House2HouseMD

A Sword will Pierce Your Heart Ok, let’s cherish the sweetness of CHRISTmas – the lights and decorations, songs, the foods and merriments, the greetings and the pure joy and innocence of the child Jesus. Who would not be thrilled around a bouncing baby? All is good so far except for the malls in America and around the world where you can barely see a place to walk on because of the crowd. Just admit you were in the mall like me. Everyone is heading to the mall/market. Yes, there is need to buy food but it is more than food. The crowds at the malls/markets reveals that people all over are looking for something – not just good sales and bargains. They are longing for something that satisfies and makes the heart happy. Unfortunately it is not in any mall or market. That is why after the buying, there is even more buying on the 26th and the un-satisfaction goes on for the reminder of the year and into the next year. Luke 2 reports of Simeon who saw the baby Jesus and was satisfied an...

The Savior is Born – Merry Christmas! Christmas is not for all – Shocking? A savior only comes to save. Save from what? Christ the Messiah came to save us from the wrath and judgment of God. Only God can save us from Himself. The miracle of Christmas is that I recognize by the mercy and grace (favor) of God that I am a sinner needing a Savior. Shocking! Christ did not come for all but only for sinners. 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” Luke 11:14. It is goodwill to people that are favored by God to know that they are sinners (the poor in spirit). Have you been favored to know that you are a sinner needing a Savior? “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him…” —John 6:44. Then Merry Christmas to you otherwise there is nothing merry about Christmas. Christ came to seek and to save the lost. He came for sinners and not for the self-righteous. Let’s give God all our self-righteousness and take Hi...

Lost and Found - The Bottom Line of Dr. Luke’s Gospel As an accountant, I love bottom lines. Just give me the big picture. And if it is a business venture, is it making profit or loss? We all love the bottom line. That is why you are always looking at your bank statements and paychecks. For the past many months, we have together studied the gospel of Luke. Now that we have come to the end of the book, what was it all about? What was it that Dr. Luke at the beginning stated was the intent of the presentation of the book? Borrowing from one of my favorite radio programs (by Pastor Lon Solomon of Mclean Bible Church ), “So what?” What did we learn and did it change me and you? “The Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost”. Get it? Luke 1: 1-4 1Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled[a] among us, 2just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3Therefore, since I myself have ...

Gravity Defied Hollywood has perfected the act of film making. There are many movies where you see people rising above ground and flying away. The Superman movies have given us the best of Hollywood photo tricks. I do not know how they do it but it seems real only in the movies. The ascension of Jesus is the only event of its kind that is recorded. After all, Jesus is the one that created gravity. It was not even the same as that of Elijah who was taken up to heaven by chariots. “As they (Elijah and Elisha) were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.” 2 Kings 2:11). Let’s see the details as recorded by Dr. Luke who was the only one who gave the details among the four gospels. You know, as a scientist and a physician, Dr. Luke was very thorough and detailed in his gospel accounts. Why was the ascension recorded for us? Are you looking forward to defying gr...

Open My Eyes Lord From my time in primary school up to third year of high school, I did not realize I was technically blind. I had the practice of sitting at the first row in the classroom, very close to the blackboard so that I can see what was written. Well, you would think someone should have detected my eye problem for this long period. The reason that wasn’t the case is that I had grown up in a village where there where no doctors and early eye screening was not done for kids as it is in the Western world. After these while, I had complained to one of my big brothers who took me to a big city for eye examination. I still remember the first day I got my first eye glasses. It was like day and night. I could see for the first time and enjoy the various colors that had been blurred to me. I could see far enough and able to read signs and not bump into things. I was very excited and thankful to my brother. I realized that I had been suffering all these while in silence. My new sight...

BIG Disappointment and Great Hope If you were in Jerusalem during the Passion Week, what could be going through your mind if you were one of the disciples and/or the other followers of Jesus? There are few words to describe the feeling and experience of this week such as confused, disappointed, bewildered and then great hope at the end. There is evidence in the Biblical accounts to indicate that the disciples did not fully understand what was going on and that their expectations of the outcome of events of the life of Jesus were quite different than the way it turned out. Why did the Jewish authorities collaborate with the Romans to crucify Jesus? Did not Jesus say he was the savior and indeed we have not realized the salvation expected. Is there any hope for us after following this man called Jesus who has been crucified? Like the disciples, we often totally miss it. We forget that there is a resurrection. Death must precede resurrection in our lives of now and in the future. Jesus h...

