Tag: Bitterness

Making the Broken Beautiful

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Sometimes the interruptions God allows to come to our lives are disruptive, they are inconvenient for us, but they aren’t necessarily destructive. Other times, though, life’s interruptions shake things apart so thoroughly that we’re not sure they will ever be able to be put back together again. Last week we talked through God’s interruptions to Abraham’s life. Those were hard, but the interruptions His great-grandson faced were hard on a whole other level. Let’s talk through Joseph’s story, how his life was interrupted, and what his response can teach us for handling our own hard interruptions.

Making the Broken Beautiful

Have you ever had things go from bad to worse? Sick kids are no fun. Several years ago, we had one sick kid. Then another. Then another. Then one of us went down. The dominoes just kept falling. And you would think that was bad enough, but you would be wrong. Just at the point that everybody was sick and all of the accompanying laundry was piling up to the ceiling…the washer broke down. We were at the store the next day. The nice salesman asked us what kind of a washer we were looking for, and we told him we were interested in whatever he had in stock that we could take home that day. I’m happy to report that we are all still alive and well, but that was a rough few days. In the grand scheme of things, though, that particular life interruption wasn’t so bad. It certainly could have been worse. Sometimes when life flies apart on us it feels like things shatter so thoroughly it’s hard to imagine there could ever be a way to put things back together again. 

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Morning Musing: Exodus 15:22-24

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“Then Moses led Israel on from the Red Sea, and they went out to the Wilderness of Shur. They journeyed for three days in the wilderness without finding water. They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water at Marah because it was bitter – that is why it was named Marah. The people grumbled to Moses, ‘What are we going to drink?'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There are some stories that just stick with you. One my dad told a lot when I was growing up, and which I have now told my own boys often enough that when I start it they say, ‘We know. You and Grandpa have both told us before,’ is about one of his teachers in school. Every day the teacher would flip a coin. If it was heads, they had a pop quiz. If it was tails, they didn’t. Sometimes life throws tests our way that we don’t want or expect. How we handle those, though, matters a lot. They both test and reveal our character. Israel didn’t get very far into their journey before they experienced one of these tests. It became a story that would eventually be told a lot. Let’s talk about it.

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When Everything Falls Apart

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This week we are kicking off a new teaching series called, A Love Story. For the next four weeks we are going to be walking through one of the greatest love stories in the Scriptures. It is found in a little book tucked away in an easily overlooked corner of the Hebrew Bible called Ruth. Rather than just telling the story, we are going to experience together through the eyes of the characters who were actually in it. Read the story for yourself, and then take some time with this message and encounter for perhaps the first time through one who was there.

When Everything Falls Apart

I love a good story. Don’t you? There are just some ideas we can communicate better through the lens of a story than we can by plain instruction or by facts and figures. Now, we still need those, but stories are powerful things. There’s a reason so much of what we find in the Scriptures comes through the lens of a story. Do you know what’s even better than a regular, old story, though? A love story. Love stories are really powerful. There’s a reason Hallmark is a made-for-TV-producing juggernaut and that multiple different networks and streaming services are basically cut-and-pasting their storytelling format…especially during the Advent season. 

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Digging in Deeper: Hebrews 12:15-17

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“Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and defiling many. And make sure that there isn’t any immoral or irreverent person like Esau, who sold his birthright in exchange for a single meal. For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, even though he sought it with tears, because he didn’t find any opportunity for repentance.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

All product user guides follow the same basic format. They begin with warnings, go on to instructions for proper use, and end with a section on troubleshooting. Troubleshooting is essentially one more set of warnings. It is a list of things that might go wrong, and what to do if they happen. Here, as we draw near to the end of the letter, the author of Hebrews offers us a bit of troubleshooting. Let’s take a look at one last warning and how we can avoid some trouble.

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Morning Musing: Luke 15:28a

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“But he was angry and refused to go in.”‬‬ (ESV – Read the chapter) 

For every person who leaves, there is another who remains. For every wanderer, there is someone who holds down the fort. As we’ve seen over the past few days, the life of the leaver doesn’t turn out smooth or easy as planned. Leaving doesn’t solve any problems, it creates a whole host of new ones. The same is true, though, for the one that remains. The stayer faces all kinds of challenges. Indeed, adjusting to holding down the fort with one less than usual isn’t easy. But the biggest problem is something we might not expect. 

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