Month: May 2025

He Cares for You

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This past Sunday we celebrated Mother’s Day. Moms are a gift from God that keeps the world running far more smoothly than it would without them. But being a mom is tough these days. With that in mind, this week we are looking at a story in the Scriptures about a mom seeking to take care of her kids in a terrible situation. In this story we can find several points of encouragement and challenge for moms and all the rest of us too. Let’s dive in.

He Cares for You

Let’s get started this morning with a bit of confession time. I hope you are sitting down for this one…okay, good. I am…not a good mom. I know dads are supposed to be pretty awesome, but try as I might, I just can’t seem to hit that mark. Okay, well, if I’m being totally honest, I haven’t actually tried all that hard to hit it. When my boys need something that Lisa, my beautiful bride and their amazing mom, can do as a mom, they go to her. Every time. They don’t even give me a second thought when they need a mom thing. They just skip right past me and go to her. And get this: she does it for them. Really well (because she’s a great mom). You know, I’d almost be offended by all of this but for this one thing: I’m a dad. And dads don’t mom very well. But that’s an okay thing because God made moms. And moms are a good thing. 

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Morning Musing: Matthew 16:15-18

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“‘But you,’ he asked them, ‘who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus responded, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the church lately, what it is and how it was designed by God to work. I’ve been doing this as my own church has been going through a season of growth, especially with kids and young families. I’ve been doing that as more and more reports keep coming in from more and more different places about the growth of the church in parts of the world that have been deeply secular for a very long time. Through all of this, I’ve come away even more impressed with the profound uniqueness and goodness of the church. Let’s take some more time today to think about all of this together.

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Morning Musing: Romans 7:7-11

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“What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet.’ And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life again and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Some people are rule followers. If you give them a rule, they keep that rule. They may look for loopholes in the rule, but as far as the rule itself goes, they’ll toe the line. Others…aren’t. If you give them a rule, not only will they break it, they’ll make sure you are watching when they do so you can see them breaking it. In fact, with these folks, the quickest way to guarantee they do something other than what you want them to do is to tell them not to do it. They probably weren’t even considering doing whatever it is you don’t want them to do until you told them not to. Then the die was cast. They’re doing it. It was the rule itself that led to their breaking it. In this situation, we should ask an interesting question: What is the source of the problem here? The rule itself or something else?

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 7:1-6

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“Since I am speaking to those who know the law, brothers and sisters, don’t you know that the law rules over someone as long as he lives? For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband. So then, if she is married to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she is married to another man, she is not an adulteress. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit  and not in the old letter of the law.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What should be the relationship of a follower of Jesus to the Old Testament law? That’s a question that has generated no small amount of controversy in the church over the centuries. In the last few years thanks in part to the often misunderstood position staked out by a particularly popular megachurch pastor it has been a rather hotter topic than it was a generation ago. From my reading, the New Testament authors—and especially Paul—are pretty clear on the question. Passages like this one are why. Let’s talk about why this isn’t what Paul is talking about here and why that matters so much to this particular debate.

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Morning Musing: Romans 6:23

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“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the classic approaches to sharing the Gospel from the last century was to take unbelievers along the Romans Road. This was a series of verses in this incredible letter that spell out the basic Gospel message, leading the listener to the point of making a decision to follow Jesus. This verse is one of the major stops on that road. Paul here spells out the result of sin. Let’s take a look at this and talk through just what it means.

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