Month: April 2023

Digging in Deeper: Revelation 21:4

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“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What would you do if you could suddenly go back in time at a point some of your biggest tragedies in life unfolded? The answer to that seems fairly obvious: you’d do whatever you could do to change them so they didn’t ever happen. We all have things from the past we would change if we got the chance. This is an awareness that can become a desire which, if we’re not careful, can become a fixation that keeps us from moving forward in the present. Dwelling in the past turns out to be far more dangerous than it seems. A recent series from the Hallmark Channel explores all of this and more. Let’s talk today about The Way Home.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 1:17-21

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“The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, ‘Why have you done this and let the boys live?’ The midwives said to Pharaoh, ‘The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.’ So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very numerous. Since the midwives feared God, he gave them families.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Everyone “knows” lying is wrong. I say it like that because in spite of that so-called knowledge, we still do it. A lot. For followers of Jesus, we know we serve the God of truth. Committing ourselves to something other than what is true, whether in word, deed, or even thought, is out of sync with His character and thus out of bounds for us morally. People generally who countenance any kind of authority to the Scriptures will quickly point to the Ten Commandments’ prohibition on bearing false witness as further proof of the sinfulness of lying. What do we do then, with a story in which some characters actively lie about something and are celebrated and rewarded for it? Let’s explore this together.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 1:15-16

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“The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives – the first, whose name was Shiphrah, and the second, whose name was Puah – ‘When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. If the child is a son, kill him, but if it’s a daughter, she may live.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the fiercest debates in our culture today is on the issue of the morality and the ensuing legality of abortion. Opinions on it run the gamut from absolutely wrong in all cases to absolutely right and even a positive good to be vigorously defended, and everywhere in between. As followers of Jesus, our position on the matter must be founded on and rooted in the Scriptures. And while there is no blanket prohibition on it, there are plenty of passages that indicate God’s clear position on the matter. We find one here right at the beginning of the story of Exodus. Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 1:6-10

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“Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation eventually died. But the Israelites were fruitful, increased rapidly, multiplied, and became extremely numerous so that the land was filled with them. A new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. He said to his people, ‘Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are. Come, let’s deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and when war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Today will be the first step in a new journey I have been looking forward to starting for quite some time now. For the next few months, we are going to be working through the narrative of Exodus. Exodus plays a powerful role in terms of creating a context in which Jesus eventually makes sense. It is a reminder that although history doesn’t repeat itself, as God writes His great symphony across the ages, He does sometimes develop in more detail themes He first introduced earlier on in His masterwork. Through the Exodus, God took the next major step forward in terms of revealing Himself to us so that we could be in a relationship with Him. As we journey through this together, we may not cover every single detail, but we are going to be as thorough as we can. Let’s start here near the beginning as Israel finds itself becoming an actual nation (thus fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham) through a process of suffering.

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A Thorough Reorientation

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Our world is a mess. What’s more, it seems to be getting messier by the day. And these aren’t merely just a bunch of small messes. They are bigger and more complicated messes than what it feels like we’ve faced in a very long time. In the midst of all of this, it is easy to give in to the constant pull we feel to anxiety and despair. Peace is absent from the scene. How can we fix this? How can we find peace in a world that seems to have gone crazy? For the next three weeks, that is a question we are tackling together in a new teaching series called, Peace in a World Gone Mad. With some help from the apostle Paul, we are going to be talking about how we can enjoy the peace of God in the midst of circumstances that seem anything but peaceful. If you have been struggling of late with the state of the world, this is a series you won’t want to miss. Thanks for reading and sharing.

A Thorough Reorientation

Have you ever looked up into the night sky and just thought, “Wow!” One thing about living where we do is that there isn’t nearly the amount of light pollution at night that you have when you get closer to the city. I can’t tell you how many times we have been sitting out after the sun goes down around our fire pit and just marveled together at the wonder of the night sky. The other night we looked out after dark and you could clearly see three planets shining in the sky in addition to all the stars. It was pretty spectacular. 

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