Jarrin Jackson

Matthew 10:14 that junk.

Beer for my horses...

When God the Father gave Jesus His Son all power in heaven & earth, Christ commanded His intent.

In the military, when the commander gave a command, He didn’t give the little nitty gritty (do this, do that, don’t do this, don’t do that) but a general, overall, this-is-the-most-important-thing-I-care-about purpose.

Christ wants us to make disciples (Matt 28). That is a process. It is not a one & done thing.

For much of my new life, I saw being a Christian as punching people’s ticket into the kingdom.

I know now that was an immature & incomplete view. Correct and incomplete.

Christians follow Christ. Christ commands us to work. To imitate Him.

Christians have a lot of work to do. Our work ends when He calls us Home.

If, while on mission, there was confusion or division about what to do, the team always returned to our assigned mission. What did the boss tell us to do? Why are we here? Is the mission or not the mission our focus?

Reading, then, or remembering what the boss said was more authoritative than what those of us on patrol thought. We carried out the commander’s intent based on our various skills, the terrain, the enemy’s actions, and the moment by moment situation.

Viewing Christ as King is instructive for me and helps me make sense of things when there is confusion or giants on the battlefield.

Prayer requests?

If you use a manmade label that is not in the Bible to frame something the Bible says, then you use not God’s word to handle God’s word.

Christ said “it is written.” Christ never said, “This one theologian’s YouTube channel explained Deuteronomy according to this phrase”

Use Bible words. They are God’s words.

And you’ll notice that this discipline immediately clears up 99% of “doctrine” issues bc it binds the Bible reader to the Bible and not not the Bible.

European nations (Germany/Austria) have stopped all asylum applications from Syria.

Methinks Biden will “authorize” their immigration to America.

Escalating tensions (I believe, it’s being done on purpose) right before Trump gets into office.

Do you notice how war is used to prompt mass migration of people OUT of the Middle East?

Pilate releasing Barabbas was a big deal.

Barabbas (meaning “son of father”) was a Jew. Barabbas had committed crimes against Rome. Barabbas was released in exchange for Christ (Who had entered Jerusalem days earlier to the chants of “Save us!”).

In the eyes of Rome, Barabbas was the lesser of the two evils bc only Christ was claiming to be a King.

When Pilate washed his hands of the issue, he showed that he knew Christ was innocent, but that Pilate understood that the Jews were forcing his hand. (Even Pilate’s wife warned Pilate not to have anything to do with Jesus).

Christ told Pilate that His kingdom was not of the world or else His followers would fight. But they didn’t fight.

The world fights like the world. Christians fight like Christ.

Years later, Paul the apostle would write the letter to the Romans and explain that the government (Rome) was there to do righteousness. Rome, at that time, kept the peace so that the gospel of Jesus Christ spread throughout the world peacefully - a loving conquer.

Barabbas, then, was a foretelling of things to come, when, culminating in 70AD, the Jews provoked Rome and got destroyed.

Today, the nation of Israel has nothing to do with the Israel of the Bible. But they are doing the same thing Barabbas did - favoring war instead of Christ.

I pray that Christians follow Christ. Christians are to obey Christ. We don’t advance His kingdom with the sword. We advance His kingdom with the gospel.

Amen.

Now, go to war.