September 2023 – Page 3

Digging in Deeper: 1 John 2:15-17

September 15, 2023Leave a comment

“Do one love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions – is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When filmmakers set about their craft, I am increasingly convinced their primary source material is the stories they grew up with. Having finally been given the opportunity by virtue of position or technology to tell and retell the stories of their childhood in a way that makes them more real, as well as to pass on a love of these stories to the next generation, they take it. This is why superhero and adventure movies generally have long been such a successful genre. Young people love them because those are the kinds of stories we are drawn to naturally as kids. Older people love them because they enjoy seeing the stories they grew up with brought to life on the big screen (and increasingly the small streaming screen). One of the latest Disney offerings is the series, Ahsoka, from the Star Wars universe. By all accounts it has been absolutely fantastic. I wouldn’t know because I haven’t watched any of it yet even though I am most excited to do so. But its release has set me on a journey that will eventually end in my watching the whole thing. This journey has been taking me through another popular entry from the Star Wars franchise which has given me the chance to reflect a bit on the worldview of Star Wars more generally. The intersection of that and the Christian worldview is what I’d like to explore for a bit with you this morning. Let’s dive in.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 13:5-7

September 14, 2023September 14, 20231 Comment

“When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which he swore to your ancestors that he would give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you must carry out this ceremony in this month. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there is to be a festival to the Lord. Unleavened bread is to be eaten for those seven days. Nothing leavened may be found among you, and no yeast may be found among you in all your territory.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I enjoy eating good pizza. I don’t know many people who don’t enjoy that. PIzza may not be considered comfort food by many, but there’s just something homey and familiar about eating it to me. But while my go-to is what I’m going to call “regular” pizza. I also enjoy a good flatbread pizza. That thin, yeast-free, crunchy crust adds a really nice texture to each bite. Flatbread pizza is a rare treat for me, and it’s always optional. For the Israelites coming out of Egypt, yeast-free bread wasn’t a treat, it was a command…at least for the Passover festival it was. Let’s talk a bit today about why.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 12:28, 50-51

September 13, 2023September 16, 2023Leave a comment

“Then the Israelites went and did this; they did just as the Lord has commanded Moses and Aaron. . . Then all the Israelites did this; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. On that same day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt according to their military divisions.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There are some things that simply matter more than others. There are some details that are more important than the rest. In the final analysis, some actions will be noted as more significant than anything else. This is what we are seeing here as we finally come to the end of Exodus 12. God gave a lot of instruction (with many, many more yet to come) in preparing the people for the final judgment against Egypt and their departure from the land. In the end, though, only one thing really mattered. It’s the same thing that ultimately matters most for us too. The fact that it gets repeated just helps to emphasize the point. Let’s talk today about doing what God says.

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Morning Musings: Exodus 12:43, 48-49

September 12, 2023September 16, 2023Leave a comment

“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner may eat it. . .If an alien resides among you and wants to observe the Lord’s Passover, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may participate; he will become like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it. The same law will apply to both the native and the alien who resides among you.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the criticisms often leveled against Christianity today is that it is very exclusive. In a world in which being inclusive is one of our highest virtues (unless you are deemed insufficiently inclusive, in which case you are excluded with prejudice), this charge carries a lot of weight with some folks. It can be an apologetically difficult question to answer. Well, as we are going to see in the next part of our story here, this charge is not completely without merit. The people of God is an exclusive group. But it is exclusive in the most inclusive way possible. Let’s talk about it through the lens of God’s instructions about who could and could not participate in the Passover festival.

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Membership Matters

September 11, 2023September 5, 2023Leave a comment

After taking a week off last week to enjoy some time away with the family, we are back on it this week, continuing in our teaching series, Nuts and Bolts. For these few weeks, we are talking about the church, what it is, and how to get it right. After spending the first two parts of the series looking at the big picture of what the church is, starting today we are beginning to unpack how the church was designed to work. And, like the basic unit of operation when it comes to the human body is the cell (yes, there’s a good argument to be made that proteins fit that bill a bit better, cells work as an okay metaphor here), the basic unit of operation when it comes to the body of Christ is the church member. So, this week, we are talking about church membership. While much of this is going to wind up being focused on my own congregation, the ideas here are broadly applicable. Consider how they might apply to you and your situation. Enjoy.

Membership Matters

So, the other night we were all sitting around the table eating dinner together, and the subject came up of what the boys are currently learning in school. One of them said that he had been learning about the cell. I still remember sitting in science classes in 8th and 9th grade and learning about all the various parts of the cell. I remember rather distinctly the fact that there are a lot of parts. To be such tiny things, cells are really pretty complicated. They are a work of engineering magic that is absolutely unrivaled by anything we’ve ever created.

We didn’t use to understand this. Used to be, biologists thought cells were just little blobs of goo that really didn’t do very much except to provide the basic structure and framework for an organism. Then we built better microscopes, and discovered there’s a whole world of complexity and function down there that we are only just beginning to grasp. For tiny things, cells are a big deal. Your body is composed of roughly 37 trillion cells of about 200 different types. Any single one of them by itself doesn’t do much and doesn’t seem to matter. After all, what’s one cell out of 37 trillion? But without all of them collectively doing what they do, there would be no you. One part may not seem to make much of a difference by itself, but when you combine that one part with a whole bunch of other parts, some pretty incredible things start to become possible.

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