The crowds gather to see and to hear Jesus. Among them, as Matthew relates in his Gospel (Matthew 12: 38-42), are the scribes and Pharisees, who ask for a sign from Jesus to prove his divinity. Jesus refuses to confirm his preaching with dramatic signs. It is his teaching Jesus wishes the people to hear. Through seeking to taunt Jesus, and through their unbelief, the scribes and the Pharisees express the hardness of their hearts. Christ is present to them and they refuse to see. Christ is speaking to them and they refuse to hear. Through the Gospel, we have witnessed Christ’s miracles. And we are called to hear his word. ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.’ [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent
Daily Bible Verses | The Kingdom Of God And The Kingdom Of Satan | Sign From Heaven | God Loves You | God Is Love
Jesus has come to break Satan’s hold – on the people of Jesus’ time and for all time. Accused by some of being a servant to Beelzebub, Jesus exposes the error and absurdity of what his accusers are saying. If Satan casts out Satan, then Satan is divided against himself and his house falls – he self-destructs [ … ]
Parable Of The Wicked Tenants | Parables Of Jesus | Parables Of The Kingdom | Daily Verses Lent | KJV Audio
Jesus offers the parable of the wicked tenants as part of a larger discourse in which he responds, in the Temple, to the challenge of the scribes and the elders of the people concerning his authority. The parable leads the entrenched Jewish authorities to see the truth for themselves and yet still to reject the truth about themselves. Though their lives could have been enlightened by the parable, they refuse conversion and rather seek to arrest Jesus. They have the option to choose good; they choose evil [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Judgement Day | The Son Of Man Shall Come In Glory | Thirsty, Naked, Sick : Healed, Clothed | Saved In Jesus | Son Of Man
The parables which comprise the eschatological discourse – following the Sermon in the Temple and, on the Mount of Olives, to Christ’s disciples privately – are completed with Christ’s announcement of a rigorous last judgement. The structure of time will be complete. Those who have been true to Christ and his teaching will be admitted to glory. Those who have failed, who have remained in sin, will be forever excluded. There will be justice. Just as we will have implicitly judged ourselves, so Christ will judge [ … ]
Jesus Wept | Death And Resurrection Of Lazarus | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ | Humanity Of Jesus
The Gospel Of Saint John, Chapter 11 | Jesus Wept | Death And Resurrection Of Lazarus | KJV The account of Lazarus’s death and resurrection in John 11:1-45 is profound [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Scribes And Pharisees | Hypocrites | Jesus And Temple Judaism | True Faith | Audio KJV
Through the Sermon in the Temple, Jesus’ attack on the Pharisees and the scribes who side with them is clear, hard and definitive. Their way of life is corrupt and vicious. They are blind guides and hypocrites. They will be condemned – ‘Woe to you’ – because they kill the true message of God through their failure of love, mercy, justice, faith. They are serpents who drag the people they preach to down with them [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Jesus Heals An Official’s Son | Faith Healing | Jesus’ Miracles | Audio KJV | God’s Mercy
The official who approaches Jesus would have been a man of high rank, living in Capernaum, which was a town with a customs post. He comes to Jesus with faith, and yet his faith is, to begin with, imperfect. The official thinks that Jesus must come to his house, a journey of twenty miles, to heal his son. Jesus tells him that, through the faith he has shown, his son is already healed [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Shall The Children Fast? | Christian Faith | Christ’s Church | Jesus Christ The Bridegroom | Audio KJV
Many of the Jews of Christ’s time, including the disciples of John the Baptist, followed complicated rituals of fasting and purification, elaborated to the point where they could obscure genuine piety. It is noted that the followers of Christ do not follow such rituals. This must have seemed particularly strange to the followers of John. After all, John foretold Christ’s coming and saw that he was the Messiah as he began his ministry. Later, John’s uncertainty is such that he will send from prison to ask Christ if he is indeed the one who is to come. The reality of Christ present and the manner of his ministry must have been confusing and troubling to the Jews [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Our Father | The Lord’s Prayer | Forgive Us Our Trespasses | Simple Christian Prayer | Petition | Audio KJV | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
In Matthew, Jesus teaches the Our Father, the Lord’s Prayer, as part of the Discourse on the Mountain, in which we are instructed in the correct ways of practising almsgiving, prayer and fasting. Certain tendencies of the Jewish converts are corrected, particularly a certain ostentation and vacuity in the manner of prayer, giving and fasting to which they were accustomed. When they are praying, Jesus orders his followers not to be like the Gentiles, who heap up long-winded but ultimately empty phrases in the vain and superstitious belief that this will impress God. True piety means looking to God with simplicity of heart and true love through the course of each day. Spoken prayer is good and necessary, but the words only count if they express the truth of our inner feelings [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Love Your Enemies | Neighbours In Christ | Christian Faith | Spiritual Healing | Love Revealed By Jesus
