Dirty Diapers

A Series on Spiritual Turning Points
Moments in Time: Epochal
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Mark 1:1-15 

[God is always at work in our life – drawing us to him, helping us to become the person he created us to be and leading us to opportunities to serve him. In this series we will look at spiritual turning points in the lives of real people and the moments in time that it happened. Applying this to our own life, sometimes this happens suddenly, sometimes gradually, but always with purpose.]

 

Children… change… your… life! That’s a fact. When you start a family, nothing is the same. Your life is not your own. You’re rudely awakened at all hours of the night. You clean, or change, poopy diapers at the most inconvenient times.

 

As a new dad, I remember coming home from work one day really needing to use the only bathroom that we had in our house. But when I ran upstairs and lifted the toilet lid, to my dismay, there was a dirty diaper in it. So first, I had to clean the diaper which meant picking it up out of the “water”.

 

Having a baby is epochal. It’s the beginning of a new era of life. The Gospel of Mark is also epochal. The first verse of the first chapter makes a bold proclamation!

 

¹ The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.       NIV

 

Jesus was, and is, the King of Kings. His kingdom is not a physical one, but one of the Spirit. It can’t be seen. And John the Baptist, as prophesied in Isaiah and quoted by Mark in his Gospel, announced that the king would soon be arriving to claim his kingdom. 

 

^2b “Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
    and he will prepare your way.
³ He is a voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!
    Clear the road for him!’”           NLT

 

In order to “prepare the way for the Lord”, John called people to repent of their sins and be baptized. In fact, Jesus himself was baptized by John. And when he did, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus and a voice came from heaven saying, “You are my Son, whom I love.” This wasn’t just a baptism. It was the anointing of the king.

 

Following this, the Spirit sent Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for forty days. Jesus was being prepared to begin his kingdom under the crucible of severe temptation. And when he returned, he began by making a profound statement – a declaration really – worthy of a king.

 

¹⁵ “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”     NIV

 

Jesus’ declaration that “the kingdom of God has come”, was an epochal shift. From that time forward, redemption changed from the daily animal sacrifices of the Law of Moses to the human sacrifice of the Son of God – once and for all.

 

The Lord’s prayer that we still pray 2000 years after Jesus walked this earth, recognizes and embraces his kingdom.

 

"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

 

That kingdom is ours to continue. Let us do so purposefully as we pray his prayer and do his will to share the good news.

 

Copyright 2026 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

The Milestones of Life

A Lenten Series on the number 40!
Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Matthew 4:1–11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13 

[Historically, Lent is a 40‑day period of preparation leading up to Easter. It involves reflection, repentance and readiness for the resurrection. Ultimately, it leads us to transformation. The number 40 is significant in the Bible as it is associated with multiple stories of preparation and testing. In this Lenten series, we will be looking at various Biblical stories that revolve around the number 40, and how that applies to us.]

 

Turning 40 was a milestone for me! But it was also when I started noticing the inevitable decline of my body, such as needing bifocals. Needless to say, it was a difficult adjustment!

 

However, it was incomparable to the difficulties that Jesus faced while living in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights where he was tempted by the devil. Scripture tells us that he lived in the elements among the wild animals and fasted the whole time.

 

In reading about Jesus’ experience, two questions come to mind. First, why did the Holy Spirit lead him into the wilderness to be tempted and tested? It seems like it would have been better if Jesus had just started on his mission right away.

 

There could have been many reasons why it was important, if not necessary. Like the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, God may have wanted to make sure that his son Jesus would be obedient even under the worst conditions.

 

Considering that scripture tells us that the Lord disciplines those he loves, God may also have wanted to prepare Jesus for what he would endure. Not only for the cross, but for the temptations that he would experience before then.

 

Or maybe God wanted Jesus to be confident in his faith. Even Jesus needed affirmation. Just like when he was baptized God affirmed him by saying, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

 

One reason for sure, is that he did it for us. In Hebrews we read that he is able to “empathize with our weaknesses” and “has been tempted in every way, just as we are”. Because of this, he “is able to help those who are being tempted”.

 

¹⁶ Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.     NIV    Hebrews 4

 

My second question is, when responding to the devil’s temptations, why do you think Jesus quoted verses only from Deuteronomy? I’m pretty sure he knew more Scripture than that.

 

It makes me think that Jesus might have been meditating on it while he was in the wilderness. After all, the historical setting of Deuteronomy is that Moses was preparing the Israelites to cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land.

 

In a way, this parallels Jesus’ situation. Maybe God was preparing Jesus to begin his ministry to bring the Kingdom of God. Not a geo-political kingdom like the Promised Land of Canaan, but a spiritual Promised Land.

 

¹⁵ “The time has come,” Jesus said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”     NIV    Mark 1

 

We all reach milestones in our life. Jesus reached a milestone when he spent 40 days and nights being tempted in the wilderness. More importantly though, he reached a milestone of being obedient to his heavenly Father – even unto death.

 

And by reaching that milestone, he made it possible for us to reach our own. That is, embracing the Kingdom of God.

