Jesus continues His teaching on the Beatitudes.“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” I have often heard it said that the mercy you give is the mercy you get. David demonstrated merc...  Read More

This begins one of Jesus’ most well-known teachings—the Beatitudes. My husband and I were able to travel to Israel in 2018 and see the very site where this took place. It is a beautiful spot with exce...  Read More

Capernaum was somewhat of a home base for Jesus during His ministry years. On this particular Sabbath, Mark makes the statement that Jesus “began” to teach. It appears this may have been one of the fi...  Read More

There is some interesting wording in this passage. We don’t have the luxury of knowing all the details of the story; we only have what is written. For some reason, Jesus makes the statement, “Will you...  Read More

As we can see here, this Samaritan woman’s testimony is quite persuasive, and many from the village come out to see Jesus. I am so struck by the contrast: the Samaritans beg Him to stay, whereas in ma...  Read More

Jesus takes this opportunity to teach His disciples a couple of powerful lessons.First, He lets them know that His “food”—His nourishment or sustenance—comes from doing the will of God. There is great...  Read More

As we can see here, the disciples were quite shocked to find Jesus talking with this woman. It was against all cultural norms for Him to do so. This may seem odd in our Western culture, but Jesus’ act...  Read More

Jesus continues to answer the Samaritan woman’s question about where to worship.Notice, He didn’t deny that they did indeed worship God—only that they didn’t really know the One they worshiped. Aren’t...  Read More

This is the part of Jesus’ exchange with the Samaritan woman that makes me wish I could have been a fly on the wall to hear how He said this to her. We have the written account, but words on a page ca...  Read More

As Jesus continues His conversation with the woman at the well, we see that she is not fully grasping the spiritual meaning of His words, viewing them instead from a purely physical standpoint—much li...  Read More

Scripture records that the next encounter Jesus had was with a woman from Samaria. It is important to understand that, by custom, Jewish men would not speak to a woman unless she was a family member. ...  Read More

These words from John the Baptist give such clear testimony about who Jesus is. I love John’s humility—his acknowledgment of his role and his understanding that all we have and all we are is a gift fr...  Read More