ARM Ministries's Blog (9)

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Scripture Reading: Luke 15:1-7; Matthew 18:10-14

“He calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’”

—Luke 15:6

Today’s parable is found in both Matthew and Luke. The contexts, though, are different, so each has a different interpretation. In Luke we find…

"because the son of man came seek and to save what was lost."(Luke 19: 10). Christ said: "I came into this world for one reason: to reach and save the lost souls." However, it wasn't only the mission of Jesus. He made our mission also: "then he said to them: go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."(Mark 16: 15) Jesus spoke here to a small group of believer, about 120 people who had gathered in the upper room. And what task it entrusted to them! "Go to foreign nations,…

Scripture Reading: Matthew 13:52

“Every … disciple of the kingdom of heaven … brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”

—Matthew 13:52

All of us are called to be balanced Christians. The brief parable we are looking at today indicates the value of the Old Testament teachings and…

Scripture Reading: Luke 16:1-9

“Use worldly wealth to gain friends … so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”

—Luke 16:9

In his parables, Jesus often uses controversial ideas and characters to gain the crowd’s attention. In this story a corrupt financial manager becomes a sort of hero. The manager has wasted his master’s resources. And when he is about to lose his job, he reduces the amounts owed by his master’s debtors, to gain their goodwill.…

Scripture Reading: Luke 12:13-21; Matthew 6:22-23

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Scripture Reading: Luke 13:20-21

“The kingdom of God … is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour.”

—Luke 13:20-21

Like the parable of the mustard seed, the parable of the yeast also points to something small that produces amazing results. But in Israel, yeast often represented sin and evil. Did Jesus intend to speak of yeast that way in this parable? Apparently.

Only bread without yeast could be used at Israel’s feasts. The smoke…

Scripture Reading: Mark 4:26-29

“All by itself the soil produces grain …”

—Mark 4:28

Mark 4 contains three seed parables. The parable of the sower (vv. 2-20) promises that the seed will take hold in the life of believers. The parable of the mustard seed (vv. 30-32) describes how small beginnings can produce amazing results. And today’s reading, the parable of the seed growing secretly, pictures the growth of kingdom seed after its planting and before the…

Scripture Reading: Mark 4:2-9

“Other seed fell on good soil. It … produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

—Mark 4:8

Christians often become discouraged when they ponder the loss of Christian values in some parts of the world today. Christianity seems to be…