GRINDIT podcast

Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up on a mountain where they witness something amazing—the Transformation of Jesus. The word in the Greek means metamorphosis which is what we see when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Jesus’ face shines as bright as the sun and his clothes are a brilliant white. Peter, bless his heart, tries to interrupt what was happening but God the Father overshadows the three disciples with a cloud and tells them, “This is My dearly loved Son who brings me great joy. Listen to him.” God the Father could have scolded Peter but He shows grace but in doing so, He gives affirmation to Jesus. Fathers, our children need our affirmation! They need to know, they need to hear from us, that we love them and they bring us great joy! Dads…go talk to your kids!

Peter had just made that great proclamation, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” and yet, in the next breath Jesus is calling him Satan and telling him to get behind him! How did this happen? Why would Jesus say this? How could someone who has given their life to follow Jesus and has worked miracles themselves allow Satan to influence them? Can this happen to us today? Can people be demon possessed? Can a believer be demon possessed? Listen and hear my thoughts on these questions!

Jesus is challenged by the Pharisees and Sadducees yet again and after a mic drop moment, he gets in the boat with his disciples and heads to Philippi. While there he warns them about the leaven of the pharisees and they mistake what Jesus is saying. They think he is scolding them because they forgot to bring the bread along on the trip. So Jesus takes this opportunity to give a survey to his disciples and he wants to know who people say he is and then he asks his disciples who they say he is. Peter gives an answer that is, in the words from an Ashford and Simpson song, solid as a rock! We can trust Jesus, the immovable stone!

Something we don’t hear about to often is Jesus going into the region of Tyre and Sidon where it is heavily populated with Gentiles. Tyre and Sidon have an interesting history and two synagogues from the time Jesus was walking on the earth have been discovered there and one the best preserved Hippodromes is there to this day. Learn a lesson from the disciples here…Remember! Jesus had just fed a crowd of at least 5,000, but more like 10,000, with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. This crowd of Gentiles is with Jesus for 3 days and he wants to feed them and the disciples freak out because they don’t have enough food to do so. How quickly we forget what God has already done in our lives and we act like He can’t do it again. Reflect, remember, keep in memory the blessings of God and how He came through for you in the past and keep the faith…

See pictures of Magdala: (https://greekreporter.com/2022/10/26/ancient-magdala-unearthed-israel/)

Jesus arrives to another region and is immediately met with a woman who was desperate but this is no ordinary woman. This woman was a Gentile so she had many things going against her. Gentiles weren’t very well liked by Jews and she was also a woman. In Jesus’ culture, women weren’t very respected, in fact they were treated much like shepherds. They weren’t even allowed to be a witness in court yet God used a woman to testify that His son was alive after the resurrection of Jesus. This Gentile woman was desperate because she knew Jesus could take care of her situation and this was her opportunity. She was not going to give up and go home when all she was given was silence and discouragement from Jesus and his disciples. When Jesus sees her faith, he was moved to action. You may find yourself crying out of God from a desperate place, it may seem like all you get from God is silence and that He doesn’t care, but if you will be persistent with your faith, God will come through, and He will meet your need.

The Pharisees and religious leaders have heard of all these great things Jesus has done with the most recent being how he fed a ginormous crowd with two fish and five loaves of bread. He always has crowds around him and they all seem to want a miracle from him. He never disappoints so they would go back home talking about what Jesus had done for them. The Pharisees are fed up with this guy and they won’t to put an end to his ministry so they find out where he is, they travel there, they find Jesus, and they are ready to pounce with their question so they can accuse him and disclaim that he is the Messiah. They really think they have him this time! What’s their accusation? Jesus’ disciples don’t ceremonially wash their hands before they eat and this goes against their tradition! Bro…this is what you come at Jesus with? Washing hands before supper? Dude…

Gary Henline is the Senior Minister at First Christian Church in Maryville, TN located at 400 Court St, Maryville, TN 37803. He discovered he had stage 3 bone cancer in September 2022 and is going through treatment. He talks about how he found out he had cancer and how God is bringing him, as well as his family, through it. You will be encouraged by Gary's story!

Jesus sends his disciples to the other side of the Sea of Galilee and a storm comes up. They are out there rowing for their lives for hours while Jesus watched from the mountainside. He knew they were struggling and he allowed them to struggle! He didn’t keep them from the storm and he didn’t immediately comer to their rescue! When he did show up, he still didn’t calm the storm and his disciples didn’t even recognize him, even after Jesus spoke to them! They thought he was a ghost and Peter wanted proof so he asked to walk out to him in the storm. When Jesus got in the boat with them he asked, “Why did you doubt me?” It’s a question we all have to ask because we do the same thing the disciples did. God allows the storms, He is with us when we don’t think He is, and when He shows up to rescue us, we doubt Him!

We know Jesus was a giver and the ultimate gift he gave was his life on the cross for our sin, but his example of giving goes way back before the cross. He was always meeting people’s needs, from his disciples to the crowds that constantly gathered around him everywhere he went. After hearing the news about the death of John the Baptizer, Jesus went off to be alone but some people heard where he was going and a they ran ahead of him to beat him to the spot. As they went, they told others and by the time Jesus got to his destination, a crowd of over 5,000 men, not including women and children had gathered to meet him. The man went off to grieve but instead, he was met by this greedy, selfish crowd who wanted their needs met. How did Jesus handle the situation? He took time to heal their sick, to feed them using a miracle, and taught them about the kingdom. He was moved with compassion and he put his needs aside, and met the needs of the crowd. We are told we are to be like Jesus. Are we? Do people see a giver or a selfish person in the crowd? The Problem of Suffering” by Kippy Myers. I’ll put a link to the book in show notes (https://www.hesterpublications.com/store/p104/The_Problem_of_Suffering.html).

This chapter starts off heavy because we learn of the death of John the Baptizer. He was beheaded because he had confronted the sin of Herod Antipas and his wife, who was married to his brother. They didn’t want to hear about their sin so she came up with a plan get John killed. She threw a birthday party for her husband, invited a bunch of buddies over, probably had some alcohol flowing freely, and then, when the time was right, she sent her daughter in the party to dance provocatively before her stepdad. She was so impressive that Herod promised her anything she wanted and her mom had told her she wanted John’s head brought to her on a silver platter. If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. Momma got what she wanted and the kingdom lost a great man who paved the way for Jesus. John was the first martyr for the kingdom.