Category Archives: Bible

Bible

Christmas begins with an angel

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Who are these mysterious beings?

Angels are messengers from heaven. They are often invisible. In 2 Kings 6:17, Elisha asks God to open his servant’s eyes so that he can see the heavenly hosts around them. 

In the spiritual world, there is a battle between the angels and the angels who have fallen away from God. This is what we read in Revelation 12:7 and in the book of Daniel chapter 10.

Angels always open a new chapter in the history of God’s salvation.  God sends the Saviour to earth.

Even today, God speaks through the Bible, through people and through angels. Angels are fellow servants. This means that we do not focus on the angels, but on God. We talk to God and he commissions the angels. An angel will only do what God says.

It is exciting to think that God also wants to use us as his messengers (angels) by encouraging others, building them up and pointing them to God.

Perhaps sometimes an angel has to step in because there is no human messenger available at the crucial moment.

Bible, Jesus

Advent impulses

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The story of Jesus begins with an angel. An angel meets the Jewish priest Zechariah. Then he meets Mary and in a dream an angel meets Joseph.

There are many coded statements in the angels’ messages.

When the angel announced to Mary that she would have a child as a virgin, the angel assumed biblical knowledge. Mary is not a naive young woman; she knows the meaning of the individual words.

When Sarah, Abraham’s wife, gave birth to a child at the age of 90, God, like the angel to Mary, literally said: ‘No word that comes from God will be without power’ (Genesis 18:14).

It is a reference to the amazing story in Genesis 18, when God appeared to Abraham in human form. There we are told a radical depiction of God’s incarnation: He eats the food that Abraham prepared. This is therefore not a spiritual appearance, but a tangible human being.

If God could become man back then, then he can also limit himself and come into this world in a child. In Jesus, God reveals himself to us in a tangible way.

Bible

The meaning of fasting

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The Advent fasting period originally lasted 40 days and ended on Christmas Day (25 December).

The fasting that Jesus spoke of is not centred on renunciation. Rather, fasting means letting go of something in order to spend time with God.

Fasting is not a hunger strike. Rather, fasting is a declaration of love to God. It is a way of saying: You are more important to me than eating and drinking.

When we fast, it is not the people around us who should notice, but the heavenly Father (according to Matthew 6:18).

More of sermon on the mount

Bible

It’s all a question of motives

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It’s all a question of motives

In Matthew 6:1-6, Jesus shows that it is possible to do the right thing even with the wrong motives.

The point is that we do not act and believe because of expectations or threats, but because we are fascinated by God’s love and mercy (cf. 1 John 4:18-19).

There is extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. The question is: Do I want to do something, or do I HAVE to do something?

With an intrinsic desire, I am fascinated by something, I want to deepen something, have new experiences, create something. I do things without somebody needs to motivate me to do them. I also do them without being seen. For example: I talk to God because I want to spend time with him.

Jesus says: ‘Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.’

Therefore, we don’t act in order to be loved, but we act because we have experienced God’s love. That is why the right does not need to know what the left is doing (6:3). We don’t have to count up.

More of sermon on the mount

 

Bible, Jesus

Love of enemies – God’s trademark

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Jesus describes love for those who are hostile towards me as the hallmark of the heavenly Father (Matthew 5:43-48). We should allow ourselves to be motivated by this love of God.

Someone is an enemy to me, not because I have something against them, but because they are against me for some reason.

Treat all people equally and give even those who are hostile to you a chance to repent.

The heavenly Father, who lets the sun shine on all people and also gives everyone the rain, is a role model.

God wants to reconcile all people with Himself. That is why no hatred should emanate from people who live with God. We wish all people peace with God. And that is why we treat all people equally.

Loving our enemies means treating them with respect and not closing the door to reconciliation. David exemplified this very impressively in his relationship with Saul.

Bible

It’s worth investing in gratitude

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‘We harvested a 38 kg pumpkin. Do you have any idea how we could share the 30 kg we don’t need with others?’ someone asked us by email. We had already distributed 20 kg of grapes from a single vine. Autumn is the time for harvesting and giving thanks. We can enjoy and share what has been produced in the months before.

In giving thanks, we open our eyes to the wonders of everyday life. In giving thanks, we share the fascination of life with each other.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in July 1940 in reference to Psalm 50:23: ‘God shows the way to the thankful’. He had previously said: ‘Ingratitude begins with forgetfulness, forgetfulness leads to indifference, indifference leads to discontent, discontent leads to despair, despair leads to curse’. ‘Ingratitude stifles faith, blocks access to God’ (Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. III).

