Hooded figure facing a digital city labeled POWER, PLEASURE, WEALTH, and KNOWLEDGE

A Path that Never Ends Well

“At the window of my house I looked through my lattice. I saw among the inexperienced, I noticed among the youths, a young man lacking sense. Crossing the street near her corner, he strolled down the road to her house at twilight, in the evening, in the dark of the night. A woman came to meet him dressed like a prostitute, having a hidden agenda. . .She seduces him with her persistent pleading; she lures with her flattering talk. He follows her impulsively like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding toward a trap until an arrow pierces its liver, like a bird darting into a snare—he doesn’t know it will cost him his life. Now, sons, listen to me, and pay attention to the words from my mouth. Don’t let your heart turn aside to her ways; don’t stray onto her paths. For she has brought many down to death; her victims are countless. Her house is the road to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.” (Proverbs‬ ‭7‬:‭6‬-‭10‬, ‭21‬-‭27‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

The Internet changed pornography forever. It made not only incredibly easily available, but it made it anonymous. Used to you had to go somewhere disreputable in order to gain access, risking being seen and outed for what you were doing. Now you have access to it anywhere at anytime. Solomon couldn’t have imagined the world we live in. But just because he couldn’t have imagined it doesn’t make his wisdom any less sound. In fact, it makes his warnings against getting involved with anything related to it all the more important to heed. Let’s take a look at his longest reflection on it.

Read the rest…

Happy Birthday, America

“For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1 CSB – Read the chapter)

Tomorrow the United States of America celebrates its 250th birthday. Personally, I’m going to be up early claiming a spot on Main Street where I will watch our town’s annual Fourth of July parade. It’s the largest such parade in the area. I’ll be joined by 30-35,000 of my closest friends who will park…everywhere there is to park in our town of about 2,500 people. After that, I’m going to be hunkering down in the AC (for my European friends, that is a miraculous invention that allows you to make it dramatically cooler on the inside than it is on the outside) because it will be nearly 100 degrees already by the time the parade ends. Then I’ll go to a cookout with some friends and close the day out by watching the largest fireworks display our town has ever had on the last day of our weeklong carnival. The next morning, I’ll get up early and head to church. In other words, it’ll be about the most American weekend you could imagine. Let’s talk a bit today about what makes America so great.

Continue reading “Happy Birthday, America”

Digging in Deeper: Reflections on Freedom

About a dozen years ago, author and speaker, Os Guinness, wrote book entitled A Free People’s Suicide. Guinness is British by birth, but is a careful student and passionate fan of American life and culture. He is also a committed Christian whose thinking on matters of Christian worldview and apologetics are worth engaging for those interested in learning and growing in their faith and its application to the broader culture. 

In any event, the book is a kind of love letter to the United States. The freedom we have available to us in our nation is unlike anything that exists anywhere else in the world. No other nation has a constitution that is quite like ours. There’s a reason that our Constitution has been in place and operational longer than any other national constitution in the world. Other nations have copied what we have, usually badly, but no one has ever proposed something that gave people a greater experience of ordered liberty than what we have here. 

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Morning Musing: Romans 6:15-18

“What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not! Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey – either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Freedom beats at the heart of every person. This has always been the case. Freedom hasn’t always been as widely available in the world as it is today, but the freest people have always been the envy of the rest. In the ancient world, some longed for it but assumed they weren’t made for it. Today, there are occasionally national revolutions to obtain it, even as rulers try to deny it every way they can because they understand that the freer people are, the less power the ruling class has. But our longing is freedom. So, why would anyone want to follow a religion that calls its devotees to slaves? Let’s explore this today in one more post that is a repeat of one I made several years ago. Also, this will be the last post, with the exception of Sunday’s sermon, for the next week. It’s Spring Break in my world. I’ll see you Monday and then not until the following Monday. That being said, let’s dive in.

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Morning Musing: John 8:31-32

“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.

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