JC Blog

Jesus asked a particularly interesting question to the disabled man by the pool of Bethesda. “Will thou be made whole?” ( John 5:6 KJV ). The man had been lying crippled for thirty-eight years waiting for someone to help him into the pool when the angel of the Lord stirred the water. Year after year, someone always reached the water before him and he continually missed out on being healed. Bethesda means, kindness, grace and favor. The place where the man was lying was called ‘the house of kindness’. Once a year, an angel visited resulting in one person being healed. As Jesus passed through, he stopped, taking notice of the man and asked him if willed to be well, one translation says “Do you wish to get well?” (NASB). There were a lot of people in need of healing, a great multitude waiting. For a place called ‘the house…

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” ( I Corinthians 15:17 ) Our entire belief system hinges on one thing, that Christ Jesus was raised from the dead. And in so doing, defeating sin, conquering death, restoring creation and ascending into heaven to take His rightful place at the right hand of God the Father. This proves that Jesus was victorious with everything He came to do. This is exactly what Paul preached everywhere he went, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the…

I was at a web conference recently and one of the speakers was giving information on how much data a Petabyte consist of (pronounced PET-uh-bite). A petabyte is a measurement of computer disk drive storage. Maybe you've heard of a megabyte, gigabyte, possibly a terabyte. Well, a petabyte is what comes next, it is a thousand terabytes.This is what the speaker compared a petabyte too... (his source was cited from http://mozy.com/blog/misc/how-much-is-a-petabyte) 1 Petabyte is equivalent to 20 million 4 drawer filing cabinets filled with text or 13.3 years of HD-TV video. 20 Petabytes is equivalent to all the hard drive space manufactured in 1995 50 Petabytes is equivalent to the entire written works of mankind from the beginning of recorded history until now in every language. Can you imagine how much data this is and how much data the world currently possesses and stores. Now check this out! "This is…

Why is it is that we have a hard time reading the instruction manual for things? The other day, I was trying to complete a task at work eventually I succumbed to frustration after my trial and error approach to solving the problem failed. I had struggled for a long time never finding the solution. Doing a trial and error approach, I zoomed in on every manner of possible fixes running circles around myself. Finally giving into frustration and failure, I decided to read the instruction manual. Three minutes later I had the solution. Why is it that our last resort is to read the instructions? If I had started with the instructions I would have saved myself lots of work pouring over the problem. I came to the end of myself, the end of my knowledge and gave up any hope of solving the problem. This made me finally…

My husband and I have partnered with a wonderful organization called Ambassadors to the Nations. We learned about them while attending Andrew Wommack’s Gospel Truth Seminar in Kansas City several years back. While there, we heard the founders, Karen and Darey Jolley speak of their work in South America, mainly Nicaragua and Mexico. They work with poor children and their families to provide them with schooling, food, love and the gospel of Jesus Christ. “For $10 a month, or two cups of Starbucks coffee”, Karen jokes, “you can really make a difference in the lives of others”. Ten dollars is all it takes to sponsor a child through school and provide them with a meal. For many of them, this is their only source of food for the day. In comparison to what we enjoy in the United States the question becomes, “how can we not afford this?” While there…

I recently read the story of David and Goliath and as I read I got caught up in the drama of the Bible story unfolding before me.  However, on this particular day the story took on a different twist. For the majority of my life, I remember the lesson being on David, how he battled the giant and how his faith in the Lord was enough to defeat Goliath with five little stones. It is no doubt that David had great faith because he knew the Lord and knew He would be faithful to His promises. However this time as I reread the story, in stark contrast to David’s faith, I saw the lack of faith that the entire Israelite army had. This caused them to endure the endless ridicule from Goliath and the Philistines. The Israelites were under the same covenant as David, yet it did not have the…

I grew up going to Awana kid’s club every Wednesday night from the age of 3 or 4 far into my teenage years. My brothers, sister and I spent countless hours, memorizing Scripture verses to recite to our leaders each week. It is a real blessing now to have this arsenal of memory verses ingrained into the recesses of my mind. I recall them frequently and they both encourage and bless me while navigating life. One of the many other things that I took away from my early years in Awanas was the definition to many words and concepts found in the Bible. I remember having to memorize the meaning of words like propitiation, which at this point in my life makes me smile thinking of a 10 year old learning something like that. Perhaps the understanding of these words didn’t come until later in life, however I am thankful…

The New Year is upon us and it is a time not to reflect but rather to look ahead at the year before us. As such, I was praying about my direction for this new year and I felt like the Lord gave me these verses, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you” ( Deuteronomy 31:6 ). Over the past several months, the Lord has given me an incredible vision for what the future holds. I am excited at the prospect of the things that will be taking place. Since the Lord knows me intimately, He knows exactly what I need to hear to encourage me a long the way. This verse has been a mainstay for me my entire life, so it is fitting that this will…

As the year comes to a close I am overwhelmed by the love and support I get from both my readers and financial supporters. The comments and gifts I receive, encourage me greatly as well as remind me that the Lord is surrounding me by faithful friends in order to complete both my mission and vision in life. As you may know, part of my mission is to provide Biblical explanation to readers who come from all over the world. My mission is to share the gospel because it is the power of God. The Internet gives me a great platform to do this. And I relish the fact that this can be provided free of charge. Your partnerships have enabled me to do this. For that I am truly grateful. I wanted to take a minute to publicly thank each of you who have invested in this ministry. The…

In the weeks leading up to Christmas I have found myself thinking about Mary. Perhaps it started after watching the Nativity Story. As the story unfolded I saw the steadfast faith of a teenage girl who faced condemnation from the world because she chose to accept the Word of God. Over two thousand years later we still marvel at her faith. Her story can be found in Luke 1. The angel Gabriel appeared to her with some amazing news, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never…