Tag: Christian living

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 3:1

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“Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

On occasion people will compare the times in which we live our lives to those before us. Usually this is done in a spirit of nostalgia, and we don’t come off looking very good. I’m not typically a fan of this. Nostalgia is a deceptively tough master that will leave us longing for a past that never really existed and discontented about the present. That being said, there is one point in particular at which we come off looking worse than our forebears that I would like to give some attention to this morning: We don’t like to wait for things. Humans have never been well-known for patience, but in our instant society, we’re particularly bad and getting worse. This creates problems when we serve a God who literally has all the time in the world. We get a glimpse of this as we move into the next part of Moses’ story. Let’s talk about it today.

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A Thorough Reorientation

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Our world is a mess. What’s more, it seems to be getting messier by the day. And these aren’t merely just a bunch of small messes. They are bigger and more complicated messes than what it feels like we’ve faced in a very long time. In the midst of all of this, it is easy to give in to the constant pull we feel to anxiety and despair. Peace is absent from the scene. How can we fix this? How can we find peace in a world that seems to have gone crazy? For the next three weeks, that is a question we are tackling together in a new teaching series called, Peace in a World Gone Mad. With some help from the apostle Paul, we are going to be talking about how we can enjoy the peace of God in the midst of circumstances that seem anything but peaceful. If you have been struggling of late with the state of the world, this is a series you won’t want to miss. Thanks for reading and sharing.

A Thorough Reorientation

Have you ever looked up into the night sky and just thought, “Wow!” One thing about living where we do is that there isn’t nearly the amount of light pollution at night that you have when you get closer to the city. I can’t tell you how many times we have been sitting out after the sun goes down around our fire pit and just marveled together at the wonder of the night sky. The other night we looked out after dark and you could clearly see three planets shining in the sky in addition to all the stars. It was pretty spectacular. 

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Digging in Deeper: John 18:28

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“Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They did not enter the headquarters themselves; otherwise they would be defiled and unable to eat the Passover.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Everybody knows the Pharisees and other religious leaders of the Jews were the bad guys in the Gospels. They were the bad guys because of their hatred for Jesus. Beyond His constantly presenting the Law in ways they didn’t understand and wouldn’t accept, though, the thing that most enraged them about Him was His constantly pointing out their hypocrisy. They hated that. A lot. And yet, we have scenes like this one in which their hypocrisy in displayed in technicolor, yet their own screens seemed to be set only for black and white because they can’t see it. Let’s talk about the glaring hypocrisy of the Jewish religious elite and what it might mean for us.

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Digging in Deeper: Ephesians 2:8-9

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“For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift – not from works, so that no one can boast.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The latest season of one of the most popular streaming series out there finally answered one of the most burning questions it has heretofore completely ignored: How do you eat with a helmet on? The answer: You don’t. With The Mandalorian’s third season having finally given us an answer to this, I’m not sure what else there is for them to do. At just over the halfway point in the season, though, the ride has been pretty entertaining. Let’s talk about what has worked, what hasn’t, and an interesting intersection with the Christian worldview.

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Morning Musing: Mark 8:36

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“For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life? (CSB – Read the chapter)

We have been talking about how we can be good at being rich for the last three weeks. This verse, in context, doesn’t have anything to do with that at all. But what it does do is give us a perspective we can take to every part of our lives – including our wealth – that has the power to totally transform our thinking, and by that, our living. If you want to truly be rich – in this present age and any age beyond it – this is a perspective you need to consider embracing.

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