Dan Lee
John 17:1-2, Salvation for the Glory of God

Jesus’ prayer in John 17 begins with a focus on the glory of God. Jesus prays that His impending death will ultimately glorify the Father and that this would come about through the granting (gifting) of eternal life to His elect. What Jesus’ crucifixion puts on display is the glory of God’s grace in salvation.

Dan Lee
Deuteronomy 27-34, Two Ways to Live

As Moses closes his final message to the children of Israel, he focuses on the consequences of obedience and disobedience. He does so by setting down before them two pathways: the pathway to life, good, and the blessing, and the other pathway to death, evil, and the curse. Along with these options for their future, he reveals to them their future in apostasy, judgment, and even a restoration afterwards. The Pentateuch closes with an allusion to the prophet like Moses to come, the Lord Jesus, who speaks from the LORD and all the people ought to hear. The call to choose life echoes throughout the ages, calling all to be reconciled and restored to God and to enter into His blessing through the Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

Dan Lee
Deuteronomy 12-26, The Place and The Prophet

In this final legal section of the Pentateuch, Moses touches on a wide range of laws. Among these, two stand out as the most prominent in the main message of Moses regarding the Messiah: the place of worship and the future prophet like Moses. These two ideas propel us to build up God’s church, hope in Christ’s return, and listen to Christ.

Dan Lee
Deuteronomy 1-11, Remember and Obey

Moses speaks his final message to the children of Israel before heading up Mount Nebo and see the land of Canaan and die there. His aim is to expound the law but he is gripped by the urgency of the spiritual needs of his people and thus he earnestly exhorts them with a long introduction (nearly all of 11 chapters) to remember and obey. In this three part study of Deuteronomy, we examine the practical relevance of this exhortation and consider the ultimate Israelite who lived up to all that this exhortation required.

Dan Lee
Numbers 22-24, The Messianic Prophecies of ...

The very perplexing figure of Balaam shows that God can use even a wicked pagan priest to speak forth His truth. Unbeknownst to this man, the LORD intended to use him to reinforce His immutable commitment to bless Israel and send the Messiah for our salvation. Balaam’s prophecies show that Jesus is the coming king who will reign supremely over all the nations, crushing all His enemies. They also show that Jesus is the promised seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, who grants the blessing of salvation to all the elect of God.

Matthew 6:24-34, Do Not Worry

What hinders us from serving the Lord as we should? Jesus pins down the common cause of this compromise: worry. What enables disciples of Christ to serve God heartily and seek His kingdom and righteousness first is our heavenly Father’s infinite love and care for us, His own spiritual sons. Thus, Jesus encourages us to look at nature, know we are not pagans, and see tomorrow as God’s business, not ours, so that our hearts would be unshackled from the worries of the world and be free to serve our heavenly Father as we should.

Matthew 6:19-21, A Heart After Heaven

We are to live the Christian life with heaven in our hearts. We are to leverage all that the Lord has entrusted to us for eternity. We are to do so because our hearts follow our treasures. The Lord in this passage wises us up to the detriment and foolishness of storing up treasures on earth. He also prescribes for us the regimen for a healthy heart that invests toward eternity. May our hearts brim over with the joy and the wonder of heaven and our glorious God (the centerpiece of heaven), and may we, thus, earnestly use all He’s given us to bear much fruit for His name’s sake.

Matthew 6:1-18, True Spirituality

At the core of the Christian faith is a reconciled relationship with God. This means that for all who have truly received Jesus as Savior and Lord, there is a living relationship with God as their heavenly Father. Jesus addresses the hypocrisy of His day that revealed the tragic absence of this crucial core of Christian spirituality which the Jews of His day lacked. May the Holy Spirit keep us from the same hypocrisy and instead enable us to be a church of the children of God who know to connect with our heavenly Father in a true spiritual relationship with Him through Christ.

Matthew 5:33-37, Principles for Christian Integrity (Part 2)

Jesus sees Christian integrity as simple and plain. Let your statement be yes yes or no no. The reason why people find this simple approach to honest challenging and unrealistic is that they have lost sight of why we exist and for what purpose God provided redemption for His people. Moreover, Jesus also reveals to us the deep spiritual issue that exists in the matter of dishonesty. He speaks the truth to us so that we would be absolutely sure that we are fighting on the right side of the spiritual warfare and that we are indeed advancing the cause of the Lord, the God of truth, not the cause of Satan, the father of lies. May the Lord evermore grow us in Christian integrity as we learn from Him and His book what it means to be honest men and women of God.

Matthew 5:33-37, Principles for Christian Integrity

The LORD is the God of truth. In a world full of lies, we find the oasis of truth in our triune God who is Himself the truth. As His people, then, it is our privilege and duty to be truthful in all our ways, both in what we say and. how we keep our word. Our Good Shepherd guides us in this path of righteousness toward a lifestyle of honesty. In this part one of our study, we consider two of the four principles for Christian integrity: 1) give up the devices of deception, and 2) wake up to the presence of the Lord. May the Holy Spirit teach us and encourage us to live each day coram deo, in the presence of God.

Matthew 5:29-30, Battle Strategy For Sanctification (Part 2)

Jesus knows what sort of excuses we might make about dealing with the stumbling blocks in our lives. He silences us from saying “it’s too hard” and “it’s not worth it.” The Lord knows us and imparts to us the wisdom to properly and practically deal with the avenues of temptation and sin into our lives. May the Lord evermore grant to us the wisdom to believe His word and repent from sin as He calls us to. In addition to the need to accept the cost of sanctification, we also look at the other side of sanctification, to send the reinforcements of the word of God and the fellowship of God’s people.

Matthew 5:29-30, Battle Strategy For Sanctification (Part 1)

The Lord Jesus Christ who loves His people out of His great concern for their well-being gives a stern warning in this passage. Sin is perilous and we are to deal aggressively with the stumbling blocks in our lives. May the Holy Spirit Himself sanctify us as we seek to be holy as He is holy and strive to continue on in our fight against sin and unholiness.

Jeremiah 9:23-24, One Worthy Boast: the God of Righteousness

The LORD is the God of righteousness. While justice emphasized the LORD’s character applied to evildoers through judgment, His righteousness emphasizes the LORD’s character applied to His people through imputation. In this study, we trace the doctrine of justification as witnessed by Moses, Jeremiah, and Paul. What the LORD has done in the exercise of His righteousness is to make a massive moral deposit into His people’s account through Christ such that we are treated His friends and His beloved. The LORD is the glorious God who alone is worthy of our boast and affections. May the Holy Spirit teach us to invest our time, energy, and affections on what will glorify and honor Him and advance His good will on earth.