Tag: God’s character

Helping Us See

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This week we are kicking off a brand-new teaching series that is going to take us from now to Easter. The question of who Jesus is, is the most important question anyone could ever ask or answer. Over the course of this series, we are going to be walking through the various signs Jesus produced which the apostle John noted in His Gospel were all pointers to His true identity. Each sign helps us to get a better sense of just who Jesus was. Let’s get this journey started with a trip to a wedding.

Helping Us See

Who is Jesus? That’s one of the most significant questions that anyone could ask or answer. The only one with potentially greater significance is the question of whether or not there is a God in the first place. Literally everything hinges on the answer to that question. And that may sound like somewhat of a grandiose claim, but think about it. Let’s say someone protests our claim here by pointing to science. “The question of the existence of God or the identity of Jesus is irrelevant,” they might argue, “because science does for us all the things our ignorant ancestors naively relied on some made up god to give them.” Okay, but why do you think science as you know it exists in the first place? Because of a belief in God on the part of some really smart men and women in the past. Actually, that’s not quite right. They didn’t merely believe in God, they believed in a specific and historically unique understanding of God that made their efforts to study and strive to understand how the world works in an organized fashion reasonable in a way that no other worldview had ever done. And, honestly, they only believed in God as they did because they and their forebears had a certain answer to the question of who Jesus is; an answer that was at least mostly consistent with the broadly orthodox position on it dating back to the very first believers. So, yes, the question of who Jesus is really is the most important question anyone could ever ask. 

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Morning Musing: Romans 1:18

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“For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth…” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Did you ever do anything you knew was wrong when you did it, but then never faced any consequences for it? My guess is that you felt pretty good then, at least initially. You felt like you had gotten away with something. Maybe it started to convince yourself that it wasn’t really all that wrong of a thing as you first thought. Perhaps it led to your doing it again…and again…until you finally did get caught. And when you finally did get caught it was bad. Worse even than what it likely would have been had you gotten caught in the beginning. What you needed that first time you did it was a bit of wrath directed your way. Wrath is not a bad thing. It also happens to be an attribute of God. It is, in fact, the first attribute of God Paul mentions after introducing the Gospel to us. Let’s talk about what it is and why it matters.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 35:1-3

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“Moses assembled the entire Israelite community and said to them, ‘These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do: For six days work is to be done, but on the seventh day you are to have a holy day, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. Anyone who does work on it must be executed. Do not light a fire in any of your homes on the Sabbath day.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

If you listen to certain preachers long enough, you’ll start to hear the same points raised over and over again. There are a handful of ideas I have talked about with my own congregation in a certain way so many times that when I start talking about them, some of the folks in the room can finish my sentence for me. Everybody has something about which they are especially passionate. This passion will show itself through their words and actions. It will become the theme of their life. Everything they do, it seems, is filtered through the lens of whatever it is. Hopefully the passion is a good one, but whether it is or not, it is going to be definitional for them because that’s the nature of passion. As we get started on the home stretch of Exodus today, we are reminded yet again about one of God’s passions. Let’s talk yet again about the Sabbath.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 34:21

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“You are to labor six days but you must rest on the seventh day; you must even rest during plowing and harvesting times.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The other day, some folks in my church were having a conversation before Bible study about the wonder of modern conveniences and the changes they have brought to our lives. Many of the things we consider among the most basic conveniences were introduced as ways to automate mundane tasks and give us more time for leisure. Instead, not knowing what to do with all our extra time, we filled it with either mindless banalities or else even more work. Rest and genuine, fulfilling recreation have seemed to escape us. And yet, one of the commands God came back to again and again with Israel was a call to rest regularly. And in their rest, they were to learn to trust. Let’s talk again about Sabbath and realizing there’s more to the world than just ourselves.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 34:6-9

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“Moses immediately knelt low on the ground and worshiped. Then he said, ‘My Lord, if I have indeed found favor with you, my Lord, please go with us (even though this is a stiff-necked people), forgive our iniquity and our sin, and accept us as your own possession.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There are some people around whom you are expected to behave a certain way. Society expects you to toe that line. The person in question expects it. You even expect it of yourself. And what’s more, you weren’t taught that. You just know it. There’s a kind of sixth sense when you are around the person that behaving in ways other than the right way simply won’t do. Now, exactly what the right way to behave around a given person is going to vary depending on the person and the circumstances. All the same, if you get it wrong, everyone is going to know it. When Moses encountered the presence and glory of God, He responded with worship and repentance. Let’s talk about why this was the right reaction, and how we can mimic it in our own lives.

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