Tag: Digging in Deeper

Digging in Deeper: Matthew 10:1-4

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“Summoning his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: First, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Sometimes a conversation about one thing can lead to a conversation about something completely different. I find that often happens when studying through the Scriptures in community. You start off studying a single passage, but then a particular detail leads down a touchy unexpected path. While it is tempting in these moments to stop and get back on track, I find that chasing them for a little while can lead to some interesting—and good—places if we’ll let it. This happened recently as I was studying with my congregation through Matthew 10. Let me tell you about how it went.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 3:5-6

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“‘Do not come any closer,’ he said. ‘Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ Then he continued, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Do you have some people with whom you can just be yourself? You can let your hair down, relax, and drop all the walls or masks you keep up when you’re around people you don’t know as well. All of us need someone like this…maybe a few of them. It would be nice to think that the person who knows us best in the world is someone like this. And, in Jesus, we do have a friend like this in God. At the same time, though, we can’t forget who God is. Moses was reminded of this here. Let’s talk about his experience and what it might mean for us.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 3:2-4

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“Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed. So Moses thought, ‘I must go over and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush burning up?’ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ ‘Here I am,’ he answered.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

How good are you at paying attention to what’s going on in the world around you? Some people have a keen eye to catch every detail of their surroundings. Others seem more like they walk around in a permanent fog. This can be tricky when we serve a God who sometimes likes to be subtle. It often feels like it is hard to catch what God is trying to say. We just wish He would do something big and flashy like set a bush on fire without burning it up, and then speak out of it when we draw near…just like Moses got here. Let’s talk about what’s going on in this famous God-encounter and what it might mean for us.

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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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Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 6:18

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“Flee sexual immorality! Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The Bible is just an antiquated set of restrictive rules that were put in place centuries ago and without any understanding of what the modern world is like. They were hardened by a bunch of prude men who were looking to tell people what they could and couldn’t do with their own bodies. They look to limit our freedom and take all the real fun and joy out of life. The Scriptures often get a bad rap today and the lyrics often run right along those lines. As a result, when people hear that “the Bible” says they shouldn’t do X, Y, or Z, they often roll their eyes and do it anyway because life is better when it’s fun. Besides, modern science has conclusively shown that the Bible can’t be trusted. But what happens when modern research starts to discover that the Bible wasn’t – and isn’t – perhaps so wrong as we’d like to believe? Let’s ponder that question for just a bit together today.

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