Seeing What’s True

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Yesterday was Resurrection Sunday! I hope you were able to celebrate with joy and gladness with fellow brothers and sisters in the church. I hope you were able to give some time to reflecting on the incredible news that Jesus is alive. In this second-to-last part of our series, we are talking about the topic du jour. When Jesus’ followers started learning of the incredible news of His resurrection, they were slow to believe it. It took Jesus’ helping them to finally see them come around to it. The same is true of us today. Let’s explore how together as we talk about seeing what’s true.

Seeing What’s True

Did you ever have one of those Magic Eye books when you were a kid? We only ever had one, but I remember looking through it all the time. Could you ever actually see what was hidden in those strange images? For the longest time, I never could. I would look from every angle and try every trick, I’d try every strategy that was supposed to work, but nothing ever made a difference. Then I finally learned the secret that started working for me pretty consistently. You have to cross your eyes and slowly uncross them. Once I learned that, I was good to go. 

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Wooden cross on a rocky cliff during a lightning storm over rough ocean waters.

Good Friday 2026

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Today is Good Friday. It’s the day we remember with joy and gladness the greatest injustice ever perpetrated by humans. Why would such a thing prompt joy and gladness in us? Because that gross injustice was the death of the God the Son, and by His sacrificial death, our sins were covered, making possible a right relationship with God. This is a day to reflect on our sin with repentant hearts. It is a day to reflect with soberness on the seriousness of sin and the lengths our God went to remove it as an obstacle to our being with Him. At my church we always have a special service on Good Friday, and this year will be no different. Here’s part of what I will say to the group tonight. Blessings on your day.

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Glistening futuristic city with tall spires floating in clouds above a planet's surface.

Morning Musing: Philippians 3:20-21

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“Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Believers and unbelievers are not the same. Yes, we are all still people. We are equally created in the image of God and are both inestimably valuable because of that. Jesus died for both groups. God loves us the same. But the former group have been transformed by the grace of God into citizens of heaven while the latter are still in the flesh and denizens of this world. Their trajectories are not the same, nor are their ends. Having talked about the latter yesterday, let’s join Paul today as he reflects a bit about the former.

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Silhouette of a man kneeling in prayer on a hilltop during a vibrant sunset.

Morning Musing: Philippians 3:18-19

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“For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Paul’s was really passionate about leading people to Jesus. He was convinced beyond measure of the truthfulness of the Gospel, of the reasonableness of the Christian worldview. He vividly remembered the other side, and intimately understood the contrast between the two. He didn’t want anyone to be stuck living forever like he once was and was willing to go through just about anything to keep them from that so far as it depended on him. But he was also honest about the fact that not everyone was going to come around. The us-and-them divide was real. In the next few verses he contrasts one with the other. Let’s take a look starting with the latter.

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Group of hikers walking on a trail toward the rising sun in a valley.

Morning Musing: Philippians 3:17

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“Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Who is your model? Who is the person whose life yours is most lived in imitation of? A parent? A grandparent? A friend? Some celebrity? Here’s a better question: are your efforts at imitation intentional or unconscious? Everybody has somebody whose life is the pattern they are seeking to match whether they realize it or not. If you don’t know who your person is, that means you are doing it unconsciously which means it may be a person you don’t want to be modeling. Here’s one more question: who is using your life as a model? Paul offers us an example here that is worth considering. Let’s do that.

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