 

Copyright 2026 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

Within You

A series on Isaiah 9:6 – The Child of Prophecy
 – King of Kings
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Daniel 2:24-49 

[Jesus was a child of prophecy. The Christmas story in the Bible was predicted in many Old Testament prophecies but the centerpiece of these is Isaiah 9:6. It was written nearly six hundred years before Jesus’ birth. In this series we’re going to look at the meaning and implications of this amazing prophecy.]

  

In 1961 a movie titled “King of Kings” was released. It was an epic production about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. 

The person of Jesus came alive on the screen showing “the power, the passion, the greatness and the glory” of the King of kings. But there were many great and powerful kings before Jesus.

 

King Nebuchadnezzar was the second king of the Babylonian Empire. Early in his reign he had dreams that disturbed him so much that he was unable to sleep. His magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers couldn’t tell him what he had dreamed, let alone its interpretation. The king became furious and ordered the execution of the wise men which included Daniel, a Jewish exile in Babylon.

 

But the Lord revealed both the dreams and the interpretation of them to Daniel. Once he learned this, he went before Nebuchadnezzar and told him that his dreams were about the future. He explained that no man could do what the king was asking, but that the God in heaven had revealed it to him.

 

Daniel described what the king had seen in his dreams as an enormous statue of a man that was awe inspiring. Its head was gold, its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs were bronze, its legs were iron, and its feet were iron and clay.

 

Continuing, Daniel related that the king had also seen in his dreams a rock that was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands. And the rock smashed the statue to pieces which were then blown away like dust in the wind. Following this, the rock became a great mountain that filled the whole earth.

 

After describing the king’s dreams, Daniel interpreted them. The statue represented four successive kingdoms. The head of gold was Nebuchadnezzar. But after his kingdom comes to an end another kingdom will take his place, then a third and finally a fourth kingdom. Each kingdom will replace the one before it.

 

Finally, Daniel explained what the rock represented. The one that was cut from the mountain and had crushed the statue.

 

⁴⁴ “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever.           NLT

 

For centuries, the Jews had been expecting a Messiah who would fulfill this prophecy of the rock by building a political kingdom. As Isaiah 9:6 states, “The government will rest on His shoulders”. But that wasn’t what Jesus did. Instead, he came to build an eternal kingdom… the Kingdom of God.

 

In Luke 17 we read that on one occasion the Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. Here is his answer.

 

^20b Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs. ²¹ You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.”   NIV

 

In this verse the Living Bible translates “among you” as “within you”. Think about that for a minute. This means that as a believer in Christ that the King of king’s lives within you wherever you go and whatever you do. Paul put it like this.

 

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.      NIV

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

Cross My Heart and Hope to Die

A Series on New Testament Stories
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
John 3:1-21 

[The Bible is mostly made up of stories. Stories about people’s lives, the struggles they faced and their faith, or lack of it. In this series we will be looking at some of those people in the Gospel of John. We’ll try to learn from their stories about who God is, how he worked in their life and how that applies to us today.]

  

When I was a kid growing up, there was a saying that we would use when we really wanted to confirm our credibility. If we really wanted someone to believe what we said, we’d follow it up with, “Cross my heart and hope to die”. 

 

In Jesus’ day there was a similar phrase that was used to announce that an important truth was following, and that the listener should pay close attention. In the King James it is translated, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee”.

 

Today’s story is about a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, who happened to be a Pharisee and a member of the ruling council. Which is to say, that he was a part of the religious establishment who Jesus would often confront.

 

The first thing Nicodemus said was to concede that God was with Jesus. But from then on, Jesus ran with the ball… so to speak.

 

Three times Jesus prefaced what he said to Nicodemus with “Verily, verily”. And all three times Nicodemus didn’t get it. Basically, Jesus was trying to tell him how to find the kingdom of God.

 

On the third try, Jesus made a reference to the Israelites who had wandered in the wilderness following their escape from Egypt. At the time, they bitterly complained to Moses about the conditions of life… mostly the food.

 

Because of their sin, God sent venomous snakes into the camp. When an Israelite was bitten by one, they died. Seeing this, the others repented. So, God had Moses fashion a bronze snake on a pole, and if people looked at the snake, they lived.  

 

From the context of our culture, this is a pretty bizarre story. But, it was one that Nicodemus would have been familiar with and could relate to. Here’s how Jesus made the connection.

 

¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.                        NLT

 

Jesus often referred to himself as the Son of Man. So, he was telling Nicodemus that in order to enter the kingdom of God, all he had to do was look to Jesus. He then expounded on this truth with his now “football famous” words.

 

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.        NIV

 

Nicodemus’ story is as old as time, but as relevant as today. Who is this man Jesus that identified himself as both the Son of Man and the Son of God? No doubt Nicodemus was looking for the answer to that very question. However, the answer is not just for Nicodemus, but it’s for you and me also.

 

That’s the truth! Cross my heart and hope to die.

