Advent Reflections: Psalm 16:7-11

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“I will bless the Lord who counsels me—even at night when my thoughts trouble me. I always let the Lord guide me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices; my body also rests securely. For you will not abandon me to Sheol; you will not allow your faithful one to see decay. You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever thought you knew how to do something, only to have someone come along and give you counsel on it? Worse yet, was their counsel right and wise and revealed that you didn’t know as much about doing whatever it was as you thought? And if that seems like an oddly specific situation, all I’ll say is this: more times than I can count. This is bad enough when it’s doing a task that isn’t ultimately all that significant. It’s many times worse to find out you don’t know as much as you thought when it comes to doing life itself. Yet this lies at the heart of the Gospel. God knows how to do life better than we do. The Advent season is a reminder of when God revealed definitively that He knows how to do life better than we do. If we will take His counsel, His presence is the reward. Let’s talk about it.

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Advent Reflections: Isaiah 53:1-3

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“Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The coming of the Son of God seems like something that should have been heralded with great fanfare. Announcements of His arrival should have been shouted from the rooftops. Emperors and kings should have rejoiced at His delivery. His parents should have been living in the lap of luxury. Everyone should have known so they could all celebrate the news with joy and gladness. Their king had come. And yet, while there was the angelic chorus, their audience was not what anyone would have expected. And the wise men did come, but not until years later, and nobody really believed them anyway. What gives? How could we all miss this? Because, as it turns out, everything was happening just as God had planned it.

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For Our Good

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After a few days off, it’s good to be back. The Advent season is a time for preparing for the arrival of Jesus into our world and into our lives. For the next few weeks, as we take part in the preparation, we are going to spend some time looking at the stories of Jesus’ arrival. When Jesus arrived, heaven met earth in a way that left earth forever changed for the good. These classic stories give us some insight on how that happened. They may be familiar, but there is nonetheless great wisdom here if we will have it. Let’s get started with Matthew’s story of Jesus’ birth and see what the Spirit has to say through it.

For Our Good

Many of you know that I enjoy building metal models. They are all over my office. I think what I enjoy most is following instructions carefully and winding up with a neat-looking finished product in the end. There are enough things in this world that don’t have nice, neat endings where you can see and physically hold in your hand the results of your work. These metal models give you just that. And these days, the more complex they are, the more fun they are. I think my last model had somewhere near 200 pieces and 8 double-sided pages of instructions. That felt good to finish. 

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 14:22-23

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“Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the lessons many state curricula seek to teach students early on in their education process is how to differentiate between facts and opinions. Of course, such an effort is deeply worldview dependent, and so parents should be actively engaged with those lessons at home to make sure they are properly supporting or else tuning interference if their states curriculum has been primarily shaped by a worldview position they don’t support. That all being said, the effort is worthwhile in the abstract. One reason for this comes out in what Paul writes here at the end of Romans 14. Let’s talk about facts and opinions on sin.

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Redirection

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Sometimes we get everything right. Sometimes we serve God in a way that explodes in the best way possible. Lives are changed; communities are made whole. And then sometimes, just when things seem poised to grow even further, God comes and interrupts what we are doing for Him to call us in a new direction. Why would He do such a thing? Today, as we wrap up our teaching series, When Life Gets in the Way, that is exactly what we are talking about. Thanks for being here throughout this journey. May you be better prepared for the interruptions you will yet face as you journey toward His kingdom. Here’s the message.

Redirection

In 2016, we thought we were moving. We had been serving our little, country church for several years, and things were going really well. But then another church reached out, and as we prayed through it and considered all of the various factors involved, it really seemed like this might be something God was doing. We inched our way through their process, but it was quickly clear that things were moving ahead pretty smoothly. It was not easy to wrap our heads around the idea of moving. The church we were serving was the first church we had ever served. They had taken a chance on a young guy fresh out of seminary. Our boys were all three born in that community. The church loved us well. But the further we moved forward, the more we got our hearts and minds wrapped around it, and the more excited we got about the prospect of what God seemed to be doing. 

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