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Summer Reruns: Real Religion, Part 2

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Yesterday, we took a look at an old post from James that has our Lord’s half-brother describing what real, good, God-honoring religion should look like. What that first part of this two-part reflection established is that even people who profess to have no religion at all are a whole lot more religious than they think. This second part has us diving further into what James describes as the right kind of religion. The bottom line is this: real religion should accomplish kingdom good. If it’s not, then it’s bad religion. And there are few things worse than bad religion. Let’s take a closer look together at just what makes the kind of religion that is worth having.

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Woman sitting on couch looking frustrated at distorted TV screen showing a sports game with signal interference

Summer Reruns: Real Religion

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It never fails. Anytime a movie or TV series presents religious people these days, they are always the bad guys. Always. And, the more religious someone is in the script, the worse of a bad guy they are. The only solution here – as far as our culture sees it – is to become less religious. Well, while bad religion and people who claim religion but don’t actually live up to their religion’s moral expectations are certainly a problem, religion itself isn’t necessarily the problem. The antidote for bad religion is not less religion, but good religion. James here tells about a couple of things that make religion good religion. Let’s take a look.

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Four scenes showing the Last Supper, Jesus entering Jerusalem, carrying the cross, and crucifixion.

Summer Reruns: A Fresh Look at Generosity

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Jesus’ final week on earth before going to the cross was busy. He was in the temple almost every day teaching and preaching and engaging with the Jewish religious authorities who were trying desperately to undermine Him in any way they could. Amid all of this commotion, though, Jesus found a few quiet moments to just sit in the temple complex with His disciples, observing the passing scene. As He looked across the great courtyard, He saw worshipers pouring their offerings in the treasury box. The metal box with a trumpet-shaped opening made sure that the most obviously generous patrons of the temple were noticed and celebrated by everyone within earshot. What caught Jesus’ eye in that moment was not the large gifts of the wealthy, but the apparently insignificant gift of a poor, old widow. His comments to His disciples about the woman gave us a totally new way of understanding how God looks at generosity. They reframed what matters most when it comes to our giving. Let’s take a look at this story from Mark’s Gospel in a post from this date in 2021.

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Summer Reruns: Giving God Our Best

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We’re into the very heart of summer. It’s hot. Way too hot in fact. And although the next month is going to be intentionally low key at my church, the reason for that is to allow time for families to vacation and rest and refresh…including my own. All this month I am going to be featuring some old posts during the week. Sermons from Sunday will go up on Mondays like always, but otherwise we are going to look back over some things I’ve written in the past. And, with closing on nine years’ worth of posts to pull from, there’s quite a selection ahead of us. Each post during this season will be one that ran on the current date in a previous year. So, take a fresh look with me at what was on my mind right near the beginning of the Covid lockdowns. Have a great Tuesday!

Digging in Deeper: Malachi 1:12-13

Growth in Secret Places

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This week we are moving forward in our series, A Kingdom Vision, walking through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We have finished Matthew 5, and it’s time to move forward into Matthew 6. Jesus opens this next part of the sermon by talking about three different spiritual practices. He gives lot of practical advice in terms of how to pursue them in ways that will be the most lastingly beneficial to us, but it’s the bigger picture that we simply must not ignore. And the big picture is this: the reason we pursue these disciplines matters. A lot. Let’s talk about it.

Growth in Secret Places

I love weeks like we had last week. I love hearing about camp and all that the youth and kids experienced and that God accomplished during those weeks. I have thoroughly enjoyed all the years I have chaperoned as well. I think the reason I love church camp so much is that a church camp was the source of my first real job out of high school, my wife, all three of my boys, and my call into ministry. How could I not be grateful for camp? And, yes, you heard that right: my marriage is a product of a camp romance. 

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