Hidden treasure---the wish, the lure and the trap. Winning the lotto, finding a gold mine or getting the big inheritance. Is that what treasure really is? Seems like the same old wishing which is more of the 'nothing new under the sun.'

When Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven it is an experience of newness. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field…

It seems time to revisit the idea that the author states in the opening of his book, The Purpose Driven Life. “It’s not about you,” he says. There are really three appeals made in that statement. First, it is an appeal to consider what you believe. Second, it is an appeal to consider whom you are trusting to structure your life. Third, it is an appeal to consider acting in faith. In all three it is you who is the center of the appeal. It is you who is being challenged to look into yourself…

We have been diligently pursuing just what newness is all about. This concept of newness is critical for us to understand and for four basic reasons.

First, newness will be our experience in Heaven. Among the Bible’s last words were these, “ And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he…

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come (2Cor.5:17 NIV).”

As we continue looking at this whole idea of newness we want to begin with the realization that anyone who accepts Him into his or her life is experiencing something new. It is a newness that comes from how we all started in the first place, in the spirit. Our origin is spiritual because God is spiritual. We begin to have spiritual vision first as opposed to physical vision.…

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:…For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith:…(Romans 1:16-17 KJV).””

What Paul is so excitedly telling the Roman Christians is that what he was given was really new, ‘new’ was personal, individual and unique. When God got his attention on the road to Damascus, Paul was so awed by the personal depth to which God would go to capture his heart, he found out what was possible for everyone. Thus his intensity and…

Mark 1:2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet:

“I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”—“a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”

Preparation is the issue here. How do we prepare for the ‘new?’ What is ‘the desert?’ What is the message? Who is the messenger? What needs straightening?

First, Jesus identified John the baptizer as the ‘new’ Elijah, Mt.17:9-13, Mk.9:9-13, Lk.1:17. He is the…

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The beginning of the Gospel---(the start of the good news---Gk.evangelion, good announcement). Here is the beginning of something new which, unlike ‘news’ in modern media, is what ‘new’ is all about. It hasn’t happened before. This is new in cosmic proportions because, as Scripture says, “There is nothing new under the sun (Eccl.1:9).” ‘Under the sun’ is context of the world, its condition and lostness. But over…

“Prayer is the lubricant for the spiritual life, the lubricant for our relationships and the lubricant that brings the spiritual dimension to bear on the world we see. Choosing to live by faith and not by sight is living as His priest in the glory of God.”

This is the carryover from my previous thoughts on the last seven verses of John 17. Since we are priests in a ‘royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9),’ prayer is the oil that anoints our personal faith to function where our part of the…

John 17:20-26 is a great guide for our personal prayer time. It specifies themes that lift up the uniqueness we have been given in our relationship with the Lord Jesus. He prayed with us in mind. Now as He sits with His Father on the throne of Heaven we know He has the full authority of the Father, the full knowledge of each of our lives and the fullness He planned for each of us in Creation. He has us framed in His image. His prayer, often called the ‘High Priestly Prayer,’ sets for us an…