Passing the Torch

Yesterday was Mother’s Day and if you have a mom in your life, I hope you celebrate her with gusto. She deserves it. We celebrated moms in our own way here at First Baptist Oakboro including this conversation about how we can structure our families in such a way as to make the passing on of the faith from one generation to the next a safer bet than it sometimes is. Keep reading to find out how.

Passing the Torch

One of the national highlights when a particular country gets to host the Olympic Games is the Olympic Torch.  Each Olympics, the climax of the opening ceremonies is the lighting of the Olympic Torch.  The main flame is always lit by a smaller torch that has usually been on a journey across the host nation.  It has been passed from runner-to-runner, hand-to-hand, until it arrives at the Opening Ceremony and accomplishes its intended aim.  The journey the torch takes, though, is not one that any single runner could accomplish as a solo venture.  It must be handed off or it will eventually fall to the ground.  Our lives are a little like that.  We can only carry ourselves and the things that are important to us so far before they have to be passed on to someone else.  If we don’t, everything we count as dear will eventually fall to the ground and be left there where it will eventually be trampled and forgotten.  Now, just because we have designs on passing what’s important to us on to the generation that follows doesn’t guarantee a smooth or easy passing, but making no such plans guarantees that nothing will happen.  

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Morning Musing: Romans 12:2

“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter

One of my favorite worldview teachers, John Stonestreet, likes to ask this question when talking about culture: Why shouldn’t you ask a fish about water? When asking that question to an audience of teenagers once someone shouted back, “Because fish can’t talk!” True though that may be, you shouldn’t ask a fish about water because it doesn’t know what that is. In the same way, culture is the water in which we swim each day. If we’re not intentional and careful, it is easy to just be wet and not know it. Paul here calls us to another way. 

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Morning Musing: Romans 3:28 and James 2:26

“For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.”
– ‭‭Romans‬ ‭3:28 (CSB – Read the chapter)

‬‬”For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”
– ‭‭James‬ ‭2:26‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter

Paul and James were two of the brightest lights in the early church. James became the leader of the flagship church in Jerusalem and was ultimately martyred by the Jewish religious authorities when Rome had their political back turned. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles and was almost singularly responsible for the expansion of the church into Europe. The church was in many ways built on their backs. And yet in this pair of verses, they seem to be deeply at odds with each other. What gives? 

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Digging in Deeper: 2 Corinthians 5:17

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter

Have you ever watched a caterpillar come out of its chrysalis as a butterfly? It’s a pretty remarkable thing to see. Actually, remarkable doesn’t quite cover it. It’s absolutely amazing. What goes into that cocoon is not the same thing that comes out of it. I can’t think of another creature that undergoes such a complete and total physical transformation as that. I can think of another creature, however, that experiences an equally dramatic transformation: Us. 

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Morning Musing: 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

“For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If one died for all, then all died. And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter

What does it mean that Jesus died and rose again? That’s kind of a big question. There have no doubt been whole books written on the matter. I’m aiming for this to take less than five minutes of your time, though, so what can we say right now? Paul gives us one really good thing here. Let’s talk about it. 

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