Month: July 2017

Digging in Deeper: Romans 9:14-21

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“What shall we say them?  Is there injustice on God’s part?  By no means!  For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’  So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.  For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’  So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.  You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault?  For who can resist his will?’  But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?  Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’  Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?”  (ESV)

This is tough stuff for modern ears.  After explaining that the designation “Israel” was always intended to be one about God’s choosing folks to be a part of His promise to bless the world rather than simply a genetic line, Paul anticipates a challenge: It’s unjust of God to choose some and not others; to invest all this time in our descendants and then open the doors to just anybody.  Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Romans 9:13

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“As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'”  (ESV)

This verse has given interpreters and readers a lot of trouble over the centuries.  The biggest reason for this is that somewhere along the line the basic understanding of the ideas of love and hate changed to be in line with how we think about them today.  We most often think of love and hate as emotions.  In the Scriptures, though, they are both decisions of the will that have less to do with how someone is feeling about the object of the decision than about their intentions toward them.  More specifically, to love someone throughout the Scriptures is to choose them.  To hate someone is to not choose them.  The reasons for these choices may be many, but it is choice, not emotion, that is the basic idea.  Read the rest…

Here We Are…Now What?

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This past Sunday was my first sermon at FBC Oakboro.  We talked about the church and how it was designed to work from the beginning.  Here’s the audio and the transcript.

This day has been a long time coming, hasn’t it?  But I am glad it is finally here.  When Robbie first reached out to us by email over six months ago, while Lisa and I were prepared to go where and when God called us, moving honestly wasn’t something that really was on our radar.  We had been at Central for nearly nine years and had seen the church community there really hit its stride over the past 2-3 years.  The community was seeing sweet fruit coming to bear from the work we had done together and leaving just wasn’t something we were chomping at the bit to do.  And yet we felt drawn to say, “Yeah, sure; let’s have a conversation,” because who knows what God had planned. Read the rest…

New Beginnings

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When new beginning abound, adventures are sure to be found.

FBCO

This is a season of new beginnings for us.  About a month ago we said goodbye to the church family with whom we had served, grown, learned, and love for nearly nine years, propelled by God’s call to follow Him into the unknown.  We did so with heavy hearts, but also with a great deal of excitement.  God’s clear pattern throughout the Scriptures is that when He calls someone to follow Him into the unknown, while it may be scary and certainly isn’t always easy, the outcome is always good.  This ending, however, gave rise to a whole series of beginnings.  The old has given way to much that is new.  New community, new house, new job, new church family, new school for the kids, new patterns and rhythms, new places to go and see.  We are surrounded by beginnings everywhere we look.  And God has been faithful.  As much as we loved what we had, the people God has already placed in our path in this new place are wonderful and an encouraging harbinger of the exciting adventures that lie ahead of us.

What you are reading represents yet another beginning.  After much encouragement over the last several years and a fair bit of procrastination, this blog will be a place to share what God has laid on my heart and mind with you, a gracious reader who has taken valuable time out of your day to hopefully take part in what I intend to be a conversation.  A conversation about life and faith and the intersection–the nexus–thereof.  While I suspect this will change and develop over time, the plan from the outset for this platform is to regularly add three types of content.  The first will be reflections from out of the Christian worldview on life, faith, culture, politics, and the like.  The second will be an archive of my latest preaching at the First Baptist Church of Oakboro, NC (see above).  The third, which I’m going to call Quick Takes, will be notes and thoughts I have from out of my own study of the Scriptures.  I’ll share more details on these later.

For now, let the conversations commence.  Thank you for your time and attention, and I look forward to engaging with you and truly making this place a nexus–a place where the Christian worldview is highlighted as the central connection point for all of life.