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Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray.

Far too often, we base our beliefs on what we FEEL the Bible (should) say, rather that what Jesus actually taught. The doctrine of Last-Things is a good example of this. Do you FEEL like the events you see today are fulfilling prophecy? If so, go find the verse, look at the context, think (learn) about what the original people who heard these words would have understood it to mean, think about who is saying (writing) it and what background they come from so as to inform what they meant. I dare say, most of the time, we allow others to lead us astray into reading the Bible in parallel with the newspaper and we miss the point of prophecy… Jesus is the One!

And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down… Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Jesus told His disciples the temple would be destroyed within a generation… 40 years later it was destroyed. Jesus said He would come back for His people, you can trust that He will. Be sure that includes you!

Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

God is not impressed with our money, He’s impressed with our heart. He doesn’t care how many dollars you give, He wants you to acknowledge that He is the owner of everything. We give him a 10% off the top to demonstrate that everything we have comes from Him and that we don’t rely on money to survive, we rely on Jesus. When you give, do so from a position of generosity, not obligation. Give with a cheerful heart, not begrudgingly. You’ll be blessed if you do!

Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.

The vineyard is the Kingdom of God. The workers of the vineyard are the leaders of Israel. God sent prophets to Israel, they killed them. He finally sent them His own Son, they killed Him too. Most Christians aren’t aware of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in AD70. I believe God used his disciples to replace the leadership of the temple system and that he used the Roman army to destroy their temple within a generation of Jesus’ death, just like He said He would. Always take God at His word. Listen to Him, He has a beautiful vineyard to share, but it’s His vineyard.