Tag: Christian living

The Reason for Forgiveness

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We know that forgiveness is fundamental to God’s character. But why does He forgive us? What is it that possesses Him to do such a thing? As we continue our series, The Beauty of Forgiveness, this is the next thing we are going to explore together. It is a wonder that God is willing to forgive us in spite of the extent and nature of our rebellion. Yet He does it anyway. Through the lens of something Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 43, let’s take a look at why.

The Reason for Forgiveness

In the world of politics, when someone gives you a lot of money, it’s almost always because they expect something from you. It is a long established tradition that megadoners to the winning presidential candidate get nominated to be the ambassador to some island nation where they’ll get to enjoy island life for four years, living in a luxurious place, and attending fun events mostly on the taxpayer’s dime. In the world of business, if someone gives you a lot of money, it’s typically because they want something from you. They want you to support this or that venture. They are looking for regulatory help. They are looking for an ally in some coming fight. Something. Big and extravagant gifts rarely come without any strings attached.

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Mother and daughter reading The Great Adventure Book with illustrated scenes above

The Big Picture of the Bible

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I’m hopefully planning to write a review of the latest Marvel series, Visionquest, next week. This week has been all over the place for me. So, I’m going to share another blast from the past today. This is the first of a four-part series I preached several years ago looking at the story of the Scriptures from 30,000 feet. We often dive deeply into the nitty-gritty details of the Scriptures in sermon and Bible studies, but in doing that, we sometimes forget that the Scriptures really are all one cohesive story that points to Jesus. This series was all about making sure we have that in mind whenever we go to them to receive what God’s Spirit has to share. Enjoy!

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The Picture of Forgiveness

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We are continuing today in our series, The Beauty of Forgiveness. So far along the way we have talked about the fact that we have forgiveness available to us in Jesus and that forgiveness comes naturally to God. Today we are reflecting for a bit on just what it means that forgiveness comes so naturally to God. And we are doing this through the lens of a passage that isn’t one we might normally turn to for help with…well…anything. Yet every word of the Scriptures is useful for making us over in God’s image, including this one. So, let’s dive in and see just what God plans for when given the chance.

The Picture of Forgiveness

Do you remember the Disney movie, Meet the Robinsons? It was one of the few Disney animated films that came out after they started working with Pixar. It’s about a boy named Lewis who gets caught up in a time-traveling adventure to stop a dastardly villain from rewriting history. The villain in the film—at least the human villain; the main villain turns out to be an evil AI program that wants to turn humanity into its slaves— turns out to be Lewis’ roommate from their orphanage, Goob. At the pivotal moment of the story, Lewis stays up all night working on a big science fair project. His late hours keep Goob from getting any sleep the night before a big baseball game. Because of his exhaustion, he falls asleep in the outfield and misses a critical fly ball that would have sealed the win for his team. Missing it made sure they lost, consigning him forever to a life of shame. Rather than moving on, though, Goob just stews in his anger and resentment toward Lewis until they form a deep-seated hatred and bitterness. This basically stunts his emotional and relational development. Years later, he happens upon an opportunity to go back and get revenge, which is basically how the whole story gets set into motion in the first place. To put all that in other words: Goob planned for vengeance.

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Scholar signs parchment reading “PACTUM Anima Mea Felicitas Perpetua” while a darkly dressed man points beside him; “H. HAUST” appears below.

It’s Not What You Think

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Well, given that I’ve posted the previous two parts over the past couple of Fridays, I thought I would complete the set today. We’ve been taking a fresh look at a series on marriage I preached several years ago called Marriage Myths. In each part of the series we unpacked a different myth that our culture often tells us about marriage. Along the way we discovered why the truth is so much better than even the grandest fiction our culture can devise. In this final myth, we’re actually covering ground I covered more recently in the marriage series I preached just a few weeks ago. Marriage isn’t about happiness. Not primarily anyway. Let’s talk about what it’s really about instead, and why that’s better.

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Split scene labeled CONTINUITY and CHANGE, with signs reading CONTINUE (Established Route) and CHANGE (New Direction), and a traveler choosing between paths.

Staying Plugged In

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“The righteous hate lying, but the wicked bring disgust and shame. Righteousness guards people of integrity, but wickedness undermines the sinner. One person pretends to be rich but has nothing; another pretends to be poor but has abundant wealth. Riches are a ransom for a person’s life, but a poor person hears no threat. The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is put out.” (Proverbs‬ ‭13‬:‭5‬-‭9‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Several years ago, I heard a sermon about generosity. The preacher was talking about the myth that more money will make us happier. He shared some interesting survey data that showed there actually is a point below which more money seems to contribute to overall happiness, but it’s a lot lower than you’d think. This is an easy trap to fall into. We survey our lives, and see all the things we would or could do if we had more money, and conclude that if we had that money, we would feel more accomplished or secure or confident, and happiness would follow in the wake of all that. After eighteen years of ministry, I am in a very different financial place than when I started, yet I can say with confidence that I’m not any happier today specifically because of that. In this next batch of proverbs, Solomon makes this point in a really interesting way. Let’s dive right in.

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