Tag: Humility

How Not to Comfort the Hurting

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In part two of our series, Grace in Hard Times, we take a look at the conversation among Job and his friends as they wrestle with the awful tragedies that have befallen him.  Their attempts at comforting gradually transform into attempts at condemning him when he won’t play ball with their notions of how the world works.  Along the way, we learn an important lesson on how to approach getting our minds around the hard times we face.  Keep reading to find out what it is.

 

How Not to Comfort the Hurting

Have you ever been sure you were right…until you learned you weren’t?  Tell me if you’ve been here before.  One day we were getting ready to go to the pool and I had asked Noah to go to the garage to get something for us to take.  We weren’t planning on making it a long trip and so to the boys’ disappointment we pretty severely limited the number of toys they were going to be able to take. Read the rest…

Morning Musing: 1 Samuel 10:21

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“He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was taken by lot; and Saul the son of Kish was taken by lot.  But when they sought him, he could not be found.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

This was Saul’s big moment. He’d been anointed by Samuel to be the first king of Israel. He’d now been chosen by lot—the process by which the people determined the will of the Lord. And when his big moment came…he was nowhere to be seen. Read the rest…

Stand with Humility

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In this fourth part of our series in Esther, Stand Up: How to Fight Injustice, we finally get to the action Esther takes to battle the gross injustice facing the Jewish people in Persia.  But, the exact nature of her action really isn’t all that important.  Rather, it’s how she goes about it that matters most.  Keep reading to see just what it is she does that makes her plan so effective.

 

Stand with Humility

I was born in what some would call the Golden Age of cartoons.  While they weren’t making new episodes, I had all the classic Looney Toons shows available to me.  But I came of cartoon age with the truly classic versions of Batman, Superman, Justice League, the X-Men, and Spider-Man.  I grew up loving superheroes—a love that is now being richly rewarded on the big screen.  The rewards are coming mostly from Marvel Studios which by next May when the fourth Avengers movie releases will have given us 25 movies over the span of 11 years, all telling one, big, overarching story.  It’s a little like the comic book world’s film version of the Bible.  And indeed, the latest Avengers movie has crossed the billion dollars in ticket sales mark faster than any other movie.  I’ve seen it: It was amazing.  It is not a standalone film, however, so I am eager as can be to catch part two next May. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Acts 20:24

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“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been asked the conversation-starting question of with whom in history you would most like to have dinner?  I’ve heard several people answer that they would like to have dinner with Jesus because who wouldn’t want to have dinner with Jesus?  I’ll tell you who: Just about everyone who actually did.  From the various reports of people eating with Jesus in the Gospels, He would have been a terrible dinner guest. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Matthew 6:25

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“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Jesus tells us not to worry and instead to trust in Him.  He presents worrying about even basic life necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing as a sinful mistrust in the Lord.  I remember still the first time I read these words and truly understood them.  They had a profound impact on me.  With only a few exceptions, I have largely purged worry from my own life because of them.  Sometimes, though, I have let this intention to not worry drift too far in the other direction which is laziness.  This prompts and interesting (at least to me!) question in my mind: What does it look like to live free from worry in such a way that honors Christ? Read the rest…