Tag: Faith

Advent Reflections: Matthew 2:10-12

56 Comments

“When they saw the star, they were overwhelmed with joy. Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another route.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

At one point in Jesus’ ministry, a group of mothers were attempting to bring their children to Jesus so He could bless them. The disciples started to scold them for interrupting their master when He was teaching. Jesus stopped what He was doing and immediately scolded the disciples. He told them to let the children come to Him because unless you come to Him as a child, you’ll never get to Him at all. That episode was far removed from the one we see in our passage here. The two scenes, though, are more connected than you might think. Let’s talk about why as we continue our Advent journey today.

Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Romans 10:17

3 Comments

“So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I have several gentlemen in my church who are members of Gideons International. Gideons members make for wonderful church members. They are faithful and committed believers who contribute powerfully to the Gospel work of the church. You may be more familiar with the Gideons for their efforts to distribute copies of the Scriptures to everyone, everywhere. You’ve probably stayed in a hotel with one of their Bibles in the nightstand drawer. Let’s talk about why their work matters so much.

Read the rest…

Morning Musing: John 8:31-32

2 Comments

“Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There is a pulse of freedom that beats in every human heart. We weren’t made for slavery. And yet so many find themselves there. And I don’t just mean physical slavery. People are trapped by all sorts of different things…often in ways they don’t even realize or understand. And yet we know inside that something is keeping us from being able to do what we want. Then Jesus comes along promising freedom. Freedom comes with truth, but that idea comes with context. Let’s talk about it.

Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Romans 5:8

Leave a comment

“But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
‭‭(CSB – Read the chapter)

How do you know when someone else loves you? That’s perhaps a tougher question to answer than we think at first glance. I mean, the other person’s telling you is a good clue, but words can be dishonest. So then, which things that they do for you confirm the suspicion? It’s almost certainly not any one, single thing. It’s a combination of words and actions with a generous splash of one other key ingredient. Let’s talk about how we can be confident of God’s love and what this other key ingredient is.

Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Exodus 39:32-43

24 Comments

“So all the work for the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, was finished. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord had commanded Moses. . . .The Israelites had done all the work according to everything the Lord had commanded Moses. Moses inspected all the work they had accomplished. They had done just as the Lord commanded. Then Moses blessed them.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There’s an old saying that goes like this: Practice makes perfect. It sounds good, but it’s not really true in that form. A more accurate rendering would be this: Practice makes permanent. If you do something enough times, you will always do it that way. But if you don’t do it quite correctly all of those times, you will always do it wrongly. In order for practice to make perfect, it has to be evaluated. Once the tabernacle construction was complete, it came time to evaluate what they had done. Let’s take a look at how this process unfolded.

Read the rest…