Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
September 26, 2026: SOAP #6140: Ezra 4; Psalm 113, 127; Luke 9

SCRIPTURE:  Luke (NIV) 9:51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him;

OBSERVATION:  Jesus knew what lie ahead for him.  It was getting close to the time He would return to His Father in heaven…but before being taken back into heaven, he must be lifted up on the cross!  Dying for the sins of man was not a pleasant thought.  Sin was terrible!  The payment for sin would be anguish, pain, darkness, and solitude.  Even His Father would forsake him! 

Jesus was “resolute;”  He did not give His will the choice—there was to be no opportunity for his emotions to change his direction.  He was sinless; he was full of the Holy Spirit, but he was present as a man.  He had to bear the sins and the cross as a man.  He had to face the final temptation of escaping death…so he set His mind; He was resolute! 

As a man, the first man, Adam had sinned.  Now a new race of being created.  The last “Adam” had overcome every temptation and was dying as the payment for all who would receive.  The “last Adam” was also a “second man!”  He is now the first in a new race of people, those who have been born again and He now lives His life through them!   (1Corinthians 15:45-49)

APPLICATION: I am so thankful for the joy of the Lord’s presence in my life.  But there are times when I do not feel His presence, and then I must have my heart and mind set on loving, and following, and serving Him.  No matter how I feel, I AM CONFIDENT THAT HE IS WORTHY OF MY DEVOTION! 

PRAYER:  Lord, may I walk with your mind-set ruling my thoughts.  Holy Spirit, help me also to be steadfast and resolute in my commitment to Jesus.  Amen

Pastor Leon
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
September 24, 2026: SOAP #6138: Ezra 1; Psalm 84-85; Luke 7

SCRIPTURE:  Psalm 85:10 Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.

OBSERVATION:  What wisdom can bring “love and faithfulness together?”  How can “righteousness and peace kiss each other?”  Divine wisdom knew a way in which holiness would not be compromised nor love left unfulfilled.

Indeed, in the wisdom of God, His love is magnified. It is defined in the clearest and most easily understood terms!  Just how loving is this God?  Look at the answer to this dilemma!

Indeed, in the wisdom of God, His holiness is magnified!  How far will God go to remain eternally holy?  Just how holy is our God?  Look at the answer to this dilemma!

The answer is the cross!  In the cross the holiness of God is satisfied as the sinless blood of God’s only begotten Son is shed to pay for our sins!   What Holiness!  What a payment!  There was no special deal for Jesus, even though He was God, the sinless Son!   He had to pay the full price for our sin.  The wages of sin is death!

In the cross the love of God is satisfied as men who were lost in their sin can boldly approach the throne of God in worship, covered by the precious blood of God’s Son!  Their lives, now clean through the blood of Jesus become dwelling places for the Holy Spirit!

In the humble humanity of God, walking dusty roads, experiencing hunger and weariness, love and faithfulness met. And in the bloody, sweaty, suffering of the cross, righteousness and peace kissed each other!

APPLICATION: This was for me!  God did this for me!  It is hard to believe, but it is true!   It is amazing!

PRAYER:  “How can I say thanks for the things you have done for me?  Things, so undeserved, yet you did to show your love for me…To God be the glory.” (Andre Crouch) Amen. 

Pastor Leon
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
September 23, 2026: SOAP #6137: Daniel 11-12; Luke 6

SCRIPTURE:  Luke 6:35 [Jesus speaking] “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

OBSERVATION:  What an amazing truth is dropped here at the end of this verse: “…because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”  We know that is true, but seldom contemplate it or even try to emulate it. God is kind to the ungrateful!  Isn’t He though!   He is kind to the wicked, even to the point of offering his forgiveness.  What a merciful God! 

Then He adds in verse 36: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”  God wants me to be like Him! 

APPLICATION: “But that is impossible,” you say.  …and you are right.  God knows that we cannot be as merciful as He is…so He sent His Son, Jesus, to die in payment for our sins.  But being forgiven does not make me merciful.  So He sent the Holy Spirit to live the Christ-life in me.  He is the expert because he lived in Jesus while Jesus was living where I now live. 

So, the same Spirit that was living and ministering through Jesus, now lives in us!  Now Jesus is living in us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit!   As I learn to surrender my heart and my thoughts to Him, He lives His merciful life in and through me…His loving life, His forgiving life, His kind live, His giving life,…etc.    

PRAYER:  Holy Spirit, as you live in me, help me to see things like Jesus does.  Help me, like Jesus, to be kind and loving, forgiving and merciful to those around me. When people get to know me, may they be drawn to Jesus.  Amen

Pastor Leon
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
September 22, 2026: SOAP #6136: Daniel 9-10; Psalm 123; Luke 5     

SCRIPTURE:  Luke (NIV) 5:36 He [Jesus] told them this parable:
“No-one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.
37 And no-one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no-one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better.”

OBSERVATION:  When Jesus told parables or stories, they were always true to life.  He did not make up unreal or fictionalized characters.  People could easily identify with His teachings.  The characters in His stories were just like them.  They did the same things His hearers did. 

