Tag: God’s love

Morning Musing: Romans 8:3-4

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“For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The Old Testament seems complicated. More specifically, the Old Testament Law of Moses seems complicated. There are just so many rules to keep (613 to be exact). How is someone supposed to get (and stay) right with God when it seems like you are always going to be breaking some law or another. It feels like the whole thing was just set up to condemn us. Well, as Paul has already talked about, that isn’t the case, but it became the case because of sin. Thankfully, God fixed that through Jesus. Let’s look here with Paul at how.

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Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 1:22-25

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“For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There’s a great Proverb in the collection of wisdom bearing that name that goes like this: “Even a fool is considered wise when he is silent.” The point is that what comes out of our mouths (digitally or verbally) is going to be used by others to assess our intelligence and character. As followers of Jesus who have been called to share our faith, though, talking is sort of part of the gig. In bearing witness to the Gospel, we wind up saying a lot of things that make us sound pretty dumb to the culture around us. Let’s talk about why it’s so worth it to share anyway.

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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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Morning Musing: Romans 5:8

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“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.

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So Much Winning

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This week we had the joyful opportunity to celebrate baptisms as a church. That’s always a major highlight for us (it’s kind of in the name as a Baptist church). So, rather than starting a new teaching series, I decided to explore just why the Gospel these folks have publicly embraced is so good. With a look at Paul’s celebration of the glory and majesty of God’s love for us in Christ, we talked about how great it is that His love for us doesn’t ever quit. May these words be an encouragement and blessing to you.

So Much Winning

Have you ever quit something because it was hard? I mean, I know that’s not something we generally want to admit in polite company, but I suspect most of us have at least one story. When I used to play NBA Jam on my Sega Genesis, I had a perfect record. That’s because anytime it looked like I was going to lose, I just hit that power button and started over. Perhaps a bit more significantly than that, I used to play the trumpet. I played for about a year. I was actually doing okay with it, and was having fun…but then I got braces. Let me tell you: Trumpets and braces are not a very good combination. I still remember how much that hurt. I put up with it for a few weeks, but then the school year came to an end, and I was able to pick a new instrument for the next year. I quit the trumpet and went with drums. It didn’t look like it would hurt as much as the trumpet. Plus, I had seen how much fun the drummers were having in the back of the band. It was way more fun than we were having in the trumpet row. Also, it didn’t hurt. Did I mention that?  

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