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  Weep for Yourselves and for Your Children   Luke 23:28 – 31: "Jesus turned and said to them, 'Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, "Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!" Then "they will say to the mountains, 'Fall on us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!'" For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?'" This passage is recorded only in the Gospel of Luke among the four Gospels. Jesus told the women, "Do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children." As the Son of God and the Messiah who came to save the world, Jesus was walking the path of the cross — a path of glory — to fulfill the mission given to Him by the Father who sent Him. He was destined to rise again three days after His burial. The issue, therefore, was not...

  The scripture that says, "He was counted among the lawless," must be fulfilled in Me.   Luke 22:36 – 38: "He said to them, 'But now, let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in Me: "And He was counted among the lawless." For what is written about Me is reaching its fulfillment.' They said, 'Lord, look, here are two swords.' And He said to them, 'It is enough.'" This is a reference to Isaiah 53:12: "Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." The fall of Israel, the destruction of the Temple, and the subsequent exile in Babylon forced Israel into a period of deep refl...

  (4) Salvation is expressed through baptism   Today, there is a tendency within the church to take salvation too lightly. This is due to justification by faith alone, which implies that one is saved simply by believing in Jesus. However, salvation is not achieved merely by believing in Him. Hearing Jesus say, "I do not know you," would be a great disappointment. I view baptism as having the same meaning as submitting a job application to get hired at a good company. To get a job, you must fill out the application and send it to the company; however, you are not automatically hired. Instead, the documents are reviewed, verified, and even an interview is conducted before a decision is made on whether to hire you. Similarly, baptism is also thought to undergo this same process. Believers may dismiss this as nonsense, but this is the result of reasoning based on what is said in the Bible. Baptism is described in the Old Testament in a narrative form. Lambs died in place ...

  "It is written, 'My house shall be a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"   Luke 19:45 – 46: "Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, 'It is written, "My house shall be a house of prayer," but you have made it a "den of thieves."'" Isaiah 56:6 – 7 states: "For thus says the Lord: 'To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant — even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord... I will bring them to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nat...