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"Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19

Category: Love (Page 1 of 6)

Are You One Of “These” People?

September 27, 2025 /

MaryEllen Montville

“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” –Matthew 15:8-9.

First things first. Who are these people?

And are they among us still?

The people Jesus is referring to were pious Scribes and Pharisees—the religious elite of their day. Their hearts were hard, unyielding, stony. These men clung to traditions and rituals, white-knuckled, blind, most never even considering to humble themselves before Jesus, allowing their stony hearts to be made soft, pliable—able to be used by Him to harvest souls for His Kingdom—30, 60, or even 100-fold. “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.” –John 12:24.

Instead of yielding to Jesus, these haughty Pharisees strutted about, announcing to anyone with ears to hear that they’d been called by God, all the while making a show of serving Him before His people. Their service to God was often accompanied by elaborate religious pageantry, self-important displays of phylacteries and tassels, which had far less to do with genuine love, honor, or devotion to God and far more to do with being admired publicly, receiving praise and accolades from His people. “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long.” –Matthew 23:5.

Look around you, friends, the attire of these attention seekers has changed over time, sure, but the heart hidden beneath that attire remains the same.

Don’t take my word for it; instead, read Jesus’ words.

Words He Himself used to describe the condition of the Pharisees’ hearts—remembering as you do, that you and I see only the outward appearance of a person, but God sees their heart. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but within they are full of extortion (prey, spoil, plunder) and grasping self-indulgence.” –Matthew 23:25.

Jesus saw behind every move they made. He knew their intents and motives.

Hear what He tells His disciples concerning their following the example of these men of God, so-called: “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden. “Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels. And they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the seats of honor in the synagogues. They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi.'” –Matthew 23:2-7

As Christians, then, Jesus tells us to honor the office our leaders hold, all leaders, from our Pastor to our President. Why? Out of obedience and submission to Almighty God. Trusting He alone raises men up, and He alone removes them. “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.” –Romans 13:1.

Beloved, we’re not asked to agree with everything our leaders say or do.

But, out of obedience and submission to God’s authority, we must honor their office. Unless, that is, those placed in charge over us demand we go against God or His Word. Then, modeling those who came before us, we too must choose whom we’ll serve. “But Peter and John replied, ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God.” –Acts 5:29.

Regarding this principle of obedience and submission to those in authority, we need only look to King David’s example for confirmation. “But David said to Abishai, ‘Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless? As surely as the Lord lives,” he said, “the Lord himself will strike him, or his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. But the Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed.” –1 Samuel 26:9-11.

Not once, but twice, David spared King Saul when opportunities had arisen to not only remove him from his office, but from the face of the planet.

Seemingly good men, so-called, God appointed men, men like King Saul, were and are imperfect, sinful men. Only God is worthy of the full measure of our trust; not man, never man; don’t be deceived by appearance or demeanor, beloved. Remember, only God knows the heart. “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” –1 Samuel 16:7.

But back to Jesus.

Speaking of those who were deceiving themselves and others, Jesus went on to say: “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either. “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!” –Matthew 23:13-15.

Wait! Jesus, the God of love, said that!?

Yes.

Why? So that, in love, Truth might be told and lies exposed. Because love minus Truth isn’t love at all—it’s selfish and self-serving. It’s dishonest; more concerned with sparing feelings than with men experiencing freedom. Besides, sparing someone’s feelings is never Jesus’ primary concern; Truth is. Character is. Men being set free, not being bound to fleeting feelings, is one of God’s primary concerns.

With all of what I’ve shared in mind, understand the title of this teaching is not rhetorical; instead, it requires you, me, and anyone else who may read it to both ask and answer it of ourselves.

So, are you one of these people?

All show, no substance. All rites and rituals, yet no heart. No love?

Knowing God’s Word, sure, yet bereft of His mercy, His grace, humility, and compassion. One, maybe, who may have shouted “Crucify Him” solely because Jesus’ unorthodox, rule-challenging love, favor, and radical forgiveness threaten your very rigid, limited understanding?

 If so, there is hope, still, for your stony heart to be made flesh.

Concerning this very thing, Jesus Himself said the following to a Pharisee named Nicodemus: “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?” –John 3:10-12.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. Remember, God sees the heart, and He knew Nicodemus’s. His willingness. Nicodemus’s sincere questioning—God is not opposed to our asking Him questions, only to our questioning Him; there is a difference.

Jesus often uses our questions to open our hearts and minds to His Truth.

Listen to the rest of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, then, judge for yourself whether what was shared with you today about the nature of God and His character is true or not. “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” –John 3:13-17.

Of the Light or Darkness. Which of these are you?

Closed off to hearing the Truth, or open to it?

I pray that, like Nicodemus, you choose to open your heart to the Light, allowing Jesus to illuminate any darkness that might stop you from accepting His love and Truth. Ask Jesus to help you do this. Genuinely repent of your sins, and believe in the One God sent into this world to save you from this present darkness.

New, Not Renewed.

September 13, 2025 /

MaryEllen Montville

“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” –Lamentations 3:22-23.

The global wake of destruction that has hit us, the likes of which would make a category five hurricane blush, has been savagely unleashed on our world, our emotions, and on countless poor souls’ lives. Leaving them in utter shambles. Gaza and Palestine. Africa and India. Russia and Ukraine. China, Taiwan, and the list goes on—wars and rumors of wars. Souls, lost, many eternally. Someone’s mom or dad. Husband, wife, and the children—children, dead now as they sat in prayer. An assassin’s bullet to the throat has seemingly silenced the voice of a young man in the prime of his life. But God!

