to follow our government's laws and also follow the laws of God. If and when the two areas of our lives oppose one another we must rely on God's laws because His are filled with truth. 2. The greatest commandments are to love God and love others! 3. God looks at our hearts when we give - not how much we give. Dear Heavenly Father, continue to open our eyes to Your truths as we read Your Word! Let them not just be words, but truths of how we live our lives. In Jesus' name, ...

Getting caught up in a movement can be exciting. For three years, Jesus had taught, healed, hung out with sinners and gone against those in religious power. The people felt that Jesus was different - they felt he could be the one the Old Testament scriptures were talking about. The people were right, but they were wrong on how God was going to bring about this new kingdom. In one week, the people following Jesus would realize their ideas about Jesus were wrong. I'm so thankful God is not limited to our human understanding and sees and offers us what we really need instead of what we think we need . Mark 11

This chapter is full of difficult topics. Ultimately, Jesus is teaching that a relationship with him should be the priority in all our lives . Many times we follow our own desires and our hearts are hardened to surrendering certain areas of our lives to him. It could be marriage, our finances or our position in life to name a few Jesus discussed.   Dear Heavenly Father, teach us to surrender all the areas of our lives to You! In Jesus' name, Amen! Mark 10

As a teacher, I cannot help but point out that following Jesus is serious! So serious that if I am causing a child to stumble spiritually there is a huge consequence. Following Jesus is actually obeying his teachings and training others to follow him as well. Our lives should be seasoned with salt and shared to offer a tasty message of the greatest story of hope. Our lives can be entangled with sin, but instead Jesus offers freedom and salvation from those things. Mark 9

This chapter covers: * Jesus once again feeding thousands of people with limited amount of bread and fish. * Jesus warning his disciples of the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod (yeast represents how quickly sinful thoughts and ways multiply). * Jesus heals a blind man. * Peter declared that Jesus was the Messiah * Jesus predicts his death * Jesus shares how to be his disciple: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?" - Jesus Christ What a privilege we are given to follow Jesus! This world is not our home! Mark 8

" You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions ." Jesus continues in this chapter to let us know that God is looking at our heart!  We could be the cleanest, most rule following people in the entire world and yet our actions be ugly, unkind and judgmental. Do people see Jesus living in us? Do they see evidence of the Spirit of God: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control? Dear Heavenly Father, lead us, direct us, so that others are able to see You. We pray that our lives reflect You to the broken world around us. Thank you for the hope we have in You, I pray that we long to share that hope with others! In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen. Mark 7

We have the privilege of being able to look back on Jesus' life and realize that he never sinned. While he was growing up under the care of his parents, living life with his siblings and growing up around town, they did not have our vantage point. Mary and Joseph would have known the events around Jesus' birth were miraculous, yet Jesus was still born and grew up the same way his siblings did, the same way the other kids in town did. Jesus learned the skill of carpentry from Joseph. I'm sure he was kind, never cheated anyone, worked hard, but he was just an ordinary person as far as they could see. Once Jesus began his ministry and went into his home town the people could not get over the fact that he had grown up there, they had no faith in the miracles he was able to perform through the power of the Holy Spirit.  This portion of scripture challenges me to allow people I've grown up with, people I know and even people I've taught to change ( Of course I kno...