And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” —Mark 9:35 Pastor Kim Riddlebarger, at the Riddleblog: From these sayings of Jesus, three important themes emerge. First, membership in the kingdom of God is bestowed upon us, we don’t earn it. The very idea that membership … More As he denied himself, so must we.
Kim Riddlebarger concludes a sermon on the life of Samson, from Judges 15-16 As for application for us today, there is much to learn from the life of Samson. No question, his allegiance is to YHWH. No question, his sin–especially his dalliances with Philistine women–was his undoing. Like Israel during the time of the Judges, … More God uses us, his sinful people, for his purposes.
Judges 10-12 is our Bible reading passage for today. In Judges 10:10-16 we read: And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.” And the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you … More Divine exasperation
Thus God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal. —Judges 9:56-57 Pastor Kim Riddlebarger comments on Judges 9: The … More When we look at the life of a man like Abimelech we see not Christ, but his opposite
Pastor Kim Riddlebarger on Judges 8: In 1 Timothy 6, the apostle Paul warns us of many of the same things that Gideon brought upon Israel. He speaks of men who “teach a different doctrine[which]does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness.” Ironically, Gideon did this … More Beware whose example you follow
As we read Judges 1-3 today, a little help from Kim Riddlebarger’s sermon series on Judges: And then there are the judges themselves–men whom God raises up to rescue Israel from some military or political crisis, but who can do nothing about the nation’s spiritual condition. Remember that Israel’s judges are not jurists presiding over … More Broken People-Faithful God
Joshua 24:16-18 “Then the people answered, `Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods, for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight … More We will serve the LORD, Jesus, for He is our God
Kim Riddlebarger, Senior Pastor at Christ Reformed Church, opened and closed his sermon on Joshua 23 with these comments: When Moses died, the people of Israel surely thought he could never be replaced. Years later when Joshua says farewell to his people, there can be no doubt that Joshua had shown himself to be a worthy successor to Moses. … More A warning not to turn away
Kim Riddlebarger asks, “What, then, should we take with us from this section of Mark?” [Chapter 3:20-35] The very fact that so many different and diverse people witnessed the miracles of Jesus with their own eyes and yet did not understand his mission or understand who he was, should remind all of us that unless God … More Grant us eyes to see
Having just celebrated Jesus’ death and resurrection, it is exciting to have passages of Scripture that point us to Christ. Sometimes verses jump right off the page at us, even though we have read it before and didn’t see it. Such was the case when I first read about the cities of refuge. But in … More Cities of Refuge Point to Christ, Our Great High Priest
