The past few weeks, we have been looking at the transfiguration. Last week we looked at the question of why Moses was at the transfiguration. This week we look at the question of why Elijah was at the transfiguration. This is the question the disciples asked following the event in verse eleven. I have often pointed out the many things we take for advantage as we read the Bible. We are blessed to live with the complete Bible from Genesis

Last week we looked at the Transfiguration of Jesus on the high mountain. Jesus is transfigured before the three disciples, Peter, James, and John. John explains in the prologue to his gospel account that, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). The three disciples beheld the glory of God on the mountain that day. As Peter described

The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes a picture can simply remove the need for words. In some ways, words can carry more than a picture can. A picture cannot describe the emotion as well as words can. With a movie, you are an onlooker, however, in a book, it pulls you into the pages, and you use your imagination to be in the story. However, even with words and pictures, some things cannot be

Peter has made the glorious confession that Jesus is the Christ (Mark 8:29). However, now comes the teaching about what the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, had come to do. Many people believed he would be a military leader who would come and establish the kingdom of Israel as David had done. They would be set free from the oppression of the Roman Empire, they would have their own land again, and their own King. They saw the promises of God

Seeing is believing, as the proverb says. As the proverb says, the only way that one can truly believe is to see. However, we know this to be false. The eye can play tricks on your brain, such as optical illusions. Just because I see a man pull a bunny out of an empty hat does not mean I am a 'believer.' All things require faith in something. The proverb seeing is believing requires faith in your eyesight to reflect

Feeding of the Four Thousand (Mark 8:1-9) In my short time as being a pastor, I have had a few moments of absolute shock and fear as I begin the scripture reading and a sense of Déjà vu comes sweeping across my mind. I think to myself, have I preached or taught this text already. Have I pulled up the wrong sermon notes? Did I print out last week’s bulletin? These moments are often short-lived. When we read the Bible as

We come to a passage that many people seek to skip over. They might do so for various reasons, the use of spit and placing fingers in ears, the connection between bread and being satisfied from the Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30) and the bread and feeding of the 4000 (Mark 8:1-10), and finally they might, as I have mentioned before, seek to focus on Matthew and Luke compared to Mark. However, this passage is important for serval reasons. Under the

Mark turns from the handwashing and dietary laws of the Pharisees who questioned Jesus' disciples' cleanliness, of what is clean and unclean. In this literary masterclass, he now writes about the story of the Syrophoenician woman. Up to this point, many people have not understood Jesus and his teaching. The pharisee's thought the law was about having clean hands and not a clean heart. They thought they could enter heaven with their handwashing and diet. However, in today's passage, we

You are what you eat. This saying comes from a French lawyer who lived in 1826, who said, "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are." Eventually, it became common in English in the 1930s when Victor Lindlahr published a book called "You Are What You Eat: how to win and keep health with diet." Simply, you eat bad food. You will have bad health. Today many people talk about diets. People are willingly or