Category: Digging in Deeper

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 22:21

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“You must not exploit a resident alien or oppress him, since you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Immigration and border security are two of the hottest political topics in our nation right now. The reasons for this are pretty obvious too, especially if you live in a community near the southern border or one of the major cities were thousands of the immigrants who have crossed the border illegally in the last year are being sent. Having an enormous influx of new residents who don’t speak the language, don’t know the culture, don’t have much in the way of means of supporting themselves, and who may likely owe debts to the criminal cartels who facilitated their getting here in the first place is a recipe for a social and economic disaster. How we should solve this problem as a nation is far beyond the scope of what we could possibly tackle here. How we as followers of Jesus should think about and act toward these folks, on the other hand, is a fair bit clearer. Let’s talk about what we see here, and what it reveals about the character of God.

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Digging in Deeper: 1 Peter 2:12

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“Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In the wake of 9/11 there arose a whole new generation of atheists. And while their arguments were not new at all, their boldness, their rhetorical cleverness, and their energetic hostility toward all religion and Christianity in particular put a pretty new dress and an attractive layer of makeup on an old model. And, thanks to the horrible actions taken by a handful of radical Muslim terrorists, they had plenty of ammunition for their argument that religion was the biggest problem facing the world. It is deeply ironic, of course, that most of them spent most of their time making their arguments from the comfort and relative safety of Western nations with a tradition of freedom of expression that that has only ever existed in cultures created and shaped by the very Christian worldview they loved to lampoon and not in places like, say, Iran where their comments could have easily gotten them arrested and killed, but we’ll leave that alone for now. Their hatred and ridicule has inspired a whole new generation of young atheists (who aren’t so young anymore…) who relish poking holes in the faith of their Christian friends and family members. The movement’s cultural power has largely faded in recent years, but every now and then one of the surviving original leaders of the movement will say something that makes a bit of a splash. Well, Richard Dawkins, the man who was always the leading highlight of the group recently said something in an interview that has gotten everyone talking again. But this time, instead of attacking Christianity, he was claiming it. Let’s talk some today about what he said and why it matters.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 22:16-17

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“If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged, and he sleeps with her, he must certainly pay the bridal price for her to be his wife. If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must pay an amount in silver equal to the bridal price for virgins.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the charges that sometimes gets leveled against the character of God is that He is a misogynist. That is, that He hates women. This charge is absurd on numerous levels, of course. The whole modern concept that women should have equal rights as men came out of Christians examining the teachings of the Scriptures and insisting on their consistent application. No one worldview produced anything similar to what Christianity has given the world in this regard. What we see here gives us a glimpse of how God sought to build this assumption of equality into His people from the start. Let’s talk about what we see here.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 3:23-24

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“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the bits of hope more seasoned parents often give to parents who are busy navigating their way through the teenage years (count me in on that journey) is that there will come a day when your kids say to you, “Dad, you were right.” That statement will pretty much always be framed in the past tense because in the present they’re never going to admit that anymore than we would have done when we were their age. But someday – or so they keep telling me – they’ll finally reach the place of agreeing with us. Getting to that place, though, isn’t easy for either party. In a similar kind of way, one of the hardest parts of the Gospel is having to get to the point that we agree with God. Let’s talk today about what that means and what makes it so hard.

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Digging in Deeper: Hebrews 9:22

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“According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

A little something different this week seeing as how we are just a few days from the single most significant day in the life of the church. This Sunday morning (at least in the Western church) we will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. This one event is the pivot on which the whole of human history swings. There is literally no more significant event in all of recorded history than this one. In order to get us ready for the day when it arrives, let’s do just a bit of thinking about how and why things had to go the way they did in order for the way to a right relationship with God to be made open to us. We’ll start this morning with a bit of context about how to get right with God in the first place.

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