A young wife and her children left now, without her devoted husband and adoring father. Then, there are the multiple school shootings that have resulted in the deaths of our most innocent, our children. All of this and so much more, every nameless faceless soul that has been killed, many with no one ever having so much as heard their names. Souls who, quite literally, have had the proverbial rug ripped right out from under their feet, believers and unbelievers alike. Leaving us all staggering and a bit numb in disbelief.

 Then, here I come, sharing a verse that reminds us all of God’s mercies. Mercies? Really?

Absolutely!

That’s the thing about God, He never changes. Never. Neither chaos nor death can cause God to change—to go against His very nature. James 1:17 says it like this: “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], in whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes].”

This teaching isn’t intended to be insensitive or callous. Instead, a “just as shocking reminder of Truth.”

Because amid what certainly looks and feels like a world about to spin out of control, just when we think we’ve reached the point of not being able to hear of one more tragedy, one more death, God’s Holy Spirit steps in and redirects us. Recalibrates hearts and minds and families who have lost their sense of up and down, bringing peace and redirection where chaos and madness, where evil, are doing their level best to rob them of Truth and peace.

The early Church experienced such a moment when Stephen, the first martyr, was stoned to death. What the enemy thought would put an end to God’s Church—His Gospel message, His people—was instead used by God to galvanize His people and to spread His Word to the four winds!

Notice, beloved, that God’s mercies are plural, not singular. We serve a “Pressed down, shaken together, and running over” God whose mercies are fecund, original, unique, explicitly designed to more than meet today’s one-of-a-kind needs.

Mercies that are dewy, refreshing our weary, worn-out souls.

Mercies glistening with the love and care Jesus has for you and me.

A love and care that falls upon each of His beloved children, upon you, daily, regardless of what may be swirling around our feet or front door. Saturating your life and mine as specifically and purposefully as His tender mercies and care bathe each flower’s petals and every single blade of grass.

God knows we need refreshing. He knows we need what only He can give us, hope that His sure promises will stand, no matter what it looks like at the moment. Regardless of how much the enemy of our soul appears to be stealing from us—God is giving us so much more. “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving.” –Matthew 6:30-31.

Jesus is infusing your life with newness and the resilient strength needed to face each new day—never forget that Truth, beloved. No assassin’s bullet, no bomb, war, or rumor of war will have the final say—that’s Gods. So even if standing is all you can do today, know that you’re doing it in God’s strength. His loving kindness towards you and me is enabling us to take tentative, baby steps forward. “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” –Isaiah 40:29

God’s mercies are not like the transient things of this world, here one moment, needing to be replaced the next.

They’re not like that prescription bottle on your night table, something that needs renewing because it’s about to run out. God Himself has promised us, “for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]” –Hebrews 13:5.

Nor are His mercies like the milk, bread, or cream for your coffee that needs to be replenished every few days or so. In a world where the words “renew” and “renewal” have become commonplace, the concept of anything new being afforded us daily has become almost obsolete.

Our parents, perhaps, and surely our grandparents, had a far better grasp of receiving new things daily than you or I ever will. We, the so-called more modern generation, must intentionally pause to make room for such a concept, allowing God’s Holy Spirit to unpack it for us. “The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” –1 Corinthians 2:14

Even then, until we come to know such newness—God’s plethora of mercies for ourselves, intimately: having kissed them on the mouth, eaten with, slept and woke beside them, belly-laughed til we cried with them, until, as with Jesus’ nearness, His “new” mercies has quickened the beating of our hearts, til we, parched and dizzied souls that we are, have had their dewy refreshing dripped onto our parched tongues, until God’s fresh mercies, like His Life-giving Word, our daily bread, has filled our bellies, we will never have truly experienced the newness God has awaiting us every-single-morning. His “new mercies” will remain some imagined experience, like a dream vacation on the bucket list map of life.

I know it’s hard to reach for hope right now, to keep putting one faith-full foot in front of the other, no turning back. I know it might be difficult even to hear the word mercy standing next to a child’s grave, a husband’s casket, but please, beloved, allow God’s Truth to rip you open right now. Let it pour new mercies, fresh hope in buckets full over your nearly dried-out, bone-weary faith. Let God do what only God can do in you and me. “But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” —John 3:12.

Leave room for God to cause faith to arise as you and me and them and they get mad at hell for its thievery, galvanizing us, uniting us just as it did the early Church, as we remember that Satan’s relentless barrage of hate and hurt, murder and death are no match for God’s unending love, mercies that are new every single morning, come what may, and a 3rd day power that raised Jesus from the dead. Hang on, beloved, soon, all of this pain, this feeling of being caught in the headlights of this life, will end. In peace and celebration—no more tears. No more death, wars, or assassins’ bullets. Just unending love and an eternity with Jesus, all because of God’s mercies. Soon, beloved, soon. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” –Revelation 21:4.

Lay Down Your Stones.

August 2, 2025 /

Matthew Botelho

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” –Ephesians 2:8-9.

My friends, if you are a believer in Christ, I caution you to remember where we came from. Remember when you were lost, blind, and deaf to the Word of God. Having no direction except to follow what everyone else was saying and doing, whatever was acceptable to the world. We can easily forget where God has brought us from, that we are spiritual beings, yes, living in a vessel of fallen flesh, often far too quick to judge others’ sin.

Have we forgotten where we were when Christ Jesus came and pulled us out of our pit? Forgotten how others may have pointed fingers at us and said, “Well, you messed up again! Let judgment and the casting of stones begin!”

