Month: April 2023

Morning Musing: Romans 12:19-21

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“Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, ‘Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head.’ Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We live in a culture that prizes strength, not humility and gentleness. What’s more, we are trending more in that direction every day. We cheer for politicians who promise not to serve us, but to fight for us. More and more we fight amongst ourselves, battling for worldview supremacy in what is increasingly treated as a zero-sum game. We call the presentation of ideas we don’t like “violence” such that it becomes much easier to justify actual violence used to silence them. The result of all of this is a culture that is increasingly coarse and hard, without much joy. Is there anything that can brighten up this gloomy scene? Ted Lasso seems to know, and halfway through his third season he’s well on his way to showing us. Let’s talk about the good, the bad, and one of the most explicitly Christian scenes I’ve watched in a major studio series in a long time.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 2:15, 23

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“When Pharaoh heard about this, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well. . .After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, they cried out, and their cry for help because of the difficult labor ascended to God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There are some people everyone wants to be. This is usually because of what the person has accomplished. Many of these folks are athletes. Kids in particular watch these people perform and try to mimic what they do in their own playing. The trouble is, most of these superlatively talented individuals make doing what they do look easy. The truth, however, is anything but that. Doing what they do the way they do it has taken them years of hard work and sacrifice. We want to reproduce their success without the time in the wilderness. That, however, is not how life works. This truth is something we see borne out in the Scriptures including Moses’ story here. Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 2:11-14

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“Years later, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his people. Looking all around and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, ‘Why are you attacking your neighbor?’ ‘Who made you a commander and judge over us?’ the man replied. ‘Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Then Moses became afraid and thought, ‘What I did is certainly known.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We love justice and we hate seeing people who do things wrong get off without having to pay for them. At least, that’s all the case in theory. Better yet, that’s all the case as long as we are talking about other people. When it comes to us, we are quick to find excuses and hope that we do get away with whatever it is. We sin and don’t think much about the consequences, short- or long-term. Yet sin always has consequences. It will find us out. Moses found this out the hard way. Let’s talk about the next part of his story and what it means for ours.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 2:1-2

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“Now a man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman. The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son; when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When you read the story of the Exodus – and specifically the story of Moses – through the lens of the Gospels, it is remarkable just how much the one echoes the other. Yet in the moment, its characters certainly didn’t experience it as good news. Still, though, there is a reminder here of God’s sovereignty in our stories. Let’s talk today about Moses’ birth, the contours of our own stories, and how God accomplishes His plans.

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A Firm Anchor

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If we are going to find peace in a world that has gone mad, we’re definitely going to need to reorient our thinking and turn to prayer, but while those two things are necessary, they aren’t sufficient on their own. We need something more. In this next part of our journey and through the lens of Paul’s second letter to Timothy, we are going to talk about what this something more is. Thanks for reading and sharing.

A Firm Anchor

One of the saddest moments in all of film history was when Chuck lost Wilson. If that’s not ringing any bells, a bit of a reminder may be due. The Chuck I’m talking about is Chuck Noland. If that’s still not ringing any bells, that doesn’t really surprise me. His name doesn’t matter very much and in fact I couldn’t have told you what it was until I looked it up. Wilson, though, just goes by Wilson. He’s white, male, a little round, and wears a handprint on his face. Actually, the handprint is his face. You see, Wilson is a volleyball. Actually, he’s a great deal more than that to Chuck whom you may recognize now as the character played by Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway. After surviving a plane crash and landing on a deserted island somewhere in the Pacific, Hanks manages to survive by cobbling together what he needs from the various packages his FedEx plane dropped in the crash and which washed up on shore. One of these packages held Wilson who offered Hanks what was perhaps his most important survival tool: a relationship. I mean, Wilson didn’t actually have any lines in the film, but by giving Hanks’ character the ability to have the illusion of a relationship, it enabled him not to completely lose his sanity during his terrible sojourn. 

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