Episodes

I know! I made that word up!!! But it fits! We are on the tail end of the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes in our Red-Letter Bible Study. It occurred to me how foreign the message in Matthew 5:38-42 was and that led me down the Rabbit Hole of "why?". Why don't I connect to this. It feels historical but not relevant. For me, at least, that's a red flag. I'm missing something mightily important. As I dug into this rabbit-hole I thought of a word not in the dictionary: Exemptionalism. This ...

Today, we landed on Matthew 5:33-37. Have you ever lied? Have you ever not done something you said you were going to do? Have you ever sworn to God only not to fulfill the promise you were making. I'm guessing you can't even count the times. Yet this is the standard to which Jesus is calling us. If the Law didn't expose your own sinful nature, Jesus makes it abundantly clear. The whole purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to raise the standard and expose the problem. We can't take our sins ba...

We have walked quite a way into the Sermon on the Mount. If it feels convicting, that is good! I think that is the very reason for the sermon. Jesus is basically verbalizing what the law was meant to expose. The legalism that surrounded the law often hid the meaning behind it. People and especially the religious elite were so caught up in the ritual, they lost the meaning. The Torah, the Law, became a book of rules to follow. The WHY behind the rules was lost in translation. Addressing Matthew ...

You hear it all the time, John 3:16... whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. But John did not end there. John 3:16 could be the summation at the end of a courtroom scene. John closes with 3:21 "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." Abiding in Christ is to understand The Cost. Belief is an ongoing action, not something you did at the altar by raising your hand and ...

We never know where the rabbit hole is, but there always is one! Today, quite by accident, we discovered the phrase in Matthew 5:22 - "whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause". "Without a cause" stood out, but why? It just rubbed me the wrong way and made me question the passage in the context of "love your enemy". So, we took the detour until we flushed out the real meaning of the passage. The notes get quite long for such a short section of scripture, but it was definitely worth th...

If you ever wondered why we call our podcast, Rabbit Holes and Meditations, today will make it abundantly clear. We are well into our Red-letter Bible study. Jesus has just made the bold statement: "I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill [the Law]"... and then he says "until heaven and earth pass away". On the surface, "Until Heaven and Earth Pass Away" seems like a forever statement. But no! This is the rabbit hole of this passage and we go down it. We discover some really cool nuances to Je...

If it feels like I'm preaching in this, I'M NOT! Producing this podcast was as convicting to me as it might be to you. Part of the reason I do this is the personal journey it sets me on. We all are bound to our sin if we don't focus our sight on God. In a world of distractions, in an infinite number of directions to look, there is only one direction that truly matters. I'm sitting at this computer 6-7 hours a day. It's the nature of my job. This huge 50 inch monitor I have in front of me opens ...

It's early in Jesus' 2nd year of His ministry. He is speaking to His disciples and tells them: "You are the light of the world!". You might think that's just a nice thing to say. But to the disciples who hear this, the tax collectors, the sinners, the fisherman, the reprobates by world standards, this carries some heavy artillery. Jesus! The creator of light itself just told his followers that they were the "Light of the World!". Notes to You Are the Light of the World https://www.rabbitho...

Sometimes we get caught up in the topical interpretation of "Salt of the Earth". We dig deeper. Jesus saying this to his disciples carried tremendous weight, and conviction. Salt is not just a flavoring. Jesus, in one simple statement, just redefined the covenant associated with the Old Testament! Notes for Salt - The Weight of the New Covenant https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/salt-the-weight-of-the-new-covenant

The path of Christian discipleship, as illuminated by the Beatitudes and the witness of the apostles and Revelation, is one marked by expected persecution. However, this persecution is not a curse but a profound blessing, an affirmation of belonging to the kingdom of heaven. Whether facing overt violence in hostile nations or subtle pressures in freer societies, the call is to steadfastness, to "lose life" in daily surrender and, if necessary, in martyrdom, in the certainty of finding eternal li...

Two words always bother me. Compromise and Tolerance. I tackled the concept of both of those within the context of this podcast. Peace never comes through brokering an agreement between good and evil (compromise) or simply turning a blind eye to the existence of evil (tolerance). If you thinking, OK... who defines good and evil? Well, that would be Christ. So, to even get to this point within the beatitudes, make sure you have a solid foundation. That's why peacemaking comes 8th in the list o...

