Dear Friends, This is the fourth message in a series of Jesus’ statements called the Beatitudes that are found in the Sermon on the Mount. Last week’s message on “Blessed are those who mourn” resulted in the most moving outpouring of responses in the more than 12 years that I have written the Word of […]

Dear Friends, This is the third message on Jesus’ statements from the Sermon on the Mount known as the Beatitudes. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matt 5:4). A prominent television preacher published a book back in the 1980s about the Beatitudes that carried the message that the key to happiness […]

Dear Friends, This is the first message in a series on the statements Jesus made in his Sermon on the Mount known as the “Beatitudes.” These are unique statements on the intersection of divine grace with human need. They have been much abused and misunderstood as formulas for gaining God’s approval, prescriptions for social justice […]

  Dear Friends, But a man named Ananias, with the consent of his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property; with his wife’s knowledge, he kept back some of the proceeds, and brought only a part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. “Ananias,” Peter asked, “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to […]