Blog posts by Joseph Thiessen

This is the first sermon I've posted from my church. It's been a couple of days since I heard it, so I won't do a full recap here.  Being raised in the church, and perhaps more so in the non-denominational charismatic, Rhema-type churches, verses 22-23 of Mark 11 has been co-opted to mean something altogether different than what I heard in this sermon. Mark 11:22-23 (ESV) And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ​‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Additionally, the verses in this sermon helped me to understand why Jesus cursed the fig tree, why he cleansed the temple, and that selling things in the temple was a provision set forth in the Torah. Being this cleared up so much confusion around these verses, I wanted to place this here in hopes that it will help you. The reading of scripture begins at 16:30 ...

But [Jesus] said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.” Being a man having 47, XXY, I have encountered a number of temptations to believe I was less than masculine. While I didn't know about my genetic disorder until after I turned 40, something about my body invited me to think of myself in this way. My goal in writing this isn't to invite answers to where these thoughts came from, rather, I hope to bring to light that a special grace from our Creator is present to help us. While our experience of life is slightly different than other men (in our bodies, in our minds), God has made special provisions for us in scripture, letting us know that we are esteemed in His eyes. Not so that ...