Woman voting at a polling booth with multiple negative campaign signs

Summer Reruns: Thinking About Government Properly

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This will be the last post for this week as well as our final summer rerun before getting back to our journey through Proverbs next Tuesday, so let’s take a bit deeper of a dive for a Wednesday than we normally do. Today’s rerun is a sermon from a couple of years ago. This one falls toward the middle of a series called Who Do You Want to Be? Inspired by a question Peter asked late in his second letter, the series invited us to consider the kind of people we want to be in light of the fact that this world won’t last forever. This third part of the series took a look at the question of our relationship with the government as followers of Jesus. I wrote this message in the waning months leading up to a deeply divided, heavily partisan election season…and look where we are once again two years later. The message is still timely. Also, this happens to be Mark’s version of the passage in Matthew’s Gospel that we are going to be talking about in one week when our Wednesday night Bible study time returns. All in all, this felt like a worthwhile post to look at with fresh eyes today. Enjoy!

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Terraced olive grove on hillside with person harvesting olives near a coastal village

Summer Reruns: Humble and Intentional Faith

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I had somebody ask me the other day if I had ever gone back to read an old post or sermon and found that I had written something in the past that I no longer agree with or believe. I was happily able to assure him that this wasn’t the case. I haven’t read anywhere in the universe of every post I’ve ever written to be sure, but my thinking on a number of issues has remained pretty stable over the past decade. I say that because here is a post from way back near the very beginning of the blog reflecting on a passage that I wrote about not too long ago on our journey through Romans. While I bring out some different angles on the passage here than I explored more recently, I still heartily endorse everything I wrote back then. Let take a trip down memory lane today and reflect on the humility and the intentionality the Christian faith requires.

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Man writing notes at desk in home library surrounded by books

Summer Reruns: Being Different and Starting Fresh

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This will be another short week of blogging as we are sneaking one last trip in this summer before hitting the ground running in August. We’ll get back to our journey through Proverbs then as well. Today is a little different from our other summer reruns because I’m including two posts today. The first is a sermon I posted on this day about four weeks after we started meeting together in person again after the initial Covid shutdowns. We worked through the story of the church in Acts those first few weeks. The second post I should have shared a couple of days ago on Saturday, but I don’t blog on Saturdays, so you get it today. This one was actually the first post I ever wrote. That’s right, Saturday was the ninth anniversary of my starting this blog. It was also my first official non-Sunday day on the job here at First Baptist Oakboro. The post looks pretty rudimentary compared to posts now, but again, it was the first one I had done. I didn’t have any idea what I was doing. I didn’t have any idea I would still be writing nearly a decade later. Yet here we are. You never know what kind of a journey God will take you on. With almost 2400 posts and views from 217 different nations and territories under my belt, I can’t wait to see what comes next. Have a great start to your week!

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Family using telescope outside cabin at night under star-filled sky

Summer Reruns: Reflections on Camp

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A couple of years ago, we made the intentional decision to make the month of June really busy at my church. Okay, so that wasn’t our primary goal. Rather, we sought to make the month of July really quiet by cancelling basically everything except a handful of necessary meetings and our normal Sunday morning activities. The goal was to create time for everyone to vacation and rest and recuperate from a busy year before we got another one started in August with the start of school. In order to do that, we have to schedule all of our camps and Vacation Bible School in June. So, June is really busy. But four years ago this week, I was at camp as a chaperone. It was the first time I had been in quite a while, and it was a blast. This morning let’s take a look back at some reflections on the week and the wonder of the world God has created us to enjoy.

Morning Musing: Jeremiah 32:17
Toddler sitting with arms crossed in timeout while parent watches with hand on forehead

Summer Reruns: When Happiness Isn’t Enough

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In this post from 2020, a reflection on parenting proves to be an invitation to a broader reflection on God’s commitment to seeing us become more fully who He made us to be. The challenge here is that He made us to be perfect reflections of His holiness and righteousness. Perhaps you have noticed, but we are not a particularly holy or righteous people on our own. Getting us to that point takes some work on His part. It is work He is willing to do, but it is work that we are not likely to enjoy, especially if we are very committed to the sin currently standing in the way of our reaching that point. Our happiness isn’t God’s goal. Our holiness is. Let’s look back together today to see some of what this means for us.

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