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams

 

 

 

 

 

The Taste That’s Worth the Wait

A Series on the Milestones in Jesus’ Life

Mt 21:1-11

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2021%3A1-11&version=NIV;NLT

 

In the 1979 classic Heinz Ketchup commercial, two little boys complain about how slow the Ketchup comes out of the bottle onto their hamburger. As it does, the Carly Simon song, “Anticipation”, plays in the background. The final tag line is, “The taste that’s worth the wait”. (A link for the commercial is at the bottom of the page.)

 

Up until now, Jesus had always been reticent about proclaiming who he was; even to the point of telling others not to say anything about a miracle he performed, or being recognized as the Messiah. It wasn’t a matter of humility, but of timing. It hadn’t been the right time for him to claim his rightful place as the Son of David… until now. It was a milestone.

 

⁹ Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
    Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
    righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.              Zechariah 9 NIV

 

By riding the donkey into Jerusalem, Jesus not only fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah, but also made a powerful statement! He was claiming to be the king who would fulfill the promise of David’s reign! This only served to increase the anticipation of his arrival.

 

Other events leading up to Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem included raising Lazarus from the dead; the Pharisees planning to kill Jesus and Lazarus; Jesus and his disciples laying low in the countryside; and large crowds of Jews gathering in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. It was a chaotic time; and the anticipation was palpable.

 

Think of this Palm Sunday story as a metaphor. Jerusalem represents your life. Just like Jesus brought the Kingdom of God into Jerusalem, he brings the Kingdom of God into your life, every day.

 

He’s the Son of God, and can change your life. He can also use you to make a difference in the lives of others. Will Jesus ride into your life today as king? What are you anticipating for him to do?

 

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoLoyg3JKRQ

 

 

 

 

Extra! Extra!

The Life of Jesus Series

How Jesus interacted with others.

John 3:1-21

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%203%3A1-21&version=NIV;ESV

  

"In the early days of newspapers, when something big happened, the publisher would not only publish the normal daily paper, but would also publish an “Extra”.

 

 

 

The newspapers were sold on the street, often by newsboys, who had a stack of papers and would sell them to walkers-by. When an Extra came out, they would chant "Extra! Extra! Read all about it!" to call attention to the fact that something big has happened, and an Extra paper has been published".      From reddit.com

 

That’s basically what’s happening in this interchange between Jesus and Nicodemus. Jesus emphatically states three times; “Truly, truly I tell you”; which in ancient times meant, “Extra! Extra! I have something really important to say to you!” It was a way of interrupting Nicodemus’ life and getting his attention.

 

³ Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again (born from above) he cannot see the kingdom of God.”       ESV

 

⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.           ESV

 

¹¹ Truly, truly, I say to you… ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.      ESV

 

Jesus is straight out telling Nicodemus that he is the Son of Man; that he is the way to not only see the kingdom of God, but to enter it. Jesus stepped into the life of Nicodemus, and changed him forever. In the same way, Jesus can step into your life and into mine changing us forever.

 

Emmanuel means God with us. Two thousand years ago God stepped into the world we live in through the person of Jesus Christ. Not only did he step into it, but he interrupted the natural order of things. It was more than an Extra edition of the paper. It was an “Extra! Extra!” of life-changing proportions.

 

Your life has been interrupted. Will you listen to the head lines?

 

 

 

Dear Joe: Carry on the Work

1 Timothy 6:11-20

 

What if Paul was to write a letter to you to carry on your Christian service? What would he say? Would he tell you to take care of your relationship with Christ? Would he say to fight the good fight? Would he tell you to reach out to those who have been entrusted to your care? Would he say to share the Gospel openly?

 

When Paul left Ephesus he put Timothy in charge of leading the church. That would not have been an easy task. You could compare it to being the head coach at Ohio State following Woody Hayes. Timothy was following in the footsteps of a legend. Yet, Paul believed in Timothy’s ability to lead others. But first things first.

 

With Paul’s final charge to Timothy, he instructs him to first take care of his own relationship with Jesus. Paul writes:

 

“Flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith.”

 

I’m an alum of Michigan State and a big basketball fan. Last weekend was the Big Ten Tournament and Tom Izzo had his team in the thick of it. Following their first game against Ohio State, Thad Matta made the statement that that game was the most physical game he had ever seen in his ten years in the Big Ten.

 

Following Jesus can be just like that. It’s a war with eternal consequences where you must “fight the good fight of the faith” - or lose. You fight it for yourself, and for others.

 

In todays passage Paul addresses a specific issue that some of the believers were struggling with – money. Apparently, money had become a stumbling block, or even an idol for some. Paul instructs Timothy to, “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life”.

 

That’s the deal with idols; they are not “truly life”. They’re a lie. They present themselves as bringing life, as providing all that you need, as making life worth living. But they can’t; because they are not God.

 

Jesus didn’t write letters that we know of, but if he did, what would he say to you right now? Dear Joe: Flee from evil. Pursue righteousness and godliness. Resist idols. Help others to do the same. Your Brother, Lord and Savior, Jesus.