Category: Morning Musings

Morning Musing: Hebrews 11:13-14

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“These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth. Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Sometimes life is hard. It’s hard for all sorts of different reasons. Sometimes it’s hard because we’ve made it hard. Sometimes it’s hard because somebody else has made it hard for us. The end result generally winds up being the same regardless of the starting place. We’re left looking around and wondering how we got here. More than that, we’re left looking around wondering how long we have to stay here or even what we can do to get out of here. But the truth is that in so many of the hardest hards in our lives, leaving isn’t a viable option. What if, though, there was a way to transform the hard into something else entirely? A song I’ve been listening to recently offers a bit of reality both of the now in our hard, but also a window into what could be. Let me share it with you today.

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Morning Musing: Romans 2:1

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“Therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We live in a culture that hates judgment. Well, at least we profess and make a mean case of such a thing. But the truth is that we love judgment. We simply don’t like people judging us or people we count as our people. We’re very content to cast judgment on those who don’t meet with our standards whatever they are. This state of affairs makes the oft-lobbed criticism that Christians are too judgmental of a lot most ironic. Yet accusing followers of Jesus of being judgmental isn’t something the culture has the corner market on. Paul does it right here. Let’s talk about why and what he means.

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Morning Musing: Romans 1:24-25

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“Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Thanks to a few hundred years’ worth of pop culture, when we think about the judgment of God, we imagine fire and brimstone. We picture great floods and earthquakes. We imagine something dramatic and terrible. We imagine God’s actively doing something to punish us for our sins (or, better yet, them for theirs…we usually give ourselves a pass). Yet so much of the judgment we encounter in the Scriptures doesn’t look like that at all. Instead, it takes the form of God simply stepping back and letting the consequences of our sin play themselves out naturally. Paul describes something like that here. Check this out with me.

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Morning Musing: Romans 1:21-23

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“For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the things I have enjoyed as a dad over the years is playing with my kids. We’ve played all sorts of different things, but when they were younger, the playing tended to be more make-believe in its nature. Playing make-believe games is fun, but it’s not real. Part of the fun is in knowing there is a real world to enjoy together. When someone gives into a fantasy too long or too thoroughly, that’s a sign of a problem that needs to be addressed, not just harmless fun. The trouble here is that some of the fantasies we indulge in don’t look like fantasies, and so we dive in not realizing how they are warping our thinking. Paul says that’s really a problem. Let’s talk about it.

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Morning Musing: Romans 1:18

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“For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth…” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Did you ever do anything you knew was wrong when you did it, but then never faced any consequences for it? My guess is that you felt pretty good then, at least initially. You felt like you had gotten away with something. Maybe it started to convince yourself that it wasn’t really all that wrong of a thing as you first thought. Perhaps it led to your doing it again…and again…until you finally did get caught. And when you finally did get caught it was bad. Worse even than what it likely would have been had you gotten caught in the beginning. What you needed that first time you did it was a bit of wrath directed your way. Wrath is not a bad thing. It also happens to be an attribute of God. It is, in fact, the first attribute of God Paul mentions after introducing the Gospel to us. Let’s talk about what it is and why it matters.

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