Month: July 2023

An Inclusive Identity

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This week, as we continue working through the story of the church, we are taking a step with the disciples in a bit of an uncomfortable direction. Just when they thought they had really hit their stride, God called Peter to go and share the Gospel with a group of people who were the very last people in the world He expected to ever be sharing the Gospel with. Yet He obeyed, and the whole church learned a very important lesson we are still trying to learn today. Read on to find out what this is.

An Inclusive Identity

Do you know what one of the most polarizing words in modern English is? “Christian.” That word is the cause of not a little angst on the part of many people both in the church and out. There are some in the church who don’t like the title because of the cultural connotations it has come to have. In the same vein, there are a lot of folks out there who hear the word and associate a whole host of negative adjectives with it: judgmental, small-minded, exclusive, bigoted, intolerant, homophobic, unloving, uncaring, and the list goes on. Then, of course, there are the folks who wear the title like a banner and are kind of judgmental toward all those who don’t. But, have you ever wondered where the word “Christian” came from? Some of the Bible scholars in the room may know that it was not what Jesus’ followers originally called themselves. They preferred the much simpler and, frankly, more descriptive title “disciple.” So how and when did the name change start to happen? Better yet, what does it actually mean to be a Christian? I mean, if we’re honest, there are a whole lot of different kinds of people who believe and do a whole lot of different kinds of things who all claim the title as descriptive of them. A little clarity here would surely be helpful.  

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 5:1-5

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“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What is the worth of hope? That’s a trickier question to answer than it might appear at first glance. As a follower of Jesus, I would argue that hope gives our lives purpose and meaning and even direction. Hope gives us something to live toward. It brings the promise of a future that will be better than the present. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t be hope at all; it would be dread. Yet this understanding of the nature – and more, the worthwhileness – of hope requires a certain view of the world to make sense. Absent that view, hope can seem like little more than foolish wishful thinking that will only serve to distract a person from what is really real, or of doing the hard work necessary to make our future plans a reality on our own. Hope, you see, requires us to surrender ourselves to someone higher and more powerful than we are; someone who knows and controls the future in a way we cannot. At a little more than four episodes in, this grimmer view of hope lies at the heart of the second prequel series to the hit series, Yellowstone, and the follow-up to the immensely popular first prequel series, 1883, called 1923. Today, let’s talk about how the series has been at the halfway mark, and why its worldview isn’t one worth adopting for ourselves.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 7:14-17

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“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh’s heart is hard: He refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning. When you see him walking out to the water, stand ready to meet him by the bank of the Nile. Take in your hand the staff that turned into a snake. Tell him: The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to tell you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness. But so far you have not listened. This is what the Lord says: Here is how you will know that I am the Lord. Watch. I am about to strike the water in the Nile with the staff in my hand, and it will turn to blood.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

At last we come to the place the action really gets going. Moses and Aaron finally go to confront Pharaoh directly about his refusal to let the people of Israel go. This begins a series of actions God uses to convince him to do it. Exactly how these played out is something that has puzzled scholars and interpreters for centuries, but especially in the modern world. We’ll take some time working through each of these, starting here where all the waters in Egypt…except for some of them…were turned to blood. How did this work? Let’s talk about it.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 7:8-13

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“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When Pharaoh tells you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh. It will become a serpent.’” So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord had commanded. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent. But then Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers — the magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same thing by their occult practices. Each one threw down his staff, and it became a serpent. But Aaron’s staff swallowed their staffs. However, Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

How do you convince someone that God is real? How do you convince them that He is worth their lives and obedience? That’s a tough question to answer and one that depends on both the person and the circumstances. Sometimes, though, the only way to get through to someone is by putting on a bit of a show. How big a show again depends, but sometimes God puts on a pretty big one. When God sent Moses to confront Pharaoh, He knew it was going to take a really big show in order to convince him. Let’s look here at how that show begins and why God was always the ringmaster.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 7:6-7

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“So Moses and Aaron did this; they did just as the Lord commanded them. Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the things I learned when I was growing up is that when there’s work to be done, you keep at it until the job is finished. It drives me crazy when someone starts but doesn’t finish a project. Now, yes, this can be taken too far, and we need to have the wisdom to recognize when we need to pause for a break, but in most cases it is pretty sound advice. As much as this idea applies to individual tasks we take on, though, it also applies to our lives as a whole. Let’s talk about Moses and Aaron’s lives and this interesting little note we get as they get started on the biggest task of their lives.

Continue reading “Morning Musing: Exodus 7:6-7” →