Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 1:22-25

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“For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There’s a great Proverb in the collection of wisdom bearing that name that goes like this: “Even a fool is considered wise when he is silent.” The point is that what comes out of our mouths (digitally or verbally) is going to be used by others to assess our intelligence and character. As followers of Jesus who have been called to share our faith, though, talking is sort of part of the gig. In bearing witness to the Gospel, we wind up saying a lot of things that make us sound pretty dumb to the culture around us. Let’s talk about why it’s so worth it to share anyway.

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Morning Musing: Romans 5:2

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“We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In the last generation, thanks to a number of different cultural trends, it became common to think of Christianity as providing a kind of fire insurance. Many preachers adopted what is often caricatured today as a “turn or burn” approach to their preaching, putting incredible rhetorical pressure on their congregations to follow Jesus in order to escape the horrors of Hell. Most of this thinking followed from an impoverished understanding of a much older sermon by Jonathan Edwards. Because of this, salvation began to be thought of as a mostly past tense affair. As long as you had been saved, how you lived going forward was up to you. But Paul spoke of salvation as something much greater than that. Let’s talk about salvation as something that encompasses past, present, and future.

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Morning Musing: Romans 5:1

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“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When was the last time you were at odds with someone you loved? If you are married, when was the last time you and your spouse were not on good terms with each other? That’s a miserable feeling. Even if you’re not in the wrong, living with a relational divide is no fun at all. You long for things to be right again. The longer the divide persists, you start to find yourself looking to other places to get the emotional and relational needs that were satisfied by the relationship when it was working. You just want peace again. Here, as we begin the next major part of Paul’s exploration of the Gospel, he tells us how we can have peace with God. You don’t want to miss this.

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Morning Musing: Romans 4:22-25

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“Therefore, ‘it was credited to him for righteousness.’ Now ‘it was credited to him’ was not written for Abraham alone, but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.  He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I enjoy listening to classical music. I also enjoy listening to new music. Those two musical preferences don’t often play very well together because there aren’t very many albums featuring new classical music coming out. Instead, there are new recordings of old music. That’s the thing about classical music, though: it’s classic. It has withstood the test of time and is good enough to keep being played and replayed over and over again. Every now and then, though, you come across something different like a variation on an old theme. Let me tell you about a fun recording I found the other day and another variation on a theme that’s rather more important.

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More Than Well

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Jesus wants us to see Him. He wants us to see beyond the things He can do for us, to who He really is. As a result, He reveals Himself in ways that enable and help us to do that. One of the ways He did this during His ministry was with a series of what the apostle John identifies as seven signs. As we continue in our teaching series, All Signs Point to Jesus, this week, we are looking at a third miraculous sign Jesus performed. This one picks up from our seeing Him for who He really is, to actually following Him into something more than just a miracle. He invites us to follow Him into real life. Let’s take a look at this together.

More Than Well

Have you ever fallen for a gimmick? Someone came along with a really great sales pitch for a brand new product that was going to completely revolutionize your life. All it was going to take from you was a “modest” investment of capital to help get this new venture off the ground. But when you did, you were going to be on the ground floor of an entirely new cultural movement. This wasn’t just about making your life better; it was about making the whole country better (healthier, more fit, financially stabler, and etc.). This wasn’t just an opportunity you didn’t want to miss. This was an opportunity you couldn’t afford to miss. 

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