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Free Will and God’s Sovereignty – the Case of Judas We laugh at the catch phrase popularized by comedian Flip Wilson “The devil made me do it”. Would that apply in the case of an 11 year old boy who shot and killed his father’s pregnant girlfriend in cold blood while she slept? This happened this Friday in a town close to Pittsburg. Do we have free will to do what is right or wrong? What about God’s sovereign hand in the affairs of life? As we go into the climax of the life of Jesus, his death and resurrection, let’s examine the action of Judas Iscariot in helping us answer the above questions. Did “the devil make Judas do it i.e. betray Christ”? Through this study, we will understand the life cycle of temptation and how it comes to maturity and yield its fruit, sin and death. Luke 22: 1-6 1Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, 2and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of

The End Times (2) I just learned about the death of a young man from my village that graduated from medical school last year and was doing a compulsory National Youth Service in Nigeria (like the American Peace Corp). In his early twenties, this young man was full of life and a promising future in everyone’s eyes. Unfortunately, his “world” and life here on earth has come to an end. May the Lord comfort his family. Amen. This is a “personal” end time and we will all reach there if Christ does not return while we are still living here on earth. In Luke 21, Jesus talks about two end times. Last week we looked at one of them namely the end of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. This time we will look at the other end time predicted by Jesus namely His return, otherwise known as the end of this world. We noted last week that Jesus’ first prediction has come to pass. Jerusalem of then and the temple were destroyed in A.D 70 by the Romans. The fact that the first prediction cam

The End Times (1) Is the world coming to an end? We hear a lot of statements such as “Oh the world is coming to an end.” Most often we hear and say such when something treble have just happened such as the big earths of China or the tsunami of Asia or even now the world economic melt-down. Yes, the world will come to an end but when? Let’s hear Jesus speak on this issue in Luke 21. We will look at this segment of Luke in two settings because there were two different end times Jesus was speaking about. Luke 21: 5-24: 5Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, 6"As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down." 7"Teacher," they asked, "when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?" 8He replied: "Watch out that you are not decei

GIVING When it comes to this topic, “Giving”, it is one of the most misunderstood and most abused practices in the Church of today. Money and giving was a big concern to Jesus. It is noted that Jesus spoke most on the issue of money, wealth and on how we are to treat money than any other topic. Let us open our hearts and hear what Jesus is saying regarding giving. Luke 21: 1-4 1As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins.[a] 3"I tell you the truth," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on." Here are my observations in addition to the ones you may have: 1. Unlike other teachings of Jesus in the previous chapter Luke 20, this teaching on giving was not given in response to a question from the crowd or scribes or even from Jesus’ dis