The Sermon on the Mount continues with Christ’s call to reconciliation and forgiveness. Jesus urgently wishes the Jews to be at peace among themselves, and he implores his listeners not to aggravate the Roman oppressors, whose utter brutality in suppressing dissent would indeed ultimately destroy Jerusalem. (We should remember that, prior to AD 70, thousands of Jews could be crucified at just one go to suppress insurrectionary threats.) Just as God’s love is for everyone, so we should see everyone as being our neighbour. This is the truth of the teaching of Levitus (19:18): ‘You shall love your neighbour.’ [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Jesus’ Teaching | The Fullness Of The Law | Peace And Love In Christian Community | Audio KJV
As we progress through Lent, we listen to Christ’s teaching of the limitations of the Old Law and the complete fulfilment, transcendence and renewal of the Law which Christ, through his life, death and resurrection, gave to us. As St Paul will teach: through the Law, there can be no salvation; salvation is for us through Christ alone [ … ]
Ash Wednesday | Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Giving, Prayer And Penance | Christian Faith | King James Audio Bible | KJV
In these Bible verses, from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives to his people instruction regarding the three traditional works of mercy of the Jews, namely almsgiving, prayer and fasting. A key message is that, when we pray, when we fast and when we give charity, this is not supposed to be because we wish to be seen as pious by other people. Jesus satirizes those hypocrites who wish to be glorified by other people for their fasting, their giving of alms and their prayers. They sound a trumpet in the streets and strike extravagant attitudes in the synagogues. They visibly mortify their bodies and pull dismal expressions. Jesus portrays such hypocrites as ridiculous. Their piety is not to do with their love of God; it is to do with their wish to be seen as ‘pious’ by their fellow man. And such will be their reward [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Fullness Of The Law | Jesus And The Ten Commandments | Jewish Scripture | Audio KJV
It is the Sermon on the Mount. Our Lord has presented the crowd with the Beatitudes. We have been taught to know the gateway to heaven. These are the great Christian truths to which we aspire [ … ]
A Healing Prayer With Jesus For Lent | Our Father | The Lord’s Prayer | King James Audio Bible | KJV | Jesus In The Garden Of Gethsemane | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
In the Garden Of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed to his Father, seeking strength to face the sacrifice he would soon make for our sins. As Jesus prayed, Jesus experienced sorrow and grief as he fully understood the weight of the sin that he would bear on the Cross [ … ]
My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me? | Jesus On The Cross | Psalm 22 | King James Audio Bible
The cry of Jesus on the cross, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ is a haunting expression of Jesus’ suffering and abandonment. The psalm has a very special value because we are able to see that it prefigured Christ’s feelings, and provides insight as to how we might articulate meaning in the crucifixion [ … ]
Depths Of Psalm 51 (Vulgate 50) | Faith, Religion And The Bible | King James Audio Bible KJV | Miserere
Explore the rich history and meaning behind Psalm 51(/50), a central text in the Christian religion. Discover different interpretations and the role of faith, prayer, and Bible study in understanding this revered psalm [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Transfiguration | Elevated Faith | Revelation Of Christian Faith | Audio KJV | King James Audio Bible
As they travel on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus throws his disciples into confusion by telling them about the suffering and death he must undergo. The disciples simply do not understand. For centuries, the Jews have awaited the coming of the Messiah, whom they envisaged as a glorious warrior king, not as one who would suffer and die the most ignominious of deaths, on a cross, of all things. A person condemned to die on a cross could not be the Messiah; rather, according to the Old Law, he had to be “cursed by God” (Deuteronomy 21: 22-23). The disciples cannot see the divine plan for our salvation, while the command for all who would be saved to ‘take up his cross and follow me’ must have seemed both strange and terrifying. To reassure his disciples, Jesus allows them to witness his glorious body through the transfiguration [ … ]
What Is Lent? | Meaning Of Lent | Christian Calendar | Advice For Christians | Prayer Of Lent | To Be With Jesus | Faith And Sacrifice | King James Audio Bible KJV
Lent is a time of reflection and preparation for Easter, when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a time to focus on one’s faith and to draw closer to God. Many people find that the discipline and sacrifice of Lent helps them to grow spiritually and to develop a deeper relationship with God [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Christ Is Tempted By Satan | The Devil | Christ Begins His Ministry | Angels | Christian Love | King James Audio Bible | KJV
