Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
November 23, 2025:  SOAP #5834: Matthew 14-16

SCRIPTURE:  Matthew (NIV) 15;32 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”
33 His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”

OBSERVATION:  It was not an illogical question.  The crowd was 4,000 plus women and children (verse 38).  What was available to feed the people was 7 loaves and a few small fishes (verse 34). 

But what had Jesus just done that could have produced faith in the disciples’ hearts that He could take care of a hungry crowd?  What about mute people now talking, crippled people now walking, and blind people seeing (verse 31)?

Could the One who healed the lame and the blind, could He also feed the hungry?   Maybe Jesus did not just have healing power, maybe He just had POWER!!   He has power and authority over all His creation!  

APPLICATION:  Have the things God has done in the past built faith in my heart for the present need?  Can the same God who healed me of a headache, can He also help me with a problem at work?  Can the same God who help me with money for rent, can He also help me with my relationship with my children?  

PRAYER:  Jesus, you are LORD over every part of my life.  You have power and authority over me and this world into which you have placed me.  Going where YOU tell me to go and doing what YOU tell me to do is my key to victory.  Help me not to run ahead of you nor to drag behind you, but to stay in step with you.  Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
November 21, 2025:  SOAP #5832: Matthew 11-13

SCRIPTURE:  Matthew (NIV) 13:31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”

OBSERVATION:  Our God is a Living God and life is a special part of His creation.  In the earth, one can see different forms of life wherever one looks.  (Personally, I cannot imagine that the God who created so much life on the earth, would create all the heavens with no life there.) 

So, growth and maturing are common parts of God’s living kingdom.  Things start small and grow as they mature.  The same is true of ministries.  The same is true of the SOAP ministry.  Like a mustard seed, it started small when I was 62 and for 15 years has grown far beyond my expectations.  I am so glad God gave me the grace to continue on past year 2, and year 10. 

APPLICATION:  God is at work in our families, our relationships, and our ministries.  Only God can see the future apples in the apple seed we plant.  And only God can see the future in our ministries.  We must remain faithful.  We cannot let discouragement hinder or block our slow progress.  We must keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of His work in our lives. 

PRAYER:  Lord, looking at you keeps me moving ahead in the path you have laid out for me.  When my vision is filled with you, I find encouragement to keep climbing.  When your presence fills my heart, I find joy even in the hard trials.  Your Holy Spirit imparts wisdom as I grow in you.  Amen                       

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
November 21, 2025:  SOAP #5832: Matthew 8-10

SCRIPTURE:  Matthew (NIV) 9:37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Matthew (NIV) 10:1 He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.…
7 As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

OBSERVATION:  If Jesus could see that the harvest was plentiful in His day, what is it today!!!  I believe it is harvest time.  I believe Jesus is about to return to this world.  I believe we are beginning to see an end-time ingathering of souls into the Kingdom!  

I have often read of believers who sacrificed their lives to take the gospel to spiritually dark places.  They had a vision for a church.  They had a love for people.  They were serving a Living Lord who had suffered and died for them and for the whole world.  Nothing was too great to give for Jesus, even their own lives.  Today the seed of their lives is growing and ready for harvest! 

APPLICATION:  Today in Sierra Leone, the regular SOAP Ministry Team has grown to over 300, and for a three-week crusade to take the SOAP to every city and village it now has about 1100 ready to move out!  The goal is 1500!   So many Muslims have accepted Jesus that one of their leaders in New York City started a “Go Fund Me” account to take a crusade (the end of December) to Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Liberia (and other places in Africa).   He wants to stop Muslims from turning to Christianity!  

PRAYER:  Lord, I pray for every SOAP reader to be stirred by the Holy Spirit to pray for Africa.  You are moving in a special way today.  You are re-writing the book of Acts.  Provide for the needs of paper and ink, transportation, food and water, etc.  Holy Spirit, continue to move, and increase Your activity throughout Africa and Asia.  Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
November 20, 2025:  SOAP #5831: Matthew 5-7

SCRIPTURE:  Matthew (NIV) 6:19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.   

OBSERVATION:  My heart is interested in the location of my treasure.  If I place my financial savings in the stock market, I will be paying attention to how the stock market increases or decreases.  My joy and my worry will rise and fall depending on that investment.  If I invest my treasures in a business, I will be concerned about how that business does.  If I put my finances to support a missionary, I will be interested in what I can read about the country to which that missionary goes.  I need to thoughtfully plan my investments!

APPLICATION:  If I do not plan my investments, my money just goes wherever my heart is at the moment.  Thoughtlessly my money follows my heart and many times is wasted.  But if I purposefully plan where to invest my treasures, I find that my heart follows my treasures.  This is especially true about the Kingdom of God.  My interest is activated because my treasure is there.  My joy increases as I see God’s kingdom advance.   Investment in God’s kingdom is one that always increases and can never be stolen or diminished by taxes!   

Earthly financial counselors help us invest with our final days in view, or with the lives of our descendants in view.  The Bible tells us to invest with eternity in view.  In heaven there will not be special groups of people discussing how well their earthly financial investments have worked out.  No, but there will be special meetings around the throne filled with hugs and tears of joy.  They will be with people that are there because of our investment in the Kingdom!   

