Category: Morning Musings

Morning Musing: Ephesians 4:31-32 Part 1

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“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
– ‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:31-32‬‬ (ESV – Read the chapter) 

Why be good? Why do something kind for another person who may not be able to return the favor? That’s a question that seems more relevant than ever in our increasingly polarized culture. More and more today people who are different from one another don’t actually know each other at all and are more likely to think of “the other” as the enemy rather than as a fellow human being who happens to believe differently about someone issue than we do. Little good is coming of that. But, if we are going to make any progress toward changing it, we’ve got to have an answer to this question: Why be good? 

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Morning Musing: Acts 17:25

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“nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”
– ‭‭Acts‬ ‭17:25‬‬ (ESV – Read the chapter) 

Have you ever done someone else a favor? I suspect so. That’s not an uncommon thing to do. It’s a basic cultural courtesy in most human cultures. Someone needs something, we are able to do it for them without cost, and so we do. And, while we don’t often cash in on this right away, there’s usually an unspoken understanding that once this favor has been given, a favor is now deserved. In most cases, this whole system keeps society running smoothly. But, what about the times when it doesn’t work? Paul touches on one here. 

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Digging in Deeper: Psalm 95:7b-9

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“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

Have you seen enough of God and His activity that rejecting Him is no longer a valid option for your life? That’s kind of an interesting question, isn’t it? We don’t often think about it like that. We usually think more in these terms: Have you seen enough of God to make receiving Him a reasonable thing to do? The thing is, if we look closely at the Scriptures, that first question is the one with which we are really confronted. 

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Morning Musing: 1 John 1:6

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“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”‬‬ (ESV – Read the chapter) 

Sometimes you come across something in the Scriptures that, if you think about it very hard, can make you break out in a cold sweat. It doesn’t happen so often as to make you read with armor on, but you’ve still got to watch out for it. This is one of those places. 

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Morning Musing: Matthew 2:5

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“They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet.”‬‬ (ESV – Read the chapter)

What does it look like to live like the Scriptures are true? In the church today there is much talk about the authority and reliability of the Bible. That’s been the case for much of the last century. There is a whole industry of folks who are committed to defending the Bible as absolutely true. That’s not necessarily a bad thing by any means, but defending the truthfulness of the Scriptures and living our lives as if they really were true are two different things. 

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