Book: Matthew

In the growth of children, God reveals to us much of how we all should be growing and developing.

When fidelity to Christ’s call is failing to bear the expected fruit, but is bearing good fruit, however humble, the call may be to persevere in hope.

The promise that God will bring new life from a dead stump challenges our haste to chop down whatever seems to be in our way.

Christ uses his power to lift up others, but we are prone to misuse power to exalt ourselves.

Love is both a command and an eschatological promise. The promise undergirds our striving to obey the command.

When greed and fear demand that we give our attention to money, Jesus calls us to reclaim the image of God within us, and offer ourselves to God.

There are no passengers in the Kingdom – those who accept the call must go on to clothe themselves in righteousness.

When everything seems to be against us, God will open up for us a way to freedom and life.

Jesus commits himself to the path of redemptive suffering in preference to either fight or flight, and he calls us to follow him in that commitment.

The once and for all sacrifice of Christ and our living sacrifice of ourselves are becoming one sacrifice as we and Christ become one.

Jesus will be there for us in the midst of the storms, but we are to stay together in his boat rather than jump ship in a misguided “display of faith”.

The incoming Kingdom of God often challenges conventional social norms to such an extent that it is perceived as anarchic or even evil.