The temptations of Christ in the wilderness follow immediately upon his baptism by John, the descent of the Spirit upon him and the declaration of Christ as the Son of God. Jesus has offered himself to perform what is now our first act of Christian initiation, to be baptized. When we are baptized, we are born again in Christ, and we recall the rite practised by John as we imitate Christ. As we embark upon Lent, once more following Christ’s example, we are called to renew our baptismal promises through the acts of penitence we make, once more following Christ’s example [ … ]
Gethsemane To Easter | The Christian Experience Of Ash Wednesday And Lent | Prayer With Jesus | King James Audio Bible | KJV
From Sin to Salvation | The Significance of Ash Wednesday and Lent | Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lent, the Lenten season, and falls 46 days before Easter – which is to say 40 days plus Sundays. A day of fasting and penitence, Christians are called to acknowledge their sinfulness and repent. On Ash Wednesday, ashes are placed on the forehead of each person in the sign of the Cross as a symbol of mortality and penitence [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses Lent | Jesus Sent By God The Father | Son Of Man | King James Audio Bible | Audio KJV
Jesus speaks of his crucifixion as he speaks of his being sent by his Father and of his being consubstantial with his Father. Jesus has made himself man, and this was necessary for our sakes. However, his being is most truly in heaven. He is divine. The entirety of Jesus’ being, as God the Son, is beyond our human comprehension. In order to be with Jesus, we must surrender our fears and our doubts and have faith in what has been promised to us. Jesus is from above – and he asks us to join him [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | The Sanhedrin Plot Christ’s Death | Jesus | Jewish Passover Preparations | Fear Of The Romans | Pharisees | Christian Faith | Audio KJV
Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead. This is the seventh sign, or miracle, of John’s Gospel. We know more through this sign of our own resurrection. Jesus has power over death. Jesus is life and he gives us life [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | An Attempt To Stone Jesus | Jewish Law And Blasphemy | God The Son
It is a tragedy that, as we approach Holy Week, the divisions between Jesus and his people the Jews become sharper, and what is more, that the Jews – a generic term in John’s Gospel for those Jewish people who have rejected Jesus Christ – seek to condemn Jesus in the name of God. By invoking the name of God, they are in fact rejecting Him. We see the Jews placing themselves in an impossible position. Nonetheless, Jesus patiently continues to reason with them, asking them to see and to believe [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Before Abraham Was, I Am | Divinity Of Jesus | God The Son
The more we love God, the better we come to know him. Jesus continues to assert his knowledge of the Father, and too his eternal coexistence with the Father from before all time [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Truth Will Set You Free | Jesus Teaches To The Jewish | Sin And God | Prayer, Faith
We are asked to consider the truth about ourselves and to consider the truth of freedom: what does it really mean for us to be free? [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | The Woman Taken In Adultery | He That Is Without Sin, Let Him First Cast A Stone
Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives on a number of occasions to pray. It is good for us now to witness Jesus praying. When we pray, we pray with Jesus and according to his example [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Different Opinions About Jesus | Temple Authorities – Scribes, Pharisees | Jesus Christ
There are people now who choose to think of Jesus simply as an extraordinary man, a wise man and a performer of miracles, and not as our saviour the Son of God. There were and are those who think of Jesus as a great prophet, whose mission was to reject Jewish sectarianism, and insurrection, and unite the Jewish people, to enable them to survive the Roman occupation while being true to God, to maintain the Kingdom in their hearts despite the presence of the occupying pagan and Gentile power [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Jesus In Jerusalem | The Feast Of Tabernacles | Jesus And Temple Judaism | Jesus Is The Christ
John’s teaching of the journeys Jesus makes is more complete than the other Gospels. According to the other Gospels, Jesus travels only once to Jerusalem, when he goes to be crucified. According to John, Jesus travels at least two or three times to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. This gives us the approximation of the duration of Jesus’ public life as being three years [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Jesus Christ The Son Of God | Bearing Witness | Scripture, Signs And Miracles | Audio KJV | Faith
