Matthew tells us how Jesus came from a proud and glorious lineage of . . . well, of prostitutes, thieves, and murderers as well as kings and prophets, all of whom happen to be God's people. Jesus reaches all the way down into our humanity so that He can fulfill everything for us.

The parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew hinges on whether a guy is wearing the right costume for the party.

Throughout the centuries and throughout earthquakes, famines, kingdoms falling and rising, God's Word has moved forward. Picking up pieces, people, lives, sins, and hopelessness only to turn them into diamonds through His Grace!

The Son of Eve disarmed Satan’s hold on humanity, not with an earthquake, atomic bomb, or brilliant essay, but with his dead body and final words, “It is finished.”

The real question we must ask about God’s will isn’t, “God, command us according to your will and we’ll do it,” but, “God, what are you willing to do for us who can’t do what you command?”

Trusting in Christ’s shed blood also means that we serve the living God. We don’t trust in nothing. We don’t serve a fake god.

He begins with Jesus and ends with Jesus. He is not going to try to complete what Jesus starts.

Jesus opened our ears and mouth when He baptizes us. Jesus put His fingers into our ears, speaks to us, and washes our sins away.

But when we trust Jesus, then we close our eyes to it all and say, “Heavenly Father, I’m your child.

I can pretend for a little bit, but as soon as the phone is put away and it’s just me and my sin, I am fearful about what my walk says about me. I know what I should do, but I can’t quite seem to do it.

How does that sit with you? It frightens me. Naked, exposed in the eyes of the One to Whom I must give account?

Only the poor are in need of a Savior, and only the dead need faith, hope, and love delivered to them by the hand of the Almighty.