Category: Digging in Deeper

Man praying with clasped hands inside a stone church

But Did You Mean It?

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“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, ‘We have not sinned,’ we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1:9-10 CSB – Read the chapter)

I had the chance last night to see the band MercyMe in concert along with Jeremy Camp, Tim Timmons, and Sam Wesley. It was a great show. Timmons and Wesley I hadn’t heard of, but that’s apparently because I haven’t yet seen the movie I Can Only Imagine 2 in which both feature prominently in the story. Wesley is actually the son of the lead singer of MercyMe. None of the actors who played them looked even remotely like the actual people, which is always funny to me. One of MercyMe’s biggest hits over the years is the song “Flawless.” The song offers listeners the assurance of forgiveness thanks to the incredible grace of God. The idea is that like John writes here in his first letter, God’s grace in Christ Jesus will cleanse us from all unrighteousness so that we are flawless. God’s grace, won for us by Jesus on the cross, is indeed an amazing thing. But it comes with a catch. Since I didn’t preach yesterday, let’s take a few minutes to talk about this catch this today.

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The Case for Singing in Church

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“Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” (Colossians 3:16 CSB – Read the chapter)

I’m going to a concert this Sunday evening. It should be a good time. I know the music of the headliners fairly well, or at least their radio hits. One of the others I listened to a bit when I was in college. The other two I haven’t heard of at all. The ticket was a gift and the company will be good, though, so I plan to enjoy myself. I’ll probably sing along with all the songs I know. I usually do that at concerts. I don’t have much self-awareness when I’m doing it either. I figure the music is loud enough that if I can’t hear myself, I shouldn’t be bothering anybody else. That’s what I do at a concert. I wonder: Do you ever sing that way in church? Admittedly, I usually do there too. I”m in fairly small company in doing that, though, and that’s really not a good. Allow me to make a case today for why you should sing more in church, and, if you are a pastor or worship leader, why you should encourage that more than you probably do.

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Five friends laughing together at an outdoor café table with phones and drinks

How to Make Your Community Better

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“When the wicked person dies, his expectation comes to nothing, and hope placed in wealth vanishes. The righteous one is rescued from trouble; in his place, the wicked one goes in. With his mouth the ungodly destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous are rescued. When the righteous thrive, a city rejoices; when the wicked die, there is joyful shouting. A city is built up by the blessing of the upright, but it is torn down by the mouth of the wicked.” (Proverbs‬ ‭11‬:‭7‬-‭11‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

I remember when Osama Bin Laden was the world’s number one villain. Or at least, it felt that way. He was the ultimate mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attack against American civilians. Hunting him down and bringing him to justice was our nation’s number one international geopolitical goal for a very long time. And then we got him. There’s a whole movie about the effort and the mission it produced called Zero Dark Thirty that is worth seeing if you haven’t. As soon as the news was announced, there were spontaneous celebrations in the streets as people rejoiced that one of the century’s most evil men had been temporally punished for his crimes and could now face the cosmic justice he was due. Solomon said something like that would happen when people like him died. Let’s talk about that and more in this next group of proverbs.

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Two hikers helping each other climb a rocky mountain ledge

Exercising Your Advantages

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“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourself. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:3-4 CSB – Read the chapter)

I haven’t watched a whole lot of TV content lately, and as a result, I haven’t been doing the media reviews I normally do on Fridays. Actually, of late, these Friday posts have been a bit of a grabbag. Some days, I’m not sure what I’m going to write until pretty late in the game. Today is no exception. But God is faithful and life manages to keep churning out things worth talking about. In any event, I was having a conversation about marriage last night. We were talking specifically about the roles husbands and wives play and should play in the relationship. One of the statements we were reacting to was this: “I think we will be happier if there is an even balance of power in the relationship.” In a culture that is obsessed with power and who has how much, that’s a pretty significant statement to consider because your reaction is going to have a pretty significant impact to how you pursue your relationship. Let’s talk about it for a few minutes.

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Three adults discuss community matters beside a “Community Event” sign and “OUR VOICE” mug.

Getting Our Priorities Straight

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“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever takes an oath by the temple, it means nothing. But whoever takes an oath by the gold of the temple is bound by his oath.’ Blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold?” (Matthew 23:16-17 CSB – Read the chapter)

I have been working through the Gospel of Matthew with my church on Wednesday nights for nearly three years now. We’ve taken a break here or there along the way, but mostly it has just been Matthew for a while now. And I’ve got to say: it has been good. I know that I’ve never taken such a deep dive into a single book from the Scriptures, and I’m sure none of them have either. Taking time to meditate so long and so deeply on a single, Spirit-inspired author’s work has yielded much in terms of applicational rewards for us. We are currently in chapter 23 where Jesus blows up the scribes and Pharisees for their religious hypocrisy and bad spiritual leadership. It is one of those chapters that’s easy to ignore because at first glance Jesus is just berating His enemies for religious practices and traditions that are long gone. But a bit closer of a look uncovers volumes of uncomfortably relevant critiques for modern church members to consider. Let’s take a look at one of them together today.

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