Have we forgotten somehow the very same grace we ought to be extending to others in the Body who are struggling or being accused is the same grace that was once, and is still, extended to us by Jesus Christ? The apostle Paul tells the church in Rome, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” –Romans 8:1

There is an example of this very thing in the Gospel of John. The scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman caught in adultery. This scripture highlights how quickly we can be to bring accusations against someone who has sinned. “Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say?” –John 8:2-5

Here is Jesus at the temple. He came to worship God and teach the people, when the Scribes and Pharisees, those who know the law, dragged a woman caught “in the very act of adultery” before Him.

When we are at our places of worship, ought we not be there for God and Him alone? Have we made God’s House a place of sin sniffing? It ought not become a place of backbiting or to gossip about so and so; our purpose in being there is to draw closer to Jesus, closer to the Father, and to learn how to love like Jesus loves us. Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” –John 13:34-35

There is not one person in your church or mine, except for Jesus, who is a perfect person.

How disgusting of those scribes and Pharisees to spy on this woman, all in the hopes that they would catch her in her sin and make a public spectacle of her. Their actions reveal where their hearts truly lie. Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving others undone.” –Matthew 23:23

How does the attack on this woman caught in adultery end? As these Scribes and Pharisees are asking Jesus what should be done to the woman, “Jesus stoops down and starts writing on the ground with His finger as though He did not hear them”. –John 8:6 Scripture doesn’t tell us what was written. Still, some theologians think that Jesus was writing the sins of all the Pharisees and scribes. Jesus says to the mob that’s gathered, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.” –John 8:7-9

What happens after they all walk away is a beautiful exchange in which Jesus asks the woman, “Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?” She says, “no one my Lord.” And Jesus says to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” –John 8:10-11

We ought not be self-righteous and think ourselves better or holier than others.

It wasn’t anything that we did, but only Jesus’ death on the Cross, His Blood shed for our sin, which freed us and washed us clean, making a way for us to be restored into a right relationship with God the Father. Jesus said to His disciples, “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” –Matthew 26:28

Without Jesus’ atoning work, His perfect sacrifice, brother, and sisters, you and I would still be found “guilty” of our sins. But Jesus says to us the same thing He once told the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” Follow Jesus’s example when confronting a brother or sister caught in their sin. Go speak to them in private, pray for them, and cry with them. “If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.” —Matthew 18:15.

What Really Matters…

June 28, 2025 /

MaryEllen Montville

“For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.” –Philippians 1:10.

Within one short verse, Paul uses “you” twice. He’s making it plain to each Philippian believer he’s addressing, and to us, that our relationship with Jesus is not only personal, more, that it matters to God how each of us walks out our faith. “I want you to understand.” Why? “So that you may live pure and blameless lives.”

Just because?

No!

Your Christian walk matters because you have been chosen in Christ, set apart, called to live a holy life, even as your Father is Holy. You are God’s Ambassador, beloved. You have been chosen both to carry and spread the Light of the World! “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” –2 Corinthians 5:19-20.

God is using Paul’s voice to speak His Truth, to His people—the Church.

Jesus, the Living Word of God, points anyone with ears to hear toward the Father. Directing them to emulate His own walk by doing His Father’s will. “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.” –James 1:22-25.

Still, God knows that we, like our Philippian brothers to whom Paul was speaking, are incapable of living pure and righteous lives; that we, like they, cannot be filled with the fruit of the Spirit apart from the ongoing, sanctifying work of Jesus Christ. Apart from Him, you cannot talk, walk, think, or love like Jesus. “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” –Philippians 2:13. God’s Holy Spirit is at work in us to shape, mold, and remove the dross of your sin, shame, brokenness, and guilt, so that as we cling to Him, we might look, walk, talk, and think more and more, like His Son, Jesus. “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” –2 Corinthians 3:18.

In Malachi 3:3, God makes it clear that He is a Refiner. “He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord.” As He was with Israel, His chosen people, so too with His Church—we’ve been grafted in after all, in Christ Jesus. “He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” –Galatians 3:14.

It is God’s Holy Spirit at work in us, smelting and purifying, forging, molding, and shaping.

In the fire of affliction, we’re made soft, pliable, usable—more Christ-like in our reliance on the Father. And so it’s there that God does His work of remaking us. In the Refiner’s fire, our lifelong journey of cycling through times of fire, forging, and water begins to burn off the dross of the world that has covered us over—encased us, really, like some molten shell—blinding us from seeing who we were created to be before time existed. Before, as His Word calls it, “The foundation of the earth,” hence, the need for our refining. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will.” –Ephesians 1:3-5.

God’s Word is Pure.

Thus, as we drink it in, it has the power to refine us—renewing our minds, imparting wisdom, depositing joy, and purifying our hearts. “The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.” –Psalm 19:7-8.

Yet knowing holiness isn’t something we could ever achieve apart from Jesus, in one inconceivable act of love so pure and unfathomable, God sent His only Son into the world to die. Why? Because only a Holy, Perfect, Sinless God Himself could atone for your sins and mine. “For God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God through our union with him.” –2 Corinthians 5:21.

Child of God, having sacrificed His only Son for you, remember, your salvation is personal. God wanted you to be restored into right relationship with Him through Jesus’s death and resurrection, able to receive New Life; is it any wonder then that God used Paul to remind you of ” what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.“

Still, the very God who created you knows your frailty, beloved, your inability to “remain in Him” apart from Him. “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one abiding in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from Me you are able to do nothing.” –John 15:5. Hence why, from that same pool of unplumbed love, God promised you this: “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” –Isaiah 41:10.