PRAYER:  Heavenly Father, it is my desire to invest time, talent and treasure into Your kingdom understanding that the greater my investment, the greater will be my interest.  Your kingdom is a source of great joy for me!  Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
November 18, 2025:  SOAP #5829: Ps 124, 2Corinthians 11-13

SCRIPTURE:  2Corinthians (NIV)  11:30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

OBSERVATION:  In order to have people accept his ministry, Paul felt the need to defend himself from attackers. (verses 22-29)   He has just listed some of his accomplishments and some of the trials he had endured.  In reading between the lines, I believe Paul found this a difficult thing to do.  It was too much like bragging.   

When attention is drawn to areas where we are strong people give us praise.  We get the accolades, the “well-done”, the “Atta-boy.”  People appreciate and admire us. 

But when attention is drawn to our weaknesses, people can more readily understand that accomplishments in these areas had to be made with outside help.  We had to have a source of strength and wisdom outside ourselves to accomplish anything.  When people see the source of that strength and wisdom as Jesus, He gets the glory. 

APPLICATION:  Instead of trying to hide my weaknesses, I need to let others know they are there.  If they get anything good from my life, it is because Jesus lives inside and is at work through me. 

Unlike so many politicians of today, I am not trying to get people to elect me.  I am trying to convince people that Jesus is worthy to be “elected” as the Lord of their lives!  If He helps me in my weaknesses, He will do the same for them! 

PRAYER:  Lord, I know you are bigger than all my weaknesses and mistakes.  I have confidence that you can work through me for your glory and the good of others. Amen. 

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
November 17, 2025:  SOAP #5828: 2Corinthians 7-10

SCRIPTURE:  2Corinthians (NIV) 10:3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

OBSERVATION:  Often the toughest strongholds to overcome are the arguments and pretenses in the mind.   If not careful, a person can become a captive of thought processes that hurt them.  Their thoughts can control their feelings and then their actions.  Those thoughts must be taken “captive.” The mind becomes a battlefield. 

APPLICATION:  The biggest battle I will fight today will be in my mind.  I am not a mind, but I have a mind.  With God’s help, I must take control of my thoughts.  I cannot set myself to stop thinking about something, but I can set myself to start thinking about something else.  It seems to me that the way the mind works, I cannot stop thinking about something by trying to stop thinking about it.  I must start thinking about something else.  The strategy is “thought replacement.”  Replace thoughts about your big problem with thoughts about your big God!  The Bible never tells me how to feel but often tells me how to think.    I must choose my thoughts and then use my thoughts. 

Singing praise and worship songs is a good way to replace harmful thoughts with thoughts that will build you up.  As we build HIM up in our thoughts, He strengthens and builds us up!  

PRAYER:  Lord, today I choose to think about how great you are.  I choose to think about how you are more than able to help me…and you are also willing!  I am blest!  Amen. 

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
November 16, 2025:  SOAP #5827: 2Corinthians 3-6

SCRIPTURE:  2Corinthians (NIV) 5:4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

OBSERVATION:  What a joy to know that our sins are forgiven and that Jesus lives in our heart!  His Presence in our lives is wonderful.  His help and guidance in our everyday life helps us make sense of what is happening around us. 

BUT, there is so much more.  God did not create us to live forever on this earth.  God places His Spirit within us as a promise that more is coming!  The Spirit is God’s guarantee that something better is coming!!!  As much as we enjoy His Spirit with us here on earth, it does not compare with the joy we will experience as we leave our mortal bodies behind and enter the courts of heaven where we will dwell eternally with Him!

APPLICATION:  You may have accepted Jesus and received His forgiveness because you needed peace or joy or healing, or because you had a life controlling problem that you needed His help to beat.  BUT as great as what He has done for you, He has even more for you.  His purpose for you/me is not limited to our life here on earth!   By giving us His Spirit, He is preparing us for His grand purpose!  

PRAYER:  Lord, I pray you find me usable while I am here on earth.  May you be glorified in and through me.  And I know you have more in your plans for me than what you are doing with me now.  Prepare me for the time I will be with you in heaven.  Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
November 15, 2025:  SOAP #5826: Job 41, 42; 2Corinthians 1, 2

SCRIPTURE:  2Corinthians (NIV) 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia:

OBSERVATION: In his early life, Paul had a good understanding of what He would be doing with his life.  He had been prepared for religious leadership by studying under Gamaliel, a well-known Jewish scholar.  But as he saw himself keeping the Jewish religion clean from those who would later be called Christians. 

Paul was miraculously interrupted (Acts 9) and became a great apostle for Jesus!  He clearly knew that God had called and appointed him to carry the good news of Jesus to the world.   He was an apostle of Christ Jesus BY THE WILL OF GOD!   

APPLICATION: How good it is when we can say that what we are is by the will of God.  We should stay in whatever place and job we have when we come to Jesus.  He will use us there.  But when He speaks direction into our lives, we should move to be obedient.  It is not something that we choose and take on ourselves, but that to which we are called.  He gives us an assignment!  

When we are fulfilling that to which HE calls us, then we know that HE will provide for us and equipped us, and even more importantly, HE will be with us.  We are to do HIS will, and not our own. 

PRAYER:  Lord, for those of us who have children, we know your assignment is to be a parent.  We need your help.  In whatever area or situation in which we find ourselves, we need your help to be what you want us to be.  May our ears be keen to hear what you say to us.  May our hearts be willing to respond quickly.  May you be glorified in our lives!   Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
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