Forgive Them and Forgive Us? For a period of 14 years, “After his son was murdered, Bernard Williams became consumed by anger and depression. There was, he came to realize, only one way to save himself.” On May 21, 1994, in Baltimore Maryland, Mr. Williams’ son was shot by a neighbor for playing with the neighbor’s parked SUV which set off an alarm. This is a cover page story of the Washington Post Magazine, March 20, 2009. In this article Karen Houppert chronicles Mr. Williams’ journey to finally forgive. It is a tragic and moving real life story. Now let’s go to the Cross and experience the ultimate forgiveness by the “Son of God” who did nothing to be crucified. The Cross means forgiveness and you cannot forgive others if you have not received forgiveness of Jesus from the Cross. Luke 23:32-34; 39-46 32Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on h...

Last Words of Jesus (2) Jesus did not spend too many words from the time of his arrest and death on the cross. Last week we looked at some of those words. In particular, Jesus surrendered his case to the Father by saying, “Not my will but yours be done”. From that time on he did not say much. He left his case and vindication to God the Father. There comes times in our lives when we must leave our case to God to argue for us. There are points in life when you know the truth about a case involving you and someone or people have lied and misrepresented you. All we can do at those points is to keep quiet and let God vindicate us. You and I don’t always have to press our points. Some times we must let it go and play the fool. Jesus did exactly that; so let’s read on. Have you been lied about and misrepresented? I will not lie to you; it really hurts especially when it comes from those you are looking out for (the very people Jesus came to save). Luke 22: 66-71; 23:1-5 66 As soon a...

Last Words of Jesus (1) I have never forgotten the words of my elementary school headmaster. He must have been quoting someone as he would often say to us, “The last day of a man is very tempting and the end of everything is the most important.” This is true as we observe and study Jesus on the road to the cross. Jesus knew exactly where he was heading to, the cross. The cross is not an all-you-can eat buffet party. It is a place of trial, pain and death. Jesus did not exempt us from the cross meaning we will have own trials, pain and death of flesh. How did Jesus handle these last days and what did he say? I believe we can learn a whole lot from him as we together examine some of Jesus’ last words from Scripture. You and I would often say things Jesus would not have said when facing our own trials and dying to self. Luke 22: 39-51: 39 Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. 40 When He came to the place, He said to t...

When We Fall and Fail Have you ever disappointed someone you love? Recently, a colleague came to work crying because she had disappointed the son. Her son had lost a tooth and had put it under his pillow and went to bed. Come morning, mom did not come true as the tooth ferry. The boy cried and mom felt that she has not been a good mother to be there when her son needed her. It may sound silly to you and me but this is a true story. My colleague expressed guilt and sorrow and the rest of her day was a bad one. We all have disappointed someone and have been disappointed by someone especially by those we love and who love us. Most often we tell people we will be there and it turns out we are not and we often have a reason but it is still a disappointment to someone. On his way to the cross and at the most crucial time (when the rubber hit the road); the apostles abandoned Jesus and scattered. The classic case of the denial and feeling of disappointment was that of Peter, the macho, t...

“Do this in Remembrance of Me” Someone said, “What you value and cherish, you celebrate and remember”. We have just observed the President’s Day in America. It is a day set aside to remember and honor the past and present presidents. Why do we celebrate holidays, birthdays and any other days we set aside? It is simply because they are important and we do not want to forget. In our study today, we come across a very important ordinance and tradition of the Church. Unlike many others that are man made, this one is instituted by no other than Jesus Christ himself. If you are going to have the last meal of your life with the ones you love, every word shared during this time becomes very important and sacred. Let’s hear our Lord Jesus and pay heed to His words. Luke 22: 7-20 Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed. 8 And He sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.” 9 So they said to Him, “Where do You want us to...

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...

A Better Deal We are constantly looking for better deals. Some people live by the “Sales” sign such as “2 for just one low price”, “buy one and get one free” or the one everyone looks for; “Going Out of Business Sale”. I went rushing to Circuit City this past week for a good and better deal. As a result of the hard economic times, Circuit City one of the big names in the electronic retail market is going out of business and going through liquidation. We pray for all who are suffering at this time due to loss of job and other economic hardship. May the Lord provide and sustain them, amen. Well, I was disappointed at Circuit City. They were offering 10-30% off from original sale prices for merchandise. Even with the discount, the prices were higher than what I saw in some other stores for similar items. Maybe I have to wait till the last week of the liquidation when maybe they will offer 50% off. Stop laughing at me because I know you are just like me – always looking for a better...