Adam walked with God in the Garden. Then, the fall. Since, nobody has been able to see the Holy Father in his full, radiant glory; with the exception of Jesus. Our entire journey is to recover what was lost by focusing on the One and Only who can bring you back. Notes to The Key to Seeing God https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/the-key-to-seeing-god

Think mercy is just about giving to the poor? Writing a check? This podcast might have you rethinking where mercy comes from and to whom it should be directed. Notes for Mercy Triumphs Over Judgement https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/mercy-triumphs-over-judgement

I'm a big picture guy. I build a puzzle by looking at the picture on the box. But inevitably, if you look at the picture on the box and you try to build that set shelves that Amazon sent you in a box, inevitably, you get one piece (at least) in backwards! As we walk into the fourth beatitude, we already have the big picture, right? It's Christ! So, we let him give us the instructions, step by step, to walk in righteousness. That's what this podcast reveals with a very clear framework on not just...

The Mighty Meek When we hear meek, we often think weak. But in Scripture, meekness is not weakness—it is strength under control, power surrendered to God. Jesus said: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5), echoing Psalm 37:11. The meek are not pushovers but those who wait on the Lord instead of grasping for power. The greatest example is Christ Himself—gentle and lowly (Matt. 11:29), yet mighty enough to submit to the cross. By meekness, He gained the inhe...

The second beatitude is easy to pass over: "Blessed are those who mourn". We can get tied up in the english translation and blow right past it. The Amplified Bible translation really helps here and it presents a good example of why we should be considering other translations when something doesn't seem to make sense. Amplified Version: “Blessed [forgiven, refreshed by God’s grace] are those who mourn [over their sins and repent], for they will be comforted [when the burden of sin is lifted]. ...

When you are kingdom focused, the entire prospect of what you own, your money, your wealth, the things you have diminish in comparison. Jesus' 1st beatitude helps us frame our lives around the concept of "Blessed are the poor". This podcast might hit close to home for many... we hope so. Definitely grab the notes - there is some very practical advice worth printing and practicing. Notes to Stewardship - Blessed Are the Poor https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/stewardship-blessed-a...

In our Red-Letter Bible Study, we almost missed this. Matthew 12:15-21 begins Jesus' 2nd year in ministry. John the Baptist has just been beheaded. Jesus retreats into the wilderness (presumably to mourn and to pray). As Jesus emerges into His 2nd year, He comes with a quiet power that nobody missed... "and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all". Verse four then echoes the words of the Father (from Isaiah 42:1-4). In my very humble opinion, these should have been bid, bold, capi...

We've all seen the example that Jesus gave for how to pray. In our red-letter bible study, we encounter a disciple who asks Jesus to teach them how to pray. Luke 11:1-4. Rather than just go through the prayer itself, we decided to take a different approach. First, why did the Jews see what Jesus was doing to be so noticeable? How did they normally pray? It's helpful to contrast what their prayer routine was so we can see what was so unique about how Jesus prayed. Rather than let Jesus tell us, u...

Ok, this one got away from me, but for good reason. This podcast is more than an hour long but so worth it! We debated putting the podcast here and decided that for those who endure, you'll remember this, you'll see how the red-letter Bible study unfolds into a rich, progressive narrative and you'll be able to make much more sense of it as you follow along. While I think this is beneficial for all believers, I retitled the podcast to appeal to Jews wondering about Christ. "Blind" takes the...

Jesus is in a synagogue, on the sabbath and there encounters a man with a withered hand. The pharisees are there, of course, to make sure Jesus does not heal on the Sabbath. Jesus sets a trap that the pharisees didn't expect. The response is dark. Notes to The Dark Side Emerges https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/the-dark-side-emerges

I've often wondered about this: “It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.” Israel was chosen to be a light to the Gentiles. This is perhaps a good place to pause on our Red-Letter journey and reflect on something that might have puzzled many. As we walk with Jesus in his journey, we're not exactly e...

As we continue in our Red-Letter Bible Study, we could be shadowing the Pharisees... they seem to know where Jesus is at every moment! We encounter Jesus and a band of his disciples moving to whatever their next destination is through a corn field and eating some of the grans of corn along the way. The pharisees confront them and accuse them of breaking the Sabbath law. By now, on the Red-Letter journey, we've come to expect that the pharisees are never the object of Jesus' teaching. You can alm...

Today's podcast is a little different. The conversation with our A.I. bot went off in a couple of different directions (my fault : ). We started with the very innocent parables of New Wine in Old Wine Skin and patching clothes with new unshrunk cloth. These parables point to the hardened hearts of the Jews and before you think this was only a problem 2000 years ago, it happened that we found in our YouTube Feed (we don't know how), a testimonial of a Jewish family and the conversion to Christian...