If you have strayed from the narrow way, beloved, repent. Return to the Father who is waiting to receive you, arms wide open, eyes already watching the horizon to catch a first glimpse of you, and then. “…live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.”

Jesus is the only One who can enable you and me to live that pure and blameless life He requires of His children. He’s a good Father who gives His children the supernatural ability to do all things through Christ. “I can do all things [which He has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfill His purpose—I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace.]” –Philippians 4:13.

You dear friend, yes, you. The Lord has led you here today. It’s no accident that you’ve read this teaching all the way through. That stirring you feel in your belly, that’s God. It’s Him saying that He loves you and wants a relationship with you. Won’t you welcome Jesus into your life now by acknowledging your need for Him? Listen to what He promises if you do: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” –Matthew 7:7-8.

They Were Given A Promise.

May 31, 2025 /

MaryEllen Montville

Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men remain on the ship, you cannot be saved.” –Acts 27:3.

Roughly 2,000 years separated the time of Noah from that of the Apostle Paul. Yet God, being Omnipresent, gave each of these men this same, sure promise. “No harm will befall you or those who are with you.” And, despite the perilous circumstances in which they and their companions would find themselves, unsurprisingly, God did not break His promise to either Noah or Paul. Nor will Jesus break His promise to you, fellow believer. “God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?” –Numbers 23:19.

Let’s examine what the Scriptures say about how God fulfilled His promise to Noah and the Apostle Paul, and in doing so, discover how God’s keeping His promise to these two men relates to you and me, beloved.

Noah:

Knowing what would soon overtake the entire world, God promised Noah that neither he nor anyone with him would perish. “So God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.” –Genesis 6:13.

But hear God’s sure promise to Noah and those who were with him: “But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the Ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. A male and female of each kind entered, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.” –Genesis 6:18; 7:16.

From the very beginning of God’s dealings with man, because He is long-suffering and the very definition of loving kindness itself, God has made a way for His chosen to escape His just judgments; that is, God fulfilling His Word—our part of that equation is our obeying His commands. Here’s what I mean: What good would God’s promise to save Noah and his family from what was to come if Noah had not obeyed God by building the very thing God would use to save them all?

Did God’s command to build a boat cause Noah to question momentarily? If so, surely it was not because Noah doubted God. Instead, perhaps such questioning came because neither Noah, his family, nor the rest of the world had ever seen nor felt a single raindrop touch their skin. Never mind experiencing the amount of rain it would take to destroy the world.

Yet even if Noah did have questions, he nonetheless not only did what God commanded—he followed God’s directions to the letter! The result? Read it for yourself:

“Noah was now 601 years old. On the first day of the new year, ten and a half months after the flood began, the floodwaters had almost dried up from the earth. Noah lifted back the covering of the boat and saw that the surface of the ground was drying. Two more months went by, and at last the earth was dry! Then God said to Noah, “Leave the boat, all of you—you and your wife, and your sons and their wives. Release all the animals—the birds, the livestock, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—so they can be fruitful and multiply throughout the earth.” So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives left the boat.” –Genesis 8:13-18.

God promised Noah that he and all those with him would safely come through what many others would not—if he obeyed God by entering what was sure to save him and his family.

Little did Noah know that the Ark God had him build was little more than a king-sized wooden placeholder for His very flesh and blood Son, King Jesus, who would one day tell those with ears to hear to enter Him and be saved. “Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” –John 10:9-10.

And though it is God’s heart that none should perish—if we choose not to heed His warnings that something never before seen by man is coming—how then can we hold God responsible when what He foretold would come “suddenly” overtakes us? “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes.” –Matthew 24: 37-39.

The Apostle Paul: In Acts 23:11, God commanded Paul to go to Rome. “The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.

And thus begins Paul’s journey towards Rome.

But not before we hear of a plot that had been brewing to kill Paul. How in Acts, Chapter 23, things were about to spill over as Paul stood before a crowd baying for his blood. Yet despite their visceral hatred and desire to kill him, Paul nonetheless dared to boldly declare that Jesus, the One True God who had appeared to him on the road to Damascus, had also commissioned him to reveal the Truth of who Jesus is to the Gentiles. “The next morning some Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. More than forty men were involved in this plot. They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, “We have taken a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul. Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him before you on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about his case. We are ready to kill him before he gets here.” –Acts 23:12-15.

Still, God had charged Paul to go to Rome. Moreover, God had promised Paul that his journey would not end in death, neither his own nor that of any of those traveling aboard the ship on which he traveled.

God may a way of escape for Paul, as He always does for all of His children.

And so Paul boards the ship headed toward Rome, a ship destined to be ripped to shreds by a storm at sea, yet as promised, God saves all. “After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.” –Acts 27:21-25.

There are times when God’s plans for our lives come with some pretty severe storms or trials. Storms and trials that may bring us to what surely looks like our end.

Approximately 1,950 years stand between the Apostle Paul and you, today’s believers, but, as it was with Noah and Paul, so it must be with you and me, child of God. We must wholeheartedly obey whatever God calls us to do in these last moments of time, standing boldly for what we know is the Truth, trusting that no storm, no sudden event that is not part of God’s plan for our lives, will ever overtake us.

Just as the Lord Himself sealed Noah and his family safely inside the Ark, and as surely as God’s Sovereign hand of protection was on Paul, so too will God seal all those who are His, ensuring their safety and safe passage home, no matter what happens.

Let me ask you, then, are you sealed in Christ?

Are you His—all His?

Have you welcomed Jesus into your life?

Will you?

