Month: September 2022

A Brief Honor to a Great Legacy

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“Give her the reward of her labor, and let her works praise her at the city gates.”
— ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭31:31‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

The world saw the end of an entire era of human history yesterday. Leaders come and go like the changing of the seasons. We change Presidents the way most people change vehicles—every four to eight years. CEOs of major corporations rarely last longer than a decade or so. The average pastor tenure is only a few years. But for most of the people alive on the planet today, the only Queen of England they have ever known until yesterday was Elizabeth II of the House of Windsor. Let’s pause for just a moment this morning and marvel at a great woman.

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Digging in Deeper: Hebrews 11:4-6

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“By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was approved as a righteous man, because God approved his gifts, and even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith. By faith Enoch was taken away, and so he did not experience death. He was not to be found because God took him away. For before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God. Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What does it take to please God? While you may not ever ask that question directly or out loud, I suspect your inherent need for an answer to it animates a fair sight more of your life than you’re comfortable admitting. Even if you aren’t giving any thought to the Christian God, the higher power you happen to have embraced leaves you wondering at least occasionally how to make it happy. With the God of the Bible, pleasing Him is a whole lot simpler an affair than you might expect. Through the lens of a couple of examples out of the very beginning of God’s story, let’s talk about what it takes to make Him happy.

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Digging in Deeper: Hebrews 11:3

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“By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Where did we come from and how did we get here? There aren’t many questions of greater worldview significance than these. While it may not seem like it at first glance, there is incredible philosophical weight to the answer we embrace. For instance, if everything was created merely by chance, then there is no objective purpose to our lives beyond what we construct for ourselves. On the other hand, if an intelligent being created it all, then this being acted with a specific purpose meaning that while we may debate and search for what exactly it is, our lives definitively have meaning. Here, as he starts to offer a series of examples of what faith is, the author of Hebrews begins at the beginning. Let’s think about what we think about when we think about where we came from and why that matters.

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Digging in Deeper: Hebrews 11:1-2

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“Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. For by this our ancestors were approved.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of my favorite songs from the 80s is George Michael’s song, Faith. I liked it pretty much entirely for the music. I never could understand the lyrics beyond the chorus. I looked them up before writing this and it’s probably good I never understood them. They’re incredibly shallow and make a mockery of real, Biblical faith, but at least the music was good (good enough for the song to make him a lot of money over the years). As we get into the next chapter of our journey through Hebrews this morning, we find ourselves in the famous Hall of Faith. This is one of the greatest reflections on faith anywhere in the Scriptures. It starts out here by defining terms for us. Let’s talk this morning about what faith is. Then, over the next few weeks, Lord willing, we’ll get a bunch of examples of what it looks like. Dive in with me.

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Digging in Deeper: Genesis 1:1-5

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“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’ There was an evening, and there was a morning: one day.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I love reading epic fantasy novels. The longer, the better. In one series I’m working my way through as each new entry is released, The Stormlight Archives by fantasy master Brandon Sanderson, each book weighs in at about 1200 pages. I’ve read through book four, and he’s rumored to have planned it to be at least 14 books long. In any event, as I have been lately reading through one of Terry Goodkind’s last books before his untimely death, something occurred to me that I wanted to explore with you this morning. Let’s talk this morning about thousands of years of Middle Ages-like culture, worldview, and why Christianity is better.

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