In the above parable, I believe Jesus was telling them that His church would be quite different from the Jewish religion.  Yes, Christianity clearly comes from the Jewish religion, but it is very different.  The Jews are still looking forward to their Messiah while Christians believe the Messiah has already come, and JESUS is His name!  

APPLICATION: In applying this passage to the church today, I see that there are many different wineskins today.  There are different groups of churches, and different cultural differences in worshipping God today.  Some worship in large gatherings and some in small meetings.  But each wineskin must contain the LIFE OF JESUS!  The purpose of the wineskin is to promote and protect the LIFE OF JESUS in the worshippers.  The form, structure, shape of the wineskin is not an important issue…it is the New Wine, the Life of Jesus!   

PRAYER:  Lord, today you are worshipped in large gatherings and in individual families having devotions together at night.  You are worshipped every day of the week.  Holy Spirit, help us to keep our focus on Jesus!  Amen

Pastor Leon
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
September 21, 2026: SOAP #6135: Daniel 7-8; Psalm 137; Luke 4

SCRIPTURE:  Luke 4: 1 ¶ Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert,
2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry…..
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.

OBSERVATION:  The important role of the Holy Spirit continues in chapter four. Jesus had been filled with the Holy Spirit at His baptism in Jordan by John.  Now he returned from the temptation in the wilderness “full” of the Holy Spirit.  There a fresh, new, empowering relationship with the Holy Spirit as Jesus steps out into the ministry for which He was sent.

He was filled with the Holy Spirit when He was baptized, but preparation was still lacking.  There needed to be an encounter with the one who tempted Eve in the garden.  This Sinless Man would have to demonstrate His power to resist the evil one.  NOTE: it was not the devil who trapped Jesus in the wilderness, but the Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness.

The timing was right.  The anointing was present.  The battle was engaged.  Jesus won!      

APPLICATION: I will never walk in the power of the Spirit until I am willing to be led into the wilderness by the Spirit.  If I would be used by God to overcome the devil’s attack on others, I must allow the Holy Spirit to use the Word of God to overcome the devil’s attack against me. 

PRAYER:  Lord, help me not to shrink back from the times you lead me to places where the enemy attacks me, but help me to walk in faith and apply the Word of God to my situation and then I will walk in victory.   Amen. 

Pastor Leon
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
September 20, 2026: SOAP #6134: Daniel 5-6; Psalm 130; Luke 3

SCRIPTURE:  Luke 3:1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, 2 Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

OBSERVATION:  I like to read about God speaking to specific people at specific times.  I like to read about historical people that were present in the world at the specific time God spoke.  God is not separate from history; but He wraps himself within the context of human existence.  The Bible is not about people and places no one has ever seen or known.  In the Bible we read of God being involved in the daily lives of real historical people. 

APPLICATION: Even unto today, the eternal God has not changed.  He is still wrapping himself in the history that is being written today! 

Each of us have a testimony of how God has involved himself in our lives.  What a change He made when He invaded our time and space!  He did what no other could do.  He proved himself to us. 

I can tell my son and granddaughter of the specific times and places God has spoken to me.   My history is a story of God being involved in my daily life.  God is wrapped in my history.             

PRAYER:  Lord, as this day moves into history may I look back and see that you have wrapped yourself in all the events of today!  You were leading me yesterday in preparation for today and tomorrow I will discover that you are leading me today in preparation for tomorrow!  Amen.   

Pastor Leon
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
September 17, 2026: SOAP #6131: Ezekiel 42-44; Revelation 22

SCRIPTURE:  Revelation (NIV) 22:17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever W

OBSERVATION:  Here in the final verses of the book of Revelation, the final verses of the New Testament, the final verses of the Bible, we find the Holy Spirit.  The same One present in Genesis 1:2 is here in Revelation 22:17.

One of the first things we learned about God from Genesis was that His speaks!  One of the last things we see about God in the book of Revelation is that He speaks! 

There we saw The Speaker, speaking the world into existence.  Here we see The Speaker continuing to speak.  Through the Spirit and the bride (the church) an invitation from God is extended to join in the fulfillment of the purposes of creation.  God’s plan in creation is fulfilled in the acceptance of this invitation.      

APPLICATION: What good would it be for God to speak if there was no one to hear?  I want to be one who hears His invitations, His directions, His commands, His words of love, etc.    

PRAYER:  Lord, I have heard and accepted your gracious invitation spoken into my heart by your Holy Spirit.  I have asked that your death on the cross be the payment for my sins.  I confess that you are my Lord.  I will enter heaven only by your grace and your work which paid for my sin.  All my works are just poor, unworthy expressions of thanksgiving for what you have done for me.  I am looking forward to spending eternity with you, gazing on your beauty, getting to know you better, and finding fulfillment in your eternal plan.  Your words have stirred my heart many times in my lifetime here on earth; what will it be to hear you speak in heaven!  Amen. 

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
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