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A Present and Future Kingdom - Psalm 145:11-13

"They will speak of the glory of Your kingdom and will declare Your might, informing all people of Your mighty acts and of the glorious splendor of Your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; Your rule is for all generations" (Psalm 145:11-13,HCSB).

The creative and redemptive activity of God in His universe is so inexplicable that we have to rely on figures of speech to communicate it. One of the figures of speech used to describe the reality of God’s rule and reign over the universe is to describe it as a "kingdom."

Powerless! - Mark 12:24-25

"Jesus replied, Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven" (Mark 12:24-25, NLT).

The Sadducees based their views on the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, and they were fond of debating about Jewish religious teachings. They didn't believe in the resurrection from the dead and so they asked Jesus a question about resurrection and framed it as a question about marriage.

The Steve Show - Luke 9:23-24

"And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it" (Luke 9:23-24, NASB).

I've got a show going on.

I call it The Steve Show.

As you might imagine, I'm the star of The Steve Show. I produce and direct my own show. And, I follow the script that I wrote for my show.

The Steve Show. It's all about me!

When Faith Doesn't Heal - Mark 10:52

"'Go your way,' Jesus told him. 'Your faith has healed you.' Immediately he could see and began to follow Him on the road" (Mark 10:52,HCSB).

This verse is the conclusion to the familiar story of blind Bartimaeus. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem accompanied by a large entourage of people. He had just left Jericho when He passed by Bartimaeus, a blind beggar sitting by the road.

When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was passing by, he began to cry out: "Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!"

When To Take Matters Into Your Own Hands - Leviticus 24:12

"They kept the man in custody until the Lord’s will in the matter should become clear to them." (Leviticus 24:12, NLT).

During their wilderness wandering, the Israelites took a man into custody who had an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father. He had been in a fight with an Israelite man and during the fight, the man with the Egyptian father blasphemed God.

When this happened, the Israelites took him into custody and brought him to Moses for judgment. While

Moses was waiting to hear from the Lord about the matter, they held him in custody without harming him, not taking matters into their own hands.

Because the man who committed the blasphemy had an Egyptian father, possibly as the result of a sexual assault or intermarriage or some other nefarious act, the Israelites had reason to be prejudiced against him.

And, blasphemy was a particularly egregious crime, a capital offense.

But they waited for God's judgment on the man.

The Israelites exercised restraint and demonstrated trust in God's will. They waited on God instead of inciting mob rule.

Oh, that as God's people we would learn this important lesson both individually and collectively: to exercise restraint and wait for God's will to be clear to us before we take matters into our own hands.

"Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." (Romans 12:2, NLT)

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Irreverent Faith - Mark 10:46-52

"And Jesus stopped and said, 'Call him.' And they called the blind man, saying to him, 'Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.' And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus" (Mark 10:49-50, ESV).

Have you ever heard the saying, "It's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease!" This story from the gospel of Mark is a case in point for that saying.

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large entourage, blind Bartimaeus was sitting by the roadside. When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was approaching, he cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Mark 10:47).