The Jews – often in the Gospel of John a generic term for those who reject Christ, or those who are so muddled, contentious and sectarian among themselves that they threaten the continuity of themselves in the Law – do not reject Jesus for any good reason. They do so rather because they cling to what precious little they have, within their prison walls, and so they deliberately blind themselves to the universal, and universalizing, truth which Christ brings. Jesus knows this. Nevertheless, through justice, he must give to the Jews this additional opportunity to listen to his teaching and recognize the truth of who he is. We may imagine that Jesus is truly desperate for the people of God to put aside their differences and truly be with God [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Authority Of The Son of God | God The Father / God The Son As One | Jesus Is God | Audio KJV | The Christ
Jesus explains certain aspects of the truth of his relationship with his Father. He explains that he is consubstantial with the Father. He is not created as we are; he is the Son; he has life in himself. On earth, Jesus is the mirror of the Father. It is through Christ that we may approach God. God the Father and God the Son share one being. The Father and the Son are equal [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Jesus Heals A Paralyzed Man | The Angel And Waters Of The Pool | Faith Healing | Sabbath
The Church Fathers teach that the pool by which the sick people wait is a symbol of baptism. It is striking to consider that, for the paralyzed man, there is healing to be found here, and too that the mode of healing at this pool is generally capricious and not available for all. We are made aware through this passage of the Bible that our healing through Jesus is for all [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | The Synagogue In Nazareth | Christ Preaches Isaiah | Jesus And The Prophets | Audio KJV
Christ has come to Nazareth, where he was brought up, and on the Sabbath day has entered the synagogue. He has been given the book of Isaiah to read. The passage he chooses is this (Isaiah 61) [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Cleansing Of The Temple | Christ The New Temple Of God | Jesus And The Jewish Authorities
The Passover was the most important religious feast for the Jewish people. It was celebrated on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan, a spring month whose date, according to our solar calendar, varies following the lunar cycle, just as Easter does. It was followed by the festival week of Azymes, an English word (derived from the Greek ἄζυμος) for unleavened bread in Biblical times [ … ]
Parable Of The Prodigal Son | Parables Of Jesus
The parable of the prodigal son is among the most famous of the parables which Jesus teaches us. Indeed the phrase ‘prodigal son’ is familiar to English speakers who might not tend to read the Bible very often if at all. In the parable of the prodigal son, the story Jesus tells is so homely and familiar to our lives, and to our most basic human and family instincts, that even without the deeper meanings as we interpret the parable, it would be powerfully moving to hear as a tale of estrangement and difficulty followed by forgiveness and reconciliation through love [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | The Parable Of Lazarus And The Rich Man | Hell And Judgement | Christian Charity | Audio KJV
Jesus speaks in parables when he has something important to communicate. The meaning of a parable may seem obscure or in need of explanation. Jesus does give interpretations of the parables to his disciples. We are encouraged through the parables to see our world in new and perhaps unexpected ways. The parables encourage us to think more deeply about Jesus’ teaching. They are, above all, a challenge – even an anarchic challenge – to everything we think we know [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | The Mother Of The Sons Of Zebedee | You Will Drink My Cup | Jesus Journeys To Jerusalem
As the disciples accompany Jesus on the way to Jerusalem, so we are asked to unite ourselves to Jesus in his passion and death, so that we may share in his resurrection and accompany Jesus in his glory as Holy Week culminates in Easter [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Judge Not And You Will Not Be Judged | Christian Faith | Forgiveness | Audio KJV | Jesus
We are called once more by Jesus to seek perfection as our acts of mercy imitate, insofar as we are able, the mercy of God. We are taught again of the inseparability of our relationship with each other in the body of Christ, in the brotherhood of man, and of our relationship with God [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Transfiguration Of Jesus | Son Of Man | Moses And Elijah | Law And Prophets | Elevated Faith
As they travel on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus throws his disciples into confusion by telling them about the suffering and death he must undergo. The disciples simply do not understand. For centuries, the Jews have awaited the coming of the Messiah, whom they envisaged as a glorious warrior king, not as one who would suffer and die the most ignominious of deaths, on a cross, of all things. A person condemned to die on a cross could not be the Messiah; rather, according to the Old Law, he had to be “cursed by God” (Deuteronomy 21: 22-23). The disciples cannot see the divine plan for our salvation, while the command for all who would be saved to ‘take up his cross and follow me’ must have seemed both strange and terrifying. To reassure his disciples, Jesus allows them to witness his glorious body through the transfiguration [ … ]