April 30th, 2020

Good blustery morning. The psalmist declares “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.” This 96th psalm says to declare God’s marvelous deeds among all people’s. “For all the gods of the nations are idols.” There is no other God and no other savior than Jesus Christ. So even in the Old Testament the people of God were to be evangelists. God will judge all with equity. In Ezekiel 15 God tells the prophet that Jerusalem is a useless vine that is good only as kindling for the fire of judgment. This as opposed to John 15 where Jesus is called the vine and we are the branches. In Matthew 17 we see the transfiguration of Jesus before the disciples and a change in the emphasis of His ministry to openly declaring His impending crucifixion and resurrection. We see that Jesus paid the tax, the temple tax every Jewish male over 20 had to pay (about two days wages) for the maintenance of the worship center. He points out that the princes don’t pay the tax only the subjects. So even though the temple was His Father’s house, He paid the tax. Let us all stay connected to the vine, my friends, the vine of John 15. God bless you all.

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