Zwingli from Toggenburg translated Psalm 50:23 as follows: ‘He who offers thanks honours me and chooses the way in which I let him see God’s help.’

Giving thanks is not always easy for us. But when we get involved, we discover more and more fascinating things. Giving thanks frees us to rediscover God’s help and presence.

In the parable of the merciful father in Luke 15, Jesus has painted a new picture for us of how God waits for us to come to him like the younger son. He encourages the ungrateful older son to become like him.

The more we consciously practise gratitude, the more we will realise it. What we nurture grows and we reap what we sow.

Professor Robert A. Emmons has been researching the topic of gratitude for 20 years. He summarises: People who regularly cultivate gratitude experience a range of measurable and lasting benefits of a psychological, physical, interpersonal and spiritual nature: health, a sense of wholeness and well-being and greater satisfaction in relationships. This confirms that it is worth investing in gratitude.

Hanspeter Obrist, Sunday Thought, Toggenburger Tagblatt, 5 October 2024

Bible

A yes is a yes

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In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shows how he deals with the law. Now Jesus continues and shows with the swearing that our words are a sticking point.

Matthew 5:37: Let your word Yes be Yes, and No be No!

Jesus opposes coded speech.

How can you trust and believe someone if the truth does not always come out of the same mouth?

A wise man knows what he says, an another says what he knows.

Silence in the right place and speaking at the right time is real gold.

The ‘yes is a yes’ is a cornerstone that reminds us to treat each other with love and not let others go nowhere.

Bible

Jesus grants healing

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Peter is allowed to say to Aeneas: ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.’ It says nothing about Aeneas asking him to do this. It is also not Peter who heals and not Peter who asks Jesus, but Jesus who grants healing through Peter. So it is not Peter who takes centre stage, but Jesus who heals. Jesus gives the impulse. That is why it is important to know from God what has to happen.

People are turning to Jesus – not just in Lydda, but in the entire Sharon Plain. This is the coastal strip north of the river Jarkon (Tel Aviv) as far as Haifa. The man with the Roman name must therefore have been very well known. In Roman mythology, Aeneas (Aineias) is the progenitor of the Romans. The Jewish family must have been very cosmopolitan.

How long must Aeneas have prayed before God answered his prayer? It is clear that he was paralysed for eight years and that his healing served the glory of God and Jesus.

more from Acts: https://jesus-news-israel.net/tag/acts/

Bible

A saint according to the Bible

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Peter visits the saints in Lydda (today Lod). The city lies on the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem. It has been an important transport hub since ancient times.

In Acts 9:32, the believers in Jesus are referred to as saints for the second time.

Hananias had previously referred to the believers in Jerusalem as such in the same chapter (Acts 9:13).

Whoever invites Jesus into their life, the Father and the Son come to them through the Holy Spirit (John 14:23). The person is thereby sanctified and, according to biblical usage, is a saint.

In 1 Corinthians 1:2, Paul writes: ‘To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.’

According to Paul, anyone who prays to Jesus is a saint. Holy means destined for God or belonging to him.

more from Acts: https://jesus-news-israel.net/tag/acts/

Bible

From persecutor to persecuted

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Saul was let over the city wall of Damascus in a basket. This allowed him to escape (Acts 9:25).

Verse 23 says ‘after many days’ they decided to kill Saul. Galatians 1:17 says that Saul was in Arabia and returned to Damascus.

Paul probably spent some time in Petra. For in 2 Corinthians 11:32-33, Paul writes that King Aretas had the city gates in Damascus guarded. King Aretas IV ruled over Nabataea from 9 BC to 40 AD.

It is most likely that Paul had spread the gospel in Arabia-Petrea, outside the Jewish-Roman power. The king wanted to arrest him, but Saul went back to Damascus, where he was known and recognised.

Jesus’ message causes offence. Saul now faces this himself.

He was not trusted in Jerusalem (Acts 9:26). Barnabas, the ‘son of consolation’, stands up for Saul. In Damascus, Saul argued with the Jews on the basis of the Holy Scriptures. He behaved differently with the Greek Jews in Jerusalem. They were used to philosophical thinking. Everything had to sound ‘logical’ to them. So it is said that Saul ‘argued’ with the Greek Jews. Philosophy has open back doors in the way of thinking and speaking and philosophising leads to no end.

But Greek and Hebrew Jews agree on one thing: this man could become a global danger. He must die. Saul has to flee again. He goes to Tarsus, his home town.

more from Acts: https://jesus-news-israel.net/tag/acts/