Tag: Digging in Deeper

Digging in Deeper: 2 Corinthians 12:9

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“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.’ Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.” (CSB – Read the chapter) 

I was recently reading through a devotional looking at various statements people often associate with the Scriptures, but are not actually found in them at all. In fact, when you break down these popular sayings, their foundational ideas are actually counter to the truth claims the various authors who contributed to the Scriptures make. One that really jumped out at me because I have heard it so many times is this: God won’t give you more than you can handle. This idea is popular, but is it true? 

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Digging in Deeper: Genesis 3:2-3

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“The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, “You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.”’”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

How do you resist temptation? What are your strategies? Are there any routines that help you do it? Do you have certain things you say, perhaps a mantra of some kind? The fact is, you do face it. We all face it. We’ve all faced it since Eve here took the initial shot to the heart. Succumbing to it obviously isn’t the best plan, but if we don’t have another one better, that’s usually what’s going to happen. What do we do? 

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Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 15:6-7

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“Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

Why make such a big deal about the resurrection? Isn’t it enough to simply believe it happened and not worry so much about whether it was a real, historical event? I mean, in a world of modern understandings of life and death, defending the supernatural is no mean feat. Couldn’t we get by simply focusing on the powerful idea of the resurrection? Ever wondered anything like this? Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Genesis 3:1b

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“He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You can’t eat from any tree in the garden”?’”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

When was the last time you were tempted to do something you shouldn’t have wanted to do? Unless you happen to be reading this just after waking up, I suspect it wasn’t all that long ago. Temptation is everywhere. “Being tempted” is part of our cultural lingo. We talk about being tempted to do this or that freely and easily. Not with things we really think are bad, mind you, but the language is common all the same. It’s like temptation is just a joke. If it is, though, it isn’t a good joke. 

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Digging in Deeper: Genesis 2:18a

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“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone.'”‬‬ (CSB – Read was chapter)

Every story starts at a point of peace. Now, in our world, broken as it is by sin, we only rarely start from a place of actual peace, but at the least our stories start from a place of relative peace. Then, something happens that breaks the peace. The rest of the story, then, is about restoring that peace. It’s not just made-up stories that start like this, though, this is the narrative arc of the stories of our lives. Bigger than that, this is the arc of the story of creation. Indeed, all of the stories we write are merely reflections of this larger story.

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