“Trust in the Lord completely, and do not rely on your own opinions. With all your heart rely on him to guide you, and he will lead you in every decision you make. Become intimate with him in whatever you do, and he will lead you wherever you go.” Proverbs 3:5-6.

The Gate That Leads To Life.

May 24, 2025 /

Matthew Botelho

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to Life, and there are few who find it.” –Matthew 7:13-14

In this opening scripture, Jesus teaches the people what it means to follow Him. I remember reading this passage when I first started walking with our Lord, and it puzzled me. “What gate am I supposed to walk through?” I thought to myself, looking around. I wonder if Jesus saw that same reaction from the people He taught and His disciples.

Now, after maturing some, I see and hear this scripture, and it brings me Life. Jesus is the Gate that leads to Life. He is the Narrow Way, and not many find it. Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” –John 10:9

There is a broad path that leads to destruction. I picture it as a bunch of people crammed together, leaping over one another, trying to get ahead of one another, doing whatever it takes to make it or to beat out another person, fueled by a destructive “me first mentality.” Allowing fleshly desires to overtake and consume them; that’s a dark place to be.

The apostle Paul writes to the Church in Galatia about these works of the flesh. What was happening then is still happening today; there’s nothing new. Paul writes, “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultry, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissension, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” –Galatians 5:19-21

When we come to know Jesus, He changes our mindset from darkness into Light, from death to Life. Jesus has made the way! Darkness flees when the Light is present. Jesus says, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.” –John 12:44-46

A believer’s lifestyle needs to be one of worship and prayer, not trying to gain an advantage over another to get ahead. Jesus says, “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” –Matthew 6:33. We walk with Jesus down this narrow path, set apart from the “worldly” lifestyle. We are to be transformed into a new way of living.

Jesus even said this to the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees and Sadducees at the temple, “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.” –John 23:25-26.

I recall my pastor saying many times, “true salvation is not first seen from the outside. It starts from the inside, then it shows itself outwardly.” Thanks, pastor Lino! He always points us directly to the Word of God. “When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love,  he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.” –Titus 3:4-5.

Your salvation is not based on what is on the outside, how good we look on the outside, but rather, salvation starts when you have been washed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, which leads us to repentance. “Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?” –Romans 2:4

You can look all pristine and well put together on the outside, but be a total train wreck on the inside. This is why we must remember that works without faith in Jesus Christ will not save us.

Speaking to His Church, Jesus reminds us: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” –John 15:5-6

Later, Jesus says, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified that you bear much fruit; so you will be my disciples.” –John 15:7-8

Let us abide together, Church. With Jesus as its Head and we as His Body.

There is no Life in the Body without The Head controlling or telling His Body how to move.

According to the Oxford Language Dictionary, to abide means: to accept or act in accordance with (a rule, a decision, or recommendation).

This means that when we decide to follow Jesus, we choose to follow Him fully. We follow Him fully by loving Him and following the statutes He laid down for us, His commandments. “If you love me, obey my commandments.” John 14:15.

Ask yourself, “If I am living for Jesus, am I truly walking this narrow path? Or have some things gotten in the way of my walk?” Did I allow anything to come in, causing me to stumble? Reading Galatians 5:19-21 reminds me to examine my heart and ask our Lord Jesus if anything needs to be repented and thrown away. As David writes in his psalm, “Search me, O Go, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” –Psalm 139:23-24

David knew he was human and susceptible to sin. We are all human, and we all fall short. May I suggest you take a moment today to ask God to examine your heart?

If you were convicted after reading this teaching, I pray the Holy Spirit leads you to repent and ask for forgiveness. Repentance means to turn your mind and your heart away from that sin and worldly desires that lead to death, and ask Jesus to forgive you. “For godly sorrow produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow produces death.” –2 Corinthians 7:10.

Decide today to repent and walk no more in your sin. “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” –Romans 10:9-10

We are praying for you all in Jesus’ name. Amen.

A Cultivated Heart.

May 3, 2025 /

Matthew Botelho

Praise God! We finally made it through the wintery months here in New England. Spring is here, and the renewal of life has begun. Trees are budding, and birds are chirping in the early morning. Spring is also when my oldest son starts preparing to plant his garden. I can’t get him to clean his room, but when it comes time to prepare his garden, he’s all for it. My son loves to grow plants and has a real knack for it. To this day, I am still not sure where his love for gardening comes from. Neither his mom nor I has any experience growing plants. Yet, every mid-spring, my son goes out into his garden and starts tilling the soil, breaking up the hard ground from winter passed.

As I watched him last year, I noticed the dirt he was breaking up looked nothing like the hard, dried-out topsoil. The soil he was turning over was much darker and richer. My son told me that if he didn’t turn the soil over, he would be unable to sow any seeds in the ground because plants wouldn’t grow in the hard topsoil. So, he cultivates the ground to prepare it. It takes work to prepare the ground for sowing.

Seeing this made me start thanking God for His Son, His saving work on the Cross, and how He changed my once hard heart.

You see, spiritually speaking, the heart is not that fleshy muscle that pumps blood throughout our bodies; the heart is our mind, will, and emotions. Jesus desires to bring each of these under obedience to His life-changing power, softening them. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” –Proverbs 23:7

Everything changes for the better when we submit our hearts to Jesus; this happens only because of God’s grace. There is no other way to receive salvation and redemption (being saved from sin, error, or evil) but through Jesus. He alone knows what’s in men’s hearts, and like the rich soil my son exposed, only Jesus can turn a man from a life of sin and death to one made clean, new, ready to receive Him, rich in abundance.

