Tag: Following Jesus

Morning Musing: Romans 4:13-15

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“For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world  was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise nullified, because the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Faith is one of the essential ingredients for getting through life and enjoying most of the ride. Assuming on a fairly generic understanding of faith as simple belief in what we cannot see, we definitely don’t go a day and rarely go more than a few moments without it. Sometimes we fool ourselves into buying into the notion that we don’t need faith, but this is little more than playing a game of philosophical Opposite Day where we just stake out whatever is the opposite position the people around us hold. It’s silliness masquerading as seriousness. I wonder if part of the reason faith is such a central aspect to our lives isn’t because God designed salvation to operate on faith. Let’s talk about one reason faith is so essential.

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Digging in Deeper: Matthew 16:24

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“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

If someone promised you that you could have everything in your life suited exactly to your desires, would you be interested in what they had to say? Not only that, but they promised that if your desires changed, the state of your situation would change with them. You wouldn’t have to go anywhere you didn’t want to go or do anything you didn’t want to do. I don’t know about you, but that strikes me as likely to be a pretty tempting offer. Well, there is a voice in our world today that makes this kind of an offer to us. This past Wednesday night at Bible study as we were starting to explore Peter’s confession of Jesus as Messiah we chased a rabbit trail for a few minutes that found us talking about this very offer and how it squares with a life spent in pursuit of Jesus. Let’s talk for a few minutes today about convenience and following Jesus.

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Digging in Deeper: 1 Timothy 1:1-2

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“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our savior and of Christ Jesus our hope: To Timothy, my true son in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Young people need old people. Sometimes they’re fully conscious of it. Sometimes they’re not, but the need is so pressing they are drawn to them anyway. More specifically, young men need older men and young women need older women. Young people need models and mentors they can look up to for wisdom and direction, for encouragement and even for correction at times. When they find someone like this with whom they connect, the bond that forms can be incredibly strong. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a mid-season review of the HBO-Max series, The Penguin, about the rise of the classic Batman villain. Since then, I’ve finished the series. I don’t often come back to a single season of a series more than once, but this one really stuck with me. Let’s talk about the church, being a mentor, and why The Penguin was both great and terrible.

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God Loved First

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For the last four weeks, we have been having a conversation about marriage. More specifically, we have been having a conversation about how to get back to the basics in order to fix the foundation of our marriage so that we can build properly and in a way that will lead to long term happiness and success. Most of this has been rooted in addressing our own relationship with God. Today, as we wrap up this series, we are talking about what most people understand to be the foundation of marriage: love. If we are going to get marriage right, we have to get love right. Let’s talk about what that means and how to do it.

God Loved First

Did you have a good Valentine’s Day? Guys, did you treat her right? Did you at least put a little bit of effort into doing something special? Do you know why we have a Valentine’s Day? It’s so Hallmark and Russel’s Stover can make obscene amounts of money selling cards and chocolate. It’s all a capitalist, corporatist plot to conform us to the social box they want us to fit into so they can keep making money off of us. It’s a scam! Or maybe it’s just a cynical effort to depress us for not doing enough to love our partners or to make us feel bad for not having a Valentine in the first place. Ever wallow in one of those particular puddles of self-pity? They can be a tempting line of thought this time of year, but, no, that’s not why we have Valentine’s Day. We have Valentine’s Day because hundreds of years ago, there was a pastor in Rome named Valentinus. 

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Digging in Deeper: Matthew 16:7-8

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“They were discussing among themselves, ‘We didn’t bring any bread.’ Aware of this, Jesus said, ‘You of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves that you do not have bread?'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We tend to be a reactive people. When a problem presents itself, we focus on that problem until it gets solved. Then we go back into whatever our regular pattern is until the next problem presents itself. Then, we give that all of our attention until it is gone too. If we are not careful, our entire world can be defined by merely what’s in front of us that we can see at the moment. The problem with this is that there’s more to the world than we can see if we’re only looking forward. When we fixate on the immediate, we can easily miss out on the ultimate. Matthew tells the story of when the disciples once fell into this trap. I got the chance to talk about this recently with my Wednesday night Bible study group. Let’s explore the idea today for a few minutes together.

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