“The most powerful weapon for silencing the mouth of the world is not brilliant theological apologetics, but the practice of a holy life that resembles Jesus Christ.” “Now it happened, as Jesus went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they were watching Him closely. And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy. And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?’ But they kept silent. And He took him and healed him, and let him go. Then He answered them, saying, ‘Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?’ And they could not answer Him regarding these things” (Luke 14:1–6). (1) As I meditated on today’s passage, Luke 14:1–6, the phrase that first caught my attention was: “they were watching Him clos...
What God has done [Nehemiah 6:15-19] Do you know what the word “anointed” means? In a religious sense, anointing has two uses, one of which is to consecrate something by anointing it with oil (Exod.30:23, Lev. 8:10-1 2). And the other is to anoint people to be priests (Exod. 29:7), prophets (1Kgs. 19:16), and kings (1:39). This indicates that whoever is anointed has the source of his authority from God. From here, the concept of the Messiah as a holy savior from Jehovah arose, and “Messiah” and “Christ” both mean “Anointed One” (Internet). Pastor Eugene Peterson said this about “anointing” in his book “Leap over a Wall: Earthy Spirituality for Everyday Christians”: ‘To be anointed in the Bible means to receive a work to do from God. It means that they are hired. That's what it actually means: ‘'I have work to do. I will leave it to you. And you can do it’ ...