Jesus is the only answer for a man’s deceitful heart; He is the Sower, and our heart is the ground He desires to till. “Listen! Consider the sower who went out to sow. As he sowed, this occurred: Some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up right away, since it didn’t have deep soil. When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it didn’t have root, it withered. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce a crop. Still others fell on ground and produced a crop that increased 30, 60, and 100 times that was sown. Then He said, “Anyone who has ears to hear should listen!” –Mark 4:3-9

This scripture says the sower went out and sowed seed, which fell on the rocky ground. After a while, tender little sprouts began to grow, but the soil was not suitable for them to thrive in. The roots needed to grow and get nutrients from the ground beneath that rocky soil had no place to sink into. So, too, the Word of God cannot take root if it’s sown in a man’s hard heart (mind, will, emotion). Perhaps some rocky soil is caused by heartache or words spoken in anger. As a result, the heart closes itself off from allowing anyone in. But God! Jesus is the only one who can change that heart of stone, turning it into a heart of flesh, making it whole again, ready to receive once more.

After Jesus was taken down from His Cross, He was laid to rest in a garden tomb, and a large stone was used to seal the tomb. “Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews to bury. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.” –John 19:40-42

But that stone was supernaturally removed on the third day, and Jesus walked out alive!

Jesus is the Seed sown into the hearts of all who declare Jesus as Savior by God the Father. These hearts will not only have new life, but will also help to reproduce new life. Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” –John 12:24

The thorns, those wicked thoughts or anxieties that whisper, “You don’t need God.” Or “Nothing will ever change; you’re just a hopeless case.”

Such thoughts will choke the Word of God out of you if you allow them to. “Other seed fell among thorns, and thorns came up and choked them out.” –Matthew 13:7.

Jesus is the only Person who can remove these thorns from your life.

He alone bore a crown of thorns on His head for you. Those wicked thoughts, those lies people have told about you. Jesus’ Holy Blood covered His crown of thorns, freeing everyone who will receive Him as Lord and Savior from the curse of sin and death.

The fall of man took place in the Garden of Eden, where the human heart was forever changed the very second sin entered the world. Still, at the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, in another garden, Jesus accepted a cup of suffering which contained the sins of the whole world.

Man’s salvation is made possible because Jesus died in our place, after drinking every drop of that bitter, sin-filled cup. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” –2 Corinthians 5:2.

But before Jesus was betrayed and taken away, He prayed to the Father, saying, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” –John 17:1-3

Jesus’ selfless sacrifice, my dear friend, proves His love for you.

Jesus was so determined to see you free that He came as a willing ransom, paying in full the price sin demands. He did this for anyone who would proclaim Him as Lord. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” –Romans 6:23.

I invite you to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior into your hearts. Let Him break up any hard ground He finds there—by repenting your sins. Invite Jesus to plant a new thing in the turned-over soil of your heart. Jesus loves you, and He is so willing to do this for you. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” –John 3:16 Amen.

Even If.

April 26, 2025 /

MaryEllen Montville

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.” –Daniel 3:16-18.

There is a hymn most Christians would instantly recognize; moreover, whose hearts would joyously and with complete abandon declare. I have decided to follow Jesus; No turning back, no turning back. Tho’ none go with me, I still will follow, no turning back, no turning back. Some say this familiar hymn was composed in 1959 by hymn editor William Jensen Reynolds using what is said to be the last words of a Christian convert of the mid-18th century as he and his family were being martyred for their faith. Other sources say these final words of the martyr, Nokseng, of the Garo tribe in Assam, India, a tribe looked upon as bloodthirsty savages, were turned into a hymn written by the Indian missionary Sadhu Sundar Singh.

Whoever you may credit, this most sincere declaration is indelibly etched on our hearts. No question, each devout word took flight from Nokseng’s lips. This man was so in love with Jesus, so thoroughly convinced that Jesus is who He claimed to be and will do all He claimed He would do, that not even death, his own, nor that of his two sons and beloved wife, would deter him from turning his back on Jesus.

When Nokseng said there’d be no turning back, he meant it.

I pray the same can be said of you and me, beloved.

Mirroring Nokseng’s heart and flintlike faith, the Apostle Paul echoed his own fixed determination never to turn away from Jesus approximately 15 centuries later: “Yet every advantage that I had gained I considered lost for Christ’s sake. Yes, and I look upon everything as loss compared with the overwhelming gain of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. For his sake I did in actual fact suffer the loss of everything, but I considered it useless rubbish compared with being able to win Christ. For now my place is in him, and I am not dependent upon any of the self-achieved righteousness of the Law. God has given me that genuine righteousness which comes from faith in Christ. How changed are my ambitions! Now I long to know Christ and the power shown by his resurrection: now I long to share his sufferings, even to die as he died, so that I may perhaps attain as he did, the resurrection from the dead” –Philippians 3:8.

If you have decided to follow Jesus, I pray the height and depth of their words and determined following burn as white-hot in your own heart, no turning back.

You may ask, “What do this song and the apostles’ words have to do with today’s Scripture verse?”

To which I’ll reply, “Everything.”

Much like the martyrs Nokseng and the Apostle Paul, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego each made a firm decision never to turn away from following Jesus. “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up” –Daniel 3:16-17.

Long before the moment came when each would face the very real threat of dying for Jesus, each had long before determined in their heart that his life was no longer his own. “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me]” –Matthew 16:24 Amp.

How blessed are you, dear Christian, to follow the One, True God, Jesus, who does not ask of His disciples something He is unwilling to do. How blessed we are that our Jesus goes before us in all things pertaining to faith and commitment to God, and by modeling how it is done, Jesus, our Greatest example, was willing to lay down His life in obedience to the Father’s will. “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” –John 10:18.

