Tag: Christian living

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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Morning Musing: Romans 14:16-18

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“Therefore, do not let your good be slandered, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and receives human approval.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I had a conversation the other day with a young man who is going through a tough season. He loves the Lord and earnestly desires for his life to reflect that, but his road has been rocky all the same. One of the questions he kept coming back to as we talked is what God’s will is for this or that. I finally told Him that while God cares about the details of our lives, He’s more concerned with the forest than the trees. If we are committed to honoring and glorifying Him in the large things, the small things will fall into place. That’s something like Paul is getting at here in instructing the church in Rome on how to get along together. Let’s take a look.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 14:13-15

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“Therefore, let us no longer judge one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean. For if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy, by what you eat, someone for whom Christ died.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In the early 20th century, some philosophers and literary critics, tired of what they saw as the restrictiveness of modernity, began to explore beyond its limits. Starting from the jumping off point that the meaning of a particular text isn’t fixed, they gradually began to apply this relativistic thinking to all of life. Thus cultural relativism was born. While possessing perhaps a grain of truth, relativism’s impact on culture broadly has mostly been poisonous that at least many Christian philosophers have been working to counter ever since. So then, why does Paul seem to propose a kind of relativism here? Let’s explore what he is saying and how we can create peaceful, welcoming churches.

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Morning Musing: Romans 14:10-12

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“But you, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will give praise to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Christians have often been accused of being judgmental. Sometimes this label has been well-earned. Other times it results simply from our inviting people to live in God’s kingdom with its ethic of righteousness instead of the world. The teachings of the New Testament on judgment can be confusing. Sometimes we’re told to judge, sometimes we’re told not to judge. Let’s explore what Paul has to say here and talk about how to get judgment right as followers of Jesus.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 14:4

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“Who are you to judge another’s household servant? Before his own Lord he stands or falls. And he will stand, because the Lord is able to make him stand.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the biggest critiques against the church and believers more generally is that we are judgmental. We’ve talked about this issue before in other contexts, but the reality is that sometimes we have been deserving of that criticism. But not always. There’s a difference between standing firmly on a particular moral position and actively condemning those who hold and act on the opposite view. Where judgmentalism becomes an even more pressing problem for believers, though, is within the church. When we start judging one another as fellow members of the body of Christ, we sew the seeds of division and disunity which eventually grow to split churches and to create bad church experiences that can drive people away from the church entirely. As with the situation of judgment cast outside of the church, the situation is a bit more complicated than it appears at first glance. What Paul writes here offers some helpful wisdom in our efforts to get things right.

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