Resurrection Sunday is just an arm’s length behind us.

Yet, the same “ever-before-us” decision asked and answered by those who have given up their lives for Jesus remains. “Brothers and sisters, together follow my example and observe those who live by the pattern we gave you. For there are many, of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even with tears, who live as enemies of the cross of Christ [rejecting and opposing His way of salvation]” –Philippians 3:17-18

As we plainly witnessed here today, those who claimed they followed Jesus did, in fact, do just that—even unto death.

Beloved, recognizing our life is a living sacrifice, we too must decide to follow Jesus’s ultimate example of obedience and love for the Father, knowing with unwavering certitude that, no matter what happens, believing what awaited Jesus on the morning of the third day awaits us as well. “Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer captive to sin’s demands! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did” —Romans 6:6-11.

So, new friend, have you decided to follow Jesus? No turning back? I’m praying you will. “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” –John 11:25-26.

Bread, Not Bunnies.

April 19, 2025 /

MaryEllen Montville

“I alone am this living Bread that has come to you from heaven. Eat this Bread and you will live forever. The living Bread I give you is my body, which I will offer as a sacrifice so that all may live.” –John 6:51

Men might be willing for Christ to save them, but not for Him to reign over them—Charles Spurgeon.

Tomorrow is Resurrection Sunday. A day when some will celebrate with their perhaps bi-yearly visit to church, wearing their new, or new-to-them, Easter outfits. Sadly, they’ll celebrate the day God defeated death and the grave as just a fun-filled day, complete with chocolatey treats instead of what it truly is: A Life-giving day that changed everything! The day Jesus, the sinless Son of God, took their sins and ours upon Himself, His once-for-all sacrifice, dying the criminal’s death we deserve so that all men might have New Life in Him and a restored relationship with the Father. For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.” –1 Peter 1:18-19.

Still, knowing this, many will give Jesus His 45 minutes tomorrow, then consider their duty done; sadly, they will go on to celebrate the Easter bunny’s arrival with their children. Celebrating how he brought them baskets filled with jellybeans, toys, and chocolate bunnies, sometimes real ones—making him the hero of the day. Perishable trinkets will take the place of the Pearl of Great Price. Heaven’s kingdom realm is also like a jewel merchant in search of rare pearls. When he discovered one very precious and exquisite pearl, he immediately gave up all he had in exchange for it” Matthew 13:45-46.

They’ll give their children baskets full of candy but not share the unfathomable sacrifice Jesus made just for them. Instead of telling their children just how much Jesus loves them, or the immeasurable lengths He went to ensure they could be His, instead, they’ll take them on the hunt for that well-hidden golden egg—the prized egg, the reward for all their hunting efforts! The Apostle Paul had something to say about those who write Jesus out, replacing Him with idols, man’s thought-up imaginings, their “Easter best” efforts: “For the message of the cross is foolishness [absurd and illogical] to those who are perishing and spiritually dead [because they reject it], but to us who are being saved [by God’s grace] it is [the manifestation of] the power of God.” –1 Corinthians 1:18.

How thankful we are, dear Christian, that our hunt is over!

Jesus has risen, hallelujah! And so, too, shall we!

Our Prize is One we did not have to go in search of. Instead, He made His presence plain to us using His heavenly host to announce Himself that none could deny the most excellent Gift ever given to mankind: King Jesus, Bread of Life. “Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. Don’t be afraid!” he said. I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger” –Luke 2:9-12.

How fitting, beloved, that our King should be born in Bethlehem, known in Hebrew as the “House of Bread.” Jesus, Living Lechem (bread), declared of Himself: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” –John 6:35.

We see the foreshadowing of Jesus as the Bread of Life in the Book of Exodus.” Make a table of acacia wood—two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold and make a gold molding around it. Put the bread of the Presence on this table to be before me at all times.” –Exodus 25:23-24;30.

This bread was a sacred memorial offering, a reminder to God’s people of His Everlasting Covenant, Presence, and continual provision.

From the beginning, God’s heart towards His people has ensured that we are well-fed by His Word, sent first as life-sustaining manna in the wilderness. Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” –John 6:31.

Then, through Moses, God instructed His priests to place actual bread, a placeholder for Jesus, on a sulhan or table inside the Holy Place of the Tabernacle. Twelve loaves were to be baked and then arranged in piles of six each, made from the finest flour and covered with the finest incense laid out weekly before the Lord by His priests. His table and its Old Covenant bread foreshadowed a future table where the New Covenant Bread of Life would sit with His Apostles. And He took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body, given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.” –Luke 22:19-20.

Bread factored heavily in Israel’s history, including that of the early church.

Bread was a staple, even in the poorest homes. Something that all people, regardless of their wealth, poverty, Jewish or Gentile background, skin color, or background, could relate to. Is it any wonder that Jesus, our humble King, who came so all men might receive His free gift of salvation, likened Himself to such a Life-Giving staple? His Body and Blood, Bread and Wine, Jesus also said: “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is real food, and My blood is real drink” –John 6:53-55.

Jesus is not a man that He can lie, beloved.

Tomorrow is Resurrection Sunday, the day Jesus rose from the grave, defeating sin and death. Let us never forget that the shedding of our Bridegroom’s Blood is what makes us a spotless bride—you were bought at a very high price.

Each of John’s passages assures us that Jesus, the Bread of Life, can and promises to give New Life to all those who come to Him hungry for God’s real Food, sent to us that we might have New Life in Him today and eternal life in the world to come. “This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” –John 6:58

New friends don’t make tomorrow about chocolate bunnies, easter baskets, and a new outfit. Make it about the Bread that came down from heaven. Make it all about Jesus, the Bread of Life. “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. / And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” –John 11:25-26.

Reflections of Mephibosheth.

April 12, 2025 /

MaryEllen Montville

“The king then asked him, “Is anyone still alive from Saul’s family? If so, I want to show God’s kindness to them.” –2 Samuel 9:3.

You, child of God, are a type of Mephibosheth—as am I. Made lame by one man’s sin. We were born sinners, unable to save ourselves. “The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” –1 Corinthians 15:45. Yet, for those who know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, like Mephibosheth, we’ve been made whole; free to walk in fellowship with God again—because of Jesus.

As we prepare our hearts to celebrate Resurrection Sunday, I pray we call to mind the cost our Lord willingly paid for our sins and those of the whole world—His guiltless Life in exchange for our scarlet sin-stained lives. “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” –1 John 2:2.

Apart from God’s unplumbed mercy, which offers to restore what we lost at the hands of Adam and Eve, guardians who dropped us and then hid in misplaced fear from God who, from eternity past, has wanted nothing more than to shower us with His love and bless us with every good thing, we are prisoners of Lo-debar, that hope-less place of long-dead dreams and even deader lives.

Like Mephibosheth, the hope-less are shackled to Lo-debar by the weighty chains that bind all who are Light-starved to dank, dark prisons of shame, guilt, and pride. Like him, they hid in fear, cowering in barren isolation in Lo-debar, a place that, when mentioned anywhere but there, is instantly associated with “the place where nothing thrives and the near-dead dog trembless cowering in constant fear of reprisal from their master’s tempestuous wrath.

Many of us knew Lo-debar; maybe we spent chunks of our childhood or some portion of our adult life there. Perhaps it was a family place, our neighborhood, or our town? Everyone you knew lived in Lo-debar, and those you came across who didn’t seem as unrelatable and alien to you as you imagined living in a foreign country might be. “In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope” –Ephesians 2:12.

I was made lame in Lo-debar by some version or another of shame and fear. I was crippled by depression and low self-esteem, made even lower by my own sin-full life choices.

I could say I was dropped shortly after having been born and not be wrong.

It’s fair to say all parties involved, me and them, contributed to my lameness; as far back as I can remember, all I ever knew was Lo-debar. That is why I can assure you with the confidence born only from one possessing firsthand experience that if not for Jesus, I can say with absolute certainty I’d never have changed addresses. Maybe you’d be the one God would have sent to minister to me? For sure, I didn’t have what it takes to walk out of Lo-debar on my own—being born lame, none of us did or do. “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” –Titus 3:5.

Like Mephibaseph, I’d never have known the blessing of being invited to eat at the King’s table or having “tasted and seen” such Goodness while living so-called, in Lo-debar; such unimaginable joy and unplumed hope does not exist there.

Only God can cause a man to shed his skin so completely that he is no longer recognizable even to himself. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” –Galatians 2:20.

There’s a Hebrew concept known as Chesed; it has a multifaceted meaning. It speaks of lovingkindness, mercy, steadfast love, and loyalty. Sound familiar, child of God?

Chased is what David showed Mephibosheth.

Rather than killing anyone who may potentially lay claim to the throne, as was the custom when a new king was crowned, David, Jesus’ placeholder, instead shows Mephibosheth, God’s own mercy and loving-kindness.

For one who had been living in fear of the day the new King might catch wind that he was alive in Lo-debar, being shown such unimaginable mercy came right out of left field! Mephibosheth thought that if the day ever came when King David found him out, surely David would exact his revenge—ending his life, not blessing it! “Don’t be afraid!” David said. “I intend to show kindness to you because of my promise to your father, Jonathan. I will give you all the property that once belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will eat here with me at the king’s table!” –2 Samuel 9:7.

How like Mephibosheth those of us who lived in Lo-debar were once.Crippled by shame and fear of being found by God. Accustomed to living small and hidden in a world where sin, shame, and the knowledge, so-called, of what we believe we deserve would, if we’re careful, hunt us down and destroy us. Living misguided and so far from the Truth that God loves us and desires an intimate “sit at the King’s table” relationship with us. A “I will restore all you’ve missed out on while foolishly hiding from what you thought would be My wrath” kind of Love.

From the beginning, beloved, God created you to have intimate fellowship with Him. He has always wanted you to be with Him, not languishing in Lo-debar. It never even occurred to Him that one of His children would live in a place that, when mentioned, is automatically associated with “the place where nothing thrives, where the near-dead dog trembles, cowering in constant fear of their master’s tempestuous wrath.”

God who loves you. He gave His only Son, Jesus, to die in your place. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” –John 3:16. He didn’t send Jesus to kill you but to offer you a new life now and for all time, along with the sure knowledge that the crumbling kingdom of this world, Lo-debar, has lost its power over you.

Trust in Jesus, the One God sent to seek you out and save you. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” –John 3:17. Hear the Father’s heart toward you, Mephibosheth.

Dear child, don’t be afraid. If you feel Me knocking on the door of your heart right now, trust that My Holy Spirit is doing My will; if you say yes to My invitation to be one with Me, you will eat at My table forevermore. I will not deceive you. In this world, you will still suffer hardships, but take heart, I will be with you, and I assure you that soon, and very soon, you will suffer lameness no more. “And Mephibosheth, who was crippled in both feet, lived in Jerusalem and ate regularly at the king’s table.” –2 Samuel 9:13.

“